Plant Protein vs Animal Protein - What's Better?

Protein is made up of chains of molecules known as AMINO ACIDS.

Essential & Non Essential Amino Acids

There are 20 amino acids found in nature that our body can use to build Protein. Out of these 20 amino acids, 9 are considered essential, which the body cannot produce by itself, so we need to get them from our diet.

The remaining 11 our body can produce from the 9 essential amino acids and are considered non-essential.

Essential Amino Acids in Animal Sources vs Plant Sources

Good news is that every Animal source contains all nine essential amino acids in sufficient amounts.

Plants also contain all nine essential amino acids — however, besides a few exceptions, most plants based sources offer a limited amount of - at least one essential amino acid.

An accurate statement would be that the amino acid distribution profile is less optimal in plant foods than in animal foods. For instance, beans, lentils, peas, and many vegetables tend to contain low amounts of cysteine and methionine. On the other hand, grains, nuts, and seeds tend to be low in lysine.

Because of this, many people refer to plant foods as “incomplete” sources of protein.

Plant Protein vs Animal Protein, what should I eat?

Whatever works better for you! Just remember that if you want to get all essential amino acids through plants, then you need to eat enough variety of different plant-based protein sources.

For example, grains like rice are too low in lysine to be considered a complete source of Protein. Yet, by eating Lentils or Beans, which are higher in lysine - either with rice or any other time throughout the day - you can be sure to obtain all nine essential amino acids in sufficient quantities.

Some Vegetarian sources containing all 9 essential amino acids

Rice and Beans, Tofu, Tempeh, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Quinoa, Soya

List of all 9 essential Amino Acids

Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine