Protein And The Vegetarian Diet
Submitted by Healthy Foods and Eating Healthy
  photo credit: miikkahoo |
Proteins from vegetarian sources are not as easily digestible as proteins from animals. Animal proteins contain amino acid chains that are closer to or nearly identical to human amino acid chains. Therefore a vegetarian may find they need to eat more plant protein than someone on a non vegetarian diet.
The absorption ratio when eating animal proteins is close to 1:1, where as plant proteins such as wheat might only provide 50% of the amino acids needed to build a protein that can be easily assimilated into the body.
In layman’s terms this means that vegetarians should seek to supplement their food with added protein where possible. There are numbers of ways that this can be done.
The simplest is the purchase of additional protein powder. However this may not always be the best way when considering taste. Simply being aware of the foods you purchase and watch him out for foods that are labelled ‘ protein-fortified’ is the easiest way to manage additional protein intake.
Some foods if you like them such as soya milk, do in fact reach and almost 1:1 absorption ratio, so if you are a vegetarian, or considering embarking on a vegetarian diet, this is something you should be aware of.
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