When you look at the nutrition labels of a product, you may see the total number of gram of protein that the product contains. However, the total number of grams of protein that a product contains isnt the only factor that determine the quality of the protein in that product. Even if a product contains a high amount of protein, the protein quality will determine how much of that protein your body can use.
Your body does not use protein, but rather the amino acid that make up that protein. The amino acids in your protein determine the quality of the protein that your body use. There are nine essential amino acid that your body cannot make on its own; thus, they must come from the proteins that you consume.
Why Protein Quality Matters for Your Muscles
If the protein source that you consume is missing one or more of those essential amino acids, then the source of protein is a limiting factor in your bodys ability to utilize the other amino acids that is contained in that protein. If you consume a protein source that contains all nine essential amino acids, it is considered a complete protein. For example, whole eggs contains all the essential amino acids and are considered a complete protein.
However, beans do not contain all of the essential amino acids and are not considered a complete protein. Although there are methods for scoring the quality of protein, such as the PDCAAS or DIAAS method, you dont need to understand the formula of these methods to understand the quality of protein. These methods measure how many essential amino acids are within a protein and how easy your body can absorb that protein.
If a protein contains many essential amino acids but your body has difficulty absorbing that protein, the quality of that protein is low. The quality of animal proteins is often higher because the human body can more easy absorb them. Plant proteins can be used to build muscle; however, their protein quality is often lower because they are less digestible and may lack some essential amino acids.
However, pairing them with other type of plant proteins can increase the quality of plant proteins. For instance, rice and beans contain the essential amino acids that each protein is missing from the other protein; thus, combining these foods will provide the body with a complete profile of amino acids. Creating a complete profile of amino acids increase the quality of a protein source, even if that protein source contains moderate amount of protein.
If you are trying to grow muscle, you should pay attention to the amount of leucine in the proteins that you consume. Leucine initiates muscle protein synthesis, the process by which the body builds muscle. If you consume enough leucine within one meal, your bodys cells will recieve the signal to begin building muscle.
Whey protein is high in leucine. Because whey protein contains so much leucine, whey protein can initiate muscle protein synthesis more efficient than other types of protein sources. While you should aim to eat the highest quality proteins, you should ensure that your diet contains a variety of protein types.
While you can base your diet on high quality animal proteins, you should also include some plant proteins to provide your body with the micronutrients that it require to perform efficiently. The goal of eating foods is not to find one perfect food to eat, but to ensure that the total amount of protein that you consume each day contains all of the essential amino acids that your body needs. Additionally, you can increase the quality of the protein that you consume through food preparation.
For instance, cooking proteins will denature the proteins, and the human body can more easy absorbed the denatured state of the proteins. If you consume legumes, soaking the legumes will neutralize the antinutrients in the legumes, which will allow the body to absorb more nutrients from those food. The quality of protein is a matter of efficiency.
By ensuring that the proteins that you consume contain all essential amino acids and are easy absorbed by your body, you are maximizing the benefits of those proteins for your muscles. Your muscles do not depend upon the total amount of protein that your body consume; instead, they rely upon the presence of the correct amino acids at the right time.
