Thread: Is Protein That Comes From Veg Foods Different To Meat?

I think most plant based foods don't contain whole proteins. I'm a meat eater so I'm not sure in specifics, but I'm sure vegetarians group their foods so they consume whole proteins.

There was an article here on Ironmagazine recently but I can't seem to find it.

Animal (food) products are rich sources of protein. Meat, milk and milk products, egg, poultry, and fish, contain balanced level of amino acids. Protein can also be obtained from plant (vegetable) food items such as legumes (soybean and soybean products, peas, beans etc.), and nuts.

Some differences between animal protein and plant (vegetable) protein are: (1) animal protein is generally associated with high fat content and because of that, when consumed in large amounts, it is attributed to high risks of diseases, including high blood pressure and heart diseases; (2) animal protein has a balanced combination of all the amino acids, hence it is called complete protein. To the contrary, plant (vegetable) protein is incomplete, soybean protein is an exception to this. However, even soy protein is deficient in methionine (an essential amino acid). With vegeterian diet, to achieve a balanced amino acids intake, a variety of plant protein sources need to be complemented with each other in the diet. Incomplete protein is deficient in one or more of the essential amino acids. Vegetable protein sources are also good sources of dietary fiber and generally low in low fat content, particularly saturated fats.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

There was an article here on Ironmagazine recently but I can't seem to find it.

Excellent quote, that pretty much sums it up.

Originally Posted by hoyle21

I think most plant based foods don't contain whole proteins. I'm a meat eater so I'm not sure in specifics, but I'm sure vegetarians group their foods so they consume whole proteins.

You are correct. Combining grains and legumes, or legumes and nuts/seeds will give you complete protein. The prevailing opinion used to be that these needed to be eaten together to get the benefit, but that's changed and now the recommendation is to eat a variety of complimentary amino acids.

It's a myth that you shouldn't count your protein from plant sources in your daily total. Amino acids are amino acids. But, it's nearly impossible to get the grams of protein needed to build the muscle from plant sources alone. This is why meat, eggs and whey are necessary for aas users.

The other benefit from plant proteins is that they are full of tons of phytonutrients and fiber. 3 different beans are in the top 10 antioxidant list and contain tons of fiber and protein.

I think the beans have iron like meat , and it is very effective for the bodybuilder it really increase your stamina and muscles mass...

I'd be more concerned with the amount of potentially toxic levels of lectines found in grains, legumes, dairy, & nightshade sources of foods consumed in high quantities.
Sure you might get a complete protein but what good is it if you become lectine sensitive by eating too much of it?

I combine meat and legumes, nuts n seeds in my diet to cover the broad spectrum and ensure high fibre.

Yes the lentils are not a complete protein but aslong as you eat other foods like nuts and beans and seeds you should get complete protein, I do that too, I get a combination of beans, seeds, grains and meats, aslong as it fits the macros I dont think you have to worry much

Lentils are deficient in the essential amino acids methionine and cystine which you are probably getting from your whey protein so I'd say you are good to go.

Get your plant based proteins from your meals then take amino acid powder with your pre and post workout shake. You should be fine, I think.

Originally Posted by suraj

I eat allot of lentils and was wondering if eating stuff like lentils and beans is still good, I like them because you can eat loads of it to get your daily macros, Lentils contain loads of carbs and protein, I am sure they are complex carbs but just the protein issue is confusing me...I mean I have seen vegatarian bodybuilders but they include allot of whey in there diets so not too sure about lentils.

I was a vegetarian at one time in my short life. I could not maintain my desired body weight and it was a struggle to keep the muscle mass I had worked so hard to gain. After a couple of years of that life, I decided it was probably best to eat everything God put on this world that don't eat me first. As a vegetarian I had mood swings and was generally a down kinda guy. Almost immediately after starting back to eating meat I returned to my old cheerful self. My wife at the time was astonished as was I.

Back in the stone age when I went to college, I was taught the leanest cut of meat you can buy is 50% fat. I don't eat much meat, but a good lean steak once a week is gonna happen. Also, eat your lean body weight in whey protein (yuck!) every day.

Jack

Boogy till you puke.

Originally Posted by Jack Darby

I was a vegetarian at one time in my short life. I could not maintain my desired body weight and it was a struggle to keep the muscle mass I had worked so hard to gain. After a couple of years of that life, I decided it was probably best to eat everything God put on this world that don't eat me first. As a vegetarian I had mood swings and was generally a down kinda guy. Almost immediately after starting back to eating meat I returned to my old cheerful self. My wife at the time was astonished as was I.

Back in the stone age when I went to college, I was taught the leanest cut of meat you can buy is 50% fat. I don't eat much meat, but a good lean steak once a week is gonna happen. Also, eat your lean body weight in whey protein (yuck!) every day.

Jack

Boogy till you puke.

I tried to be vegan for 3 months, with an extreme focus on eating whole, nutritious foods. I felt better than I ever have, besides craving all sorts of junk food. I lost 30 lbs, which i suspect contained a good amount of muscle. But, I dropped my total cholesterol from 230-165 and my triglycerides from 400-150 in 3 months. My BP also dropped down to a normal level.
Being American I couldn't handle it though, I missed chicken and cheese so much I had to stop. Additionally, once I started getting back into weight training I knew that I wouldn't get big on plant protein alone.
So, now I try to eat lots of fruits, veges, legumes, whole grains and keep my protein sources to eggs, poultry and whey.

Originally Posted by exphysiologist88

I tried to be vegan for 3 months, with an extreme focus on eating whole, nutritious foods. I felt better than I ever have, besides craving all sorts of junk food. I lost 30 lbs, which i suspect contained a good amount of muscle. But, I dropped my total cholesterol from 230-165 and my triglycerides from 400-150 in 3 months. My BP also dropped down to a normal level.
Being American I couldn't handle it though, I missed chicken and cheese so much I had to stop. Additionally, once I started getting back into weight training I knew that I wouldn't get big on plant protein alone.
So, now I try to eat lots of fruits, veges, legumes, whole grains and keep my protein sources to eggs, poultry and whey.

Guess I'm blessed with low cholesterol. When I was a vegetarian (vegan as you say) my total cholesterol was never over 130 and at times less than 100. Most of that being HDL. Even now, eating a carnivorous diet for the last 20 years, it has never been over 150. The ratio of LDL to HDL has skewed to the LDL side a bit, but still mostly HDL. My triglycerides were 82 last time I had blood work done.

As for body weight and vegetarianism, I simply couldn't ingest enough calories to run 10 miles a day and lift 3 hours. Thinking about it, at 3% body fat I doubt I ate enough fat to sustain beta oxidation for 10 miles at a trot. May have been why I started loosing muscle mass back then.

As a side note, when I cut out all processed sugars a few months ago the general aches and pains associated with my age vanished. Pain I had believed to be associated with my rheumatoid arthritis. I am convinced processed sugars are a slow acting poison.

Jack

Vegetarian diets and muscle growth

Tweet: "Vegetarian diets aren't optimal for muscle growth: see my comment in 'Book Review: Muscle Gaining Secrets'.

Comment: This was in response to someone who asked me about data for my claim that vegetarian diets aren't optimal for muscle gains. I brought it up because Ferruggia advocates a vegetarian diet - or so I thought. He actually advocates a vegan diet, which is even worse. Anyway, you can see my response in comments, but the gist of it is this:

Studies have concluded that a protein intake of 2 g/kg body weight is needed to optimize muscle gains. However, these studies are based on non-vegetarian diets. Why is this important? It's not only about total protein intake, it's about the BCAA content of the diet. BCAAs, and particularly leucine, are the amino acids most intimately involved in controlling muscle protein synthesis. BCAA content in relation to total calorie content of different foods:

Whey protein: 25% BCAA

Animal protein: 17-18% BCCA

Egg white protein: 18% BCAA

Soy protein: 15-18% BCAA

Cottage cheese: 10-13% BCAA

Beans and peas: 4-5% BCAA

Nuts: 2% BCAA. Speaking of nuts, they're probably the most overrated food deemed "healthy" by the mainstream. I talked about this in "Scorch through your fat loss plateau".

As you can see, plant protein doesn't rank very high in terms of BCAA content. It's likely that a vegetarian diet containing 2 g/kg protein would have a much lower BCAA content than a 2 g/kg protein non-vegetarian diet. Meaning that, in order to get the same effect, you'd have to eat more total protein to reach the same BCAA content than a non-vegetarian diet. Unless you're planning on consuming tons of soy protein (which might have adverse effects).

Now, for a ovo-lacto vegetarian with a decent base of nutritional knowledge it wouldn't be too hard to get quality protein by adding a lot of cottage cheese, egg protein and even whey protein. The real issue as I see it is mainly with vegans and some vegetarians that don't have a clue about what sources to get quality protein from.

source: Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health: Best of Twitter