What is High-Quality Protein?

In the next installment in our series on protein, we are tackling the topic I am most hesitant to tackle, and that is high-quality protein. When looking at protein from a purely nutritional standpoint, what makes something high-quality protein? And what's the difference between plant-based and animal-based protein when it comes to your daily energy intake?

If You Are Concerned About Eating High-Quality Protein, You Should:

1. Remember the two key components of high-quality protein

2. Don't forget about the digestibility aspect of protein consumption

3. Assess and apply this information as you can, given your accessibility

What is High-Quality Protein?

If you want to maximize muscle tissue and get the most out of your training, you need to get the best quality proteins while also prioritizing how those proteins are built and the digestibility of them. But what does eating high-quality protein really mean? 

Protein quality is more than just what it says on the label. High-quality protein is a complex topic, especially when it comes to the world of plant-based and animal-based proteins. However, if you can find the sweet spot of your energy balance consumption, optimizing your protein intake is possible.

Plants Versus Animals… Kind Of

For the most part, plant-based proteins are going to rank lower on their protein quality scale than animal-based proteins in terms of complete amino acid profiles and digestibility. While this doesn't mean you can't consume and enjoy the benefits of plant-based protein, you need to be creative about how you increase the amount of protein you are getting from plant-based servings. My goal is to provide you with scientific facts based on a purely nutritional standpoint so that you can understand what you are consuming and how it is impacting your body.

What do you consider high-quality protein? How does the plant-based versus animal-based nutritional aspect play into your decision-making? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section of the episode page.

In This Episode

• Recapping what we have discussed during this protein intake series (3:21)
• Defining protein quality from a nutritional point of view (5:36)
• Understanding the difference between plant-based and animal-based protein sources (10:24)
• Tips for achieving your optimal energy balance throughout the day (17:55)
• What you need to know when buying plant-based protein powder (22:35)

Quotes

“I am not going to be making moral, ethical, or sustainable arguments for one versus the other. I am simply trying to present you with the nutritional information that you need to be able to assess and then integrate into your own practice.” (4:58)

“We know as we are going through our 30s, we are starting to lose, year on year, a decade on decade, we are losing muscle mass, unless we do something to offset that. And those things to offset that are mechanical tension through resistance training and eating enough protein.” (13:25)

“Energy balance is, of course, one of the most important things we need to consider in terms of our fueling, getting enough energy to meet our needs, in terms of our activity and total energy expenditure.” (18:14)

“You may have to be a little bit clever about how you are going to introduce enough of those in our diet so that we don't tip too far over our energy balance.” (21:44)

“We are really looking at what protein quality means, and trying to get within our power and our availability and our accessibility and our purchasing power, the best quality proteins that we can.” (27:04)

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