{"id":1911,"date":"2018-08-17T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T18:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2020-07-17T16:08:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T23:08:31","slug":"busting-the-myth-of-incomplete-plant-proteins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/busting-the-myth-of-incomplete-plant-proteins\/","title":{"rendered":"Busting the Myth of Incomplete Plant Proteins"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cI would like to go vegetarian but I\u2019m afraid that I won\u2019t get complete proteins.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The belief that plant-based proteins are lower quality, specifically, that they are \u2018incomplete\u2019 because they are \u2018missing\u2019 amino acids has been around for decades. Yet, as a biologist, I am highly skeptical of this so-called fact.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

My skepticism\u200a\u2014\u200aand that of my fellow scientists \u200a\u2014\u200a is rooted in these two facts:<\/p>

  1. Plants use the same twenty amino acids that we do to build their proteins (the genetic code is universal).<\/li>
  2. All animals ultimately get their protein from plants \u2013 whether directly or indirectly through the food chain.<\/li><\/ol>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    Over the years, numerous troublesome scientists have raised their hand and tried to get \u2018expert bodies\u2019 to revise their erroneous statements about plant-based proteins. I particularly like this exchange<\/a> between a physician-scientist Dr. John McDougall and the American Heart Association back in 1992. Despite such efforts, the myth of incomplete plant proteins is still going strong, decades later.<\/p>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    In this article, I do something that most plant-protein bashers haven\u2019t done: show real data. I looked at how much of each essential amino acid various foods provide and asked whether or not this is \u2018enough\u2019. I compared various plant-based sources to meat and dairy.<\/p>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    I emerged from my research with a call to action. We need to change the way we look at and talk about the quality of plant-based proteins.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\tCalling plant-based proteins incomplete is like calling milk an incomplete source of calcium because it takes more than one glass to meet your needs. \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDr. Chana Davis, Fueled by Science<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Learn more and see my mythbusting data here!<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cI would like to go vegetarian but I\u2019m afraid that I won\u2019t get complete proteins.\u201d The belief that plant-based proteins are lower quality, specifically, that they are \u2018incomplete\u2019 because they are \u2018missing\u2019 amino acids has been around for decades. Yet, as a biologist, I am highly skeptical of this so-called fact. My skepticism\u200a\u2014\u200aand that of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175],"tags":[202,212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fueledbyscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}