Calculating incomplete protein

NaurielR
NaurielR Posts: 426 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Hello, I have been wondering about this for awhile

Say you have a serving of beans with 10 grams of protein and a serving of rice with 5 grams of protein.

How would you figure out the amount of complete protein? There are three ways that I see possible, and I'm not sure which is correct

Firstly, the rice only has less protein, and therefore less amino acids. Would you only count five grams of protein from the beans, giving you a total of 10 grams complete protein?

Or would you say that 1 gram of incomplete protein plus 1 gram of its complementing protein equals one gram of complete protein, giving you a total of five grams of protein for the beans and rice together.

Or lastly, would you just add both of them together, for a total of 15 grams of complete protein? This seems to be what most people do, but it doesn't make sense to me that using this logic, you could have 15 grams of one incomplete protein and 1 gram of its complementing protein and still consider it to be 16 grams of complete protein.

If anyone more knowledgeable than I could fill me in, it would really help cure my curiosity

Replies

  • anunknownmouse
    anunknownmouse Posts: 118
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/what-are-good-sources-of-protein-protein-quality.html < Is a good read. Check it out.
  • heatgal976
    heatgal976 Posts: 53 Member
    From what I know, to make a complete protein you need to obtain 9 essential amino acids that the body does not create. All animal proteins are complete proteins which mean they contain all of the 9 AA's. The protein grams for beans or rice stay the same whether eaten together or at different times. To get all the essential amino acids, you need to combine grains with nuts/seeds or legumes or legumes with nuts/seeds. You can eat these categories together or at seperate meals to get your nutrients. Hope this answers your question.
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
    The theory of protein complementing has been pretty much discarded. The original studies were done on rats who have very different protein needs than humans.

    It's really a myth that plants don't have complete protein. Some amino acid values are higher and some are lower, but plant foods have sufficient quantities of all of them to meet human needs. Even Frances Moore Lappé who originally popularized the idea of combining proteins recanted that idea in the later editions of "Diet For a Small Planet."

    There are a few cautions as listed in this Wikipedia article, but as long as you eat even a minimally varied diet and don't subsist on junk food or follow some odd mono-food diet, protein complementing isn't anything to worry about.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining
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