Plant-Based Protein: Food vs. Shake

There are many questions related to every aspect of nutrition. Most may seem trivial, but it doesn’t mean it won’t be helpful to know the answers. One that’s important to protein synthesis is whether a person can get enough protein from complementary plant foods or plant-based protein from shakes with the same nutrient distribution as the whole foods. Complementary protein is the concept of combining plant foods to provide a more complete amino acid profile; rice and beans would be one example.

Researchers chose 10 young people as subjects to test the muscle-protein synthesis rate of eating a complementary whole-food plant protein meal rather than a supplement with the same macronutrient profile. The meals were ingested after a weight-training session focused on leg muscles. Subjects served as their own controls, and the sessions were held in a randomized fashion one week apart.

They found no differences between the rate of muscle-protein synthesis after eating the nutrients as rice and beans or the macronutrients provided as a supplemental shake. Did it prove to be good enough to build muscle? We’ll check that out as well as a couple of surprise findings on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?