Are Plant Proteins "Complete"?
A recent study illustrating that too much protein can reduce your life
span prompted me to write a series of articles about how much protein
you really need for building muscle, or just to live a long and healthy
life. In this final article of the series, I want to talk about a common
source of confusion regarding plant protein: complete versus incomplete
proteins.
It is extremely common to come across the idea that plant proteins are 'incomplete', and therefore are inferior to animal-based proteins. Often you will also see that plant proteins need to be combined in some sort of complicated fashion to make a healthy, 'complete' protein your body will be able to use. So, just what does it mean for a protein to be complete? Proteins are made up of basic building blocks called amino acids which link together to form proteins, like train cars linking together to form a freight train, or letters in the alphabet linking together to form words. There are 21 different amino acids the human body uses, of which nine are essential, meaning your body cannot make them from other amino acids and must get them from the food you eat. A complete protein is a protein which contains all nine of the essential amino acids that the human body needs and cannot make on its own. By this definition, every single plant protein found in nature is complete. In fact, the only protein I've been able to find which does not contain all of the essential amino acids is gelatin - an animal derived protein! This means that you could eat any single whole plant food exclusively, and while you might have all sorts of other nutrient imbalances, as long as you were getting enough calories in, you would never be deficient in any of the essential amino acids!
It is extremely common to come across the idea that plant proteins are 'incomplete', and therefore are inferior to animal-based proteins. Often you will also see that plant proteins need to be combined in some sort of complicated fashion to make a healthy, 'complete' protein your body will be able to use. So, just what does it mean for a protein to be complete? Proteins are made up of basic building blocks called amino acids which link together to form proteins, like train cars linking together to form a freight train, or letters in the alphabet linking together to form words. There are 21 different amino acids the human body uses, of which nine are essential, meaning your body cannot make them from other amino acids and must get them from the food you eat. A complete protein is a protein which contains all nine of the essential amino acids that the human body needs and cannot make on its own. By this definition, every single plant protein found in nature is complete. In fact, the only protein I've been able to find which does not contain all of the essential amino acids is gelatin - an animal derived protein! This means that you could eat any single whole plant food exclusively, and while you might have all sorts of other nutrient imbalances, as long as you were getting enough calories in, you would never be deficient in any of the essential amino acids!
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