Monday, January 31, 2011

Vegetarian protein vs complete proteins

There has always been a debate in the world of training as to which protein is the best protein for a given athlete to consume. It used to be egg protein years ago hence all the atletes of old drinking the cup full of raw eggs. After the egg protein it is now whey protein. For a short period of time a lot of nutrition stores were pushing soy protein. This vegetarian protein is loaded with the anti catabolic amino  acid L- glutamine but lacks proper amounts of the branch chain amino acids. The branch chain amino acids are essencial for muscle growth due to the fact that our bodies can simply not produce them and need them from our diets. This is the fatal flaw in most vegetarian protein sources these branch chain amino acids are in lower concentrations in the vegetarian protein sources. Complete proteins on the other hand contain a more complete amino acid profile and concentration of the branch chain amino acids. They might not be as high in say L- glutamine but it doesn't really matter as your body can make L- glutamine anyway. But once again it cannot make the branch chain amino acids. This does not mean you have to cut out vegitarian proteion sources. All this means is that you have to incorperate them as part of a protein complexe into your diet. Like say a complex of whey, soy and egg protein or something. This would be a complete protein profile and yield the most benefit for the user. So mix up your proteins for better gains.

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