combined proteins

crawlingfish
crawlingfish Posts: 29 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have only a vague understanding of how "combining proteins" works in respect to getting the nutrient through vegetable sources.
how does it work? what are the various categories of proteins? Is it necessary to monitor these in order to build muscle?

Been veg for four years, lift and swim regularly.

Replies

  • _db_
    _db_ Posts: 179 Member
    Basically, there are nine essential amino acids (EAAs) that you must get as part of your daily protein intake. Most meats and dairy are "complete" proteins, meaning that they provide sufficient levels of all nine EAAs.

    For example, scroll down to the "protein quality" section of this page:

    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5703/2

    You'll see that oat bran is not a "complete" protein because it is lacking in lysine, If I were counting on the protein from oat bran, I would need to find another source of protein that provided lysine, or I'd have to take a supplement. The link on that page, "Find foods with complementary profile," is pretty neat, because it gives you a list of protein sources that can make up for the lack of lysine in the oat bran,

    On this page, you can see a graph of the amino acids provided by oat bran in the "Protein and Amino Acids" section of the page:

    http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/oat-bran-raw/


    I hope this helps.
  • Chadomaniac
    Chadomaniac Posts: 1,785 Member
    ^ what the poster said above


    Incomplete : Nuts and seeds , legumes , grains vegetables


    Here are a few examples of how you would make incomplete protein ultimately complete on a vegetarian diet

    •Rice and beans
    •Spinach salad with almonds
    •Hummus and whole-grain pitas
    •Whole-grain noodles with peanut sauce
  • madammags
    madammags Posts: 97 Member
    Related to this, I have been given to understand that while overall, you need all the EAAs as part of your diet, it's not necessary to combine proteins in every meal. As long as you get enough of all of them over a few days, you shouild be fine. A couple of links about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining and http://blog.fooducate.com/2012/04/06/what-is-an-incomplete-protein/
  • _db_
    _db_ Posts: 179 Member
    Related to this, I have been given to understand that while overall, you need all the EAAs as part of your diet, it's not necessary to combine proteins in every meal. As long as you get enough of all of them over a few days, you shouild be fine. A couple of links about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining and http://blog.fooducate.com/2012/04/06/what-is-an-incomplete-protein/

    This is an issue I've been researching when I get bored. As far as I know, the vast majority of all (types of) protein are decomposed into amino acids within 7-8 hours of ingestion. From there, I'm not quite sure how long any excess amino acids are available for use before they are deaminated (destroyed) and no longer available for use.

    If the elapsed time between protein decomposition and amino acid deamination (from one meal) is greater than the interval between a subsequent meal that contains the amino acids lacking in the previous meal, I think your body is basically starving for those lacking amino acids. What happens when a required amino acid isn't available (when needed)? Are some of the body's proteins (fat free mass?) scavenged/recycled/decomposed to fill the need for those missing amino acids?

    If I were a vegetarian, I would try to combine protein sources to complete the EAA profile for the meal. If not possible in the same meal, I would certainly look to find a complementary protein within a short amount of time.

    I would really like to have a better understanding of these processes, but the material is rather challenging for me to grok.
  • crawlingfish
    crawlingfish Posts: 29 Member
    thank you everyone
    the decomposition of proteins to amino acids is interesting. does that mean that you would need to get more grams of protein if you are only consuming combined incomplete proteins? or quantitatively do whole and combined incomplete still add up to the same number in terms of grams, assuming the combined proteins are consumed within a few hours of one another?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Bumping. I'd like to know if taking EEA supplements can help with preservation of LBM, if meeting protein goals from diet is a challenge.

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