Animal protein versus plant protein.
This has been an ongoing debate for some time now and with plant based proteins and plant
based diets becoming more popular.
As of late, I get quite a few questions from my clients about it, the specific topics about
the differences, one better than the other.
Does it make any difference?
Uh, does the body utilize one differently than the other?
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Now there was a recent study that was conducted on just this specific topic.
And what they're trying to help us do is better understand the differences between the two
and the impact that they have on the essential amino acids in the bloodstream.
Now, if you're not familiar with essential amino acids, they are the amino acids that
the body cannot make on its own.
That we have to get from outside sources.
And this is also the first human study conducted, where they matched the essential amino acid
content and the leucine content between the animal based and the plant based proteins.
And also let me start off by stating that I'm not here to demonize any diet. That what
I'm trying to do is help people understand and utilize the research
that's come out to make the best decisions to utilize it towards the diet that they prefer
to follow.
One of the main arguments against plant based protein is that they typically have lower
levels of leucine.
And leucine is an amino acid.
It's one of the three branch chain amino acids that directly play into muscle protein synthesis
is very important for muscle protein synthesis.
And there has been some research that shows that the amount of leucine in the blood specifically
can play directly into the amount of muscle protein synthesis.
And this is one of the things that the studies did was to equate the amount of leucine and
the essential amino acids between the two types of protein and see if there's any change
in the amount of these amino acids, the amino acids in the blood, once they utilize
it as these two different types of proteins, what they did in this study was they took
their control, which is the whey protein isolate the animal based protein, and they compared
it to three different types of plant based proteins.
Now I'm going to look down at my notes to make sure that I don't get these wrong, but
the first one of the plant-based protein was a pea and a pumpkin mix from there
they also compared it to a pea, pumpkin, sunflower, and coconut mix.
And the third one that they compared it to was a hydrolyzed pea and pumpkin mix.
So they took the whey protein isolate as a control and compared it to these three different
types of plant based proteins.
Now, as I've already mentioned, they wanted to make sure that the essential amino acid
content and the leucine content was equal between the three types of plant based and
with the whey protein isolate.
So in order to do this, the three plant based proteins on average had about 10 grams
more of total protein as compared to the whey protein isolate in order to match the essential
amino acid and the leucine content.
So we have to take that into account 10 more grams of protein from the plant base than
what you're getting from the whey protein isolate in order to equate the essential amino
acid and leucine content between all four, when they conducted the study, here's what
they had the participants do.
They would come in completely fasted and they would ingest one of the four types of protein
that they were to have.
And then over a four hour period, from the point of ingestion, they tested the amino
acid levels in their blood six total times.
So six times they took their blood, saw how much of the essential amino acids, leucine
content there was in the blood over a four hour period.
Then from there, they would have what they would call a washout period.
So anywhere between four and 14 days, the participant would leave and not come back
for between four and 14 days.
And then they would do another one of the four protein, same thing.
They'd come in fasted, they check the protein or the amino acid levels over a four hour
period, six different times.
They'd wait four to 14 days, come back in until they got through all four of the different
types of protein in this study.
So from this, what were the results?
So essentially what they did again, quick recap, they took whey protein isolate against
three different types of plant based protein.
The plant based protein on average had about 10 grams, more total protein, but the exact
same amount of essential amino acids and the exact same amount of leucine.
And they tested the amount of amino acids in the blood.
And what they found was that on average, the whey protein isolate had about 30 to 40% more
amino acid content in the blood.
Than the three versions of the plant-based protein.
So the question starts to become at this point, why? Now understand that the purpose of this
study wasn't to analyze why it was just to see what the differences were.
And what they're finding is that the whey protein isolate, the animal-based protein is
getting about 30 to 40% more amino acid concentration in the blood.
than what we are getting from the plant-based.
Now the speculation behind it, one of the speculations behind it is that potentially
there are more anti-nutrients that are coming from the plant based sources that are affecting
the absorption and digestion of the protein that they're getting from one of the three
plant based sources.
Now, again, this study has not been conducted.
I haven't seen anything on this yet, specifically for this topic, but that's kind of the speculation
at this point.
So what can we take away from all this?
Ultimately, if you want to be plant-based, this study is suggesting that if you want
to maximize protein synthesis, muscle protein synthesis, that you may need to ingest even
more protein than whatever your needs may be on an animal protein-based diet.
And the things that you have to think about here is that if you're going to ingest more
protein, if your goal is muscle protein synthesis, and you're going to ingest more protein, that
means you're going to be ingesting more calories.
So whatever your goals are, if your goal is fat loss and higher levels of protein, or
to build more muscle, you have to take into account that if you're taking in more protein
and total, you're going to be taking in more calories, things that you need to pay attention
to, because if you're getting in more protein, more calories, and the goal is fat loss, this
may work against you.
So if you haven't tracked calories before, if you need any help with that, I've actually
got a video on that topic specifically, I'll link to that below in the description.
If you want to check that out and learn a little bit more on tracking calories specifically,
but overall, it seems that there are some benefits to using the whey protein isolate
over these three plant based sources.
As far as muscle protein synthesis is concerned.
Again, not saying that you shouldn't be vegan for this purpose.
Just understand that based on this research, you may want to try to get even more protein
in if you want to be plant-based as compared to using animal products in your diet.
Having a better understanding of protein is just one of many things that we need to know
and understand in order to create an overall healthy lifestyle because of this, in the
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need to know more information and that nutrition and diet and exercise is always an ongoing
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We're always getting more information and this is a good place to start.
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And I hope that it helps from there.
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