Comparing animal and vegetable proteins

Pro­teins are the most impor­tant nutri­ents in the human diet. You can get them from both ani­mal prod­ucts and plant foods. But nutri­tion­ists warn that their val­ue varies. Our experts found out how ani­mal and veg­etable pro­teins dif­fer, what are their main sources and which ones are more valu­able for the body. We also learn why the health of veg­e­tar­i­ans may be at risk.

Proteins: role in the human body, types

Pro­teins (pro­teins) are organ­ic com­pounds that serve as the main build­ing mate­r­i­al for the cells and tis­sues of the body. They con­sist of amino acids (AMA) con­nect­ed by a pep­tide bond, which make up mus­cles, ten­dons, lig­a­ments, inter­nal organs, and part­ly bones and car­ti­lage.

Pro­teins per­form a num­ber of impor­tant func­tions in the body:

1. par­tic­i­pate in the metab­o­lism of fats, car­bo­hy­drates, min­er­als and vit­a­mins;

2. form anti­bod­ies that pro­tect against bac­te­ria and virus­es;

3. car­ry oxy­gen in the cir­cu­la­to­ry sys­tem;

4. trans­fer genet­ic infor­ma­tion;

5. reg­u­late the activ­i­ty of the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem and the brain;

6. ensure the nor­mal con­di­tion of the skin, teeth, hair and nails;

7. serve as a source of ener­gy (1 g of pro­tein gives 4 kcal).

About 500 amino acids are known, but only 22 are involved in human life. 12 of them can be inde­pen­dent­ly syn­the­sized in the intes­tine from fat, car­bo­hy­drates and oth­er amino acids, and 8 are essen­tial. These include:

1. valine — nec­es­sary for mus­cle metab­o­lism and prop­er func­tion­ing of the ner­vous sys­tem;

2. isoleucine — pro­motes the restora­tion of mus­cle tis­sue after heavy phys­i­cal exer­tion, plays the role of a mod­u­la­tor of the immune sys­tem;

3. leucine — is involved in meta­bol­ic process­es, the pro­duc­tion of insulin, hemo­glo­bin;

4. thre­o­nine — is part of col­la­gen and elastin, is need­ed for the for­ma­tion and main­te­nance of strong bone tis­sue, immu­ni­ty;

5. methio­n­ine — neu­tral­izes tox­ins, par­tic­i­pates in the syn­the­sis of enzymes, pro­vides strong hair and nails;

6. lysine — nec­es­sary for the nor­mal assim­i­la­tion of pro­teins, the growth of mus­cle tis­sue, the syn­the­sis of col­la­gen and elastin;

7. pheny­lala­nine — is involved in the pro­duc­tion of many enzymes, helps the liv­er and kid­neys to remove meta­bol­ic prod­ucts;

8. tryp­to­phan — nec­es­sary for the pro­duc­tion of sero­tonin — the “hor­mone of hap­pi­ness” and vit­a­min B3 (niacin), reg­u­lates mood, sleep.

These amino acids enter the body only with pro­tein foods of ani­mal or veg­etable ori­gin — they are not pro­duced inde­pen­dent­ly.

In addi­tion to essen­tial amino acids, there are 7 more con­di­tion­al­ly essen­tial amino acids:

1. argi­nine — reg­u­lates hor­mon­al lev­els, the work of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem;

2. his­ti­dine — con­tributes to the sup­ply of oxy­gen to organs, restores dam­aged tis­sues, strength­ens the immune sys­tem;

3. glu­t­a­mine — sup­ports the immune sys­tem, affects mus­cle growth, pre­vents degen­er­a­tive neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­eases;

4. glycine — is involved in the func­tion­ing of the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem, the diges­tive sys­tem, the pro­duc­tion of col­la­gen and elastin, pro­tects against can­cer;

5. pro­line — nec­es­sary for the for­ma­tion of car­ti­lage, healthy joints, mus­cles and skin;

6. tyro­sine — affects the pro­duc­tion of hor­mones, increas­es con­cen­tra­tion, pro­tects the body from the devel­op­ment of depres­sion and its con­se­quences;

7. cys­teine ​​— pro­motes mus­cle endurance, detox­i­fies the body, pro­tects against radi­a­tion, the devel­op­ment of can­cer.

These amino acids are syn­the­sized in the intestines on their own, but only under the con­di­tion of a full sup­ply of nutri­ents from food, the pro­duc­tion of cer­tain enzymes and hor­mones. Dur­ing peri­ods of ill­ness or heavy phys­i­cal exer­tion, their pro­duc­tion may be insuf­fi­cient to meet the meta­bol­ic needs of the body.

Accord­ing to the con­tent of amino acids, pro­teins are divid­ed into:

1. to full-fledged, which include all irre­place­able AMC;

2. into defec­tive, con­tain­ing an insuf­fi­cient amount of amino acids.

In addi­tion, pro­teins dif­fer from each oth­er in the degree of assim­i­la­tion — bio­log­i­cal val­ue. Some are absorbed by the body almost 100%, oth­ers — only 30%.

Know­ing the nuances of the com­po­si­tion of amino acids and the digestibil­i­ty of pro­tein foods, you can learn more about the char­ac­ter­is­tics of ani­mal and veg­etable pro­teins, under­stand how they are sim­i­lar and how they dif­fer from each oth­er.

Feature of animal proteins and their sources

Ani­mal pro­teins con­tain a com­plete set of essen­tial and con­di­tion­al­ly essen­tial amino acids, there­fore they are con­sid­ered com­plete.

Their main sources are meat, fish, seafood. They are also rich in dairy prod­ucts, eggs.

The table shows the sources of ani­mal pro­tein and their quan­ti­ta­tive con­tent in food.

Prod­uct name	Pro­tein con­tent, g per 100 g
Chick­en fil­let	27–29
Turkey fil­let	21–23
Meat beef, pork	19–22
Liv­er	18–20
by-prod­ucts	15–17
Sausage, sausages	12–14
Fish caviar	28–31
Fish red	28–30
white fish	18–20
Shrimps	17–19
Cheese	24–26
Cot­tage cheese	15–17
Eggs	12–13
Dairy prod­ucts	3–4
Milk	2–3

In addi­tion, pro­teins from ani­mal foods have a high bio­log­i­cal val­ue. For exam­ple, pro­tein from a chick­en egg is absorbed by the body by 97% (the high­est rate of digestibil­i­ty among all pro­tein prod­ucts), cot­tage cheese — by 93%. Pro­tein is bet­ter absorbed from fer­ment­ed milk prod­ucts than from whole milk.

Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of a suf­fi­cient amount of food of ani­mal ori­gin is a guar­an­tee that the body will receive the pro­tein it needs (60–90 g per day) to per­form its most impor­tant func­tions.

Feature of vegetable proteins and their sources

Veg­etable pro­teins have a poor­er amino acid com­po­si­tion, they may lack 2–3 essen­tial amino acids (although the total amount of amino acids in them may be even high­er than in meat). Their sources (the con­tent in 100 g of the prod­uct is indi­cat­ed):

1. soy — 33–35 g;

2. beans — 22–25 g;

3. lentils — 21–23 g;

4. mung (mung beans) — 23–25 ​​g;

5. chick­peas (chick­peas) — 19–21 g;

6. nuts, seeds — 16–20 g;

7. bran — 19–21 g;

8. peas — 12–14 g;

9. pas­ta from durum wheat — 11–13 g;

10. buck­wheat ‑11–13 g;

11. oat­meal — 10–12 g;

12. wheat and cere­als based on it — spelled, bul­gur — 10 g;

13. mush­rooms — 3–4 g;

14. veg­eta­bles — 2–3 g.

Soy pro­tein is as close as pos­si­ble in com­po­si­tion to ani­mal pro­teins (con­tains 7 essen­tial amino acids — only methio­n­ine is miss­ing). They are rich in soy milk, tofu cheese, soy sprouts, alfal­fa. These prod­ucts can be a good alter­na­tive to meat.

Lack of veg­etable pro­teins — low bio­log­i­cal val­ue. They are absorbed by the body only 1/3. To get your dai­ly pro­tein intake and all the essen­tial amino acids from plant foods, you need to con­sume legumes, nuts and cere­als dai­ly in large enough quan­ti­ties.

Similarities and differences between animal and vegetable protein

Ani­mal and veg­etable pro­tein con­tain amino acids nec­es­sary for the human body. Thanks to their reg­u­lar intake with food, we get ener­gy, absorb nutri­ents, build mus­cle mass, etc. In this they are sim­i­lar.

But there are more dif­fer­ences between plant and ani­mal pro­teins:

1. have a dif­fer­ent amino acid com­po­si­tion — pro­teins from plant foods are poor in essen­tial amino acids (may con­tain only 2–3 out of 8);

2. ani­mal pro­tein has a high bio­log­i­cal val­ue, almost 100% absorbed in the diges­tive tract.

Pro­tein prod­ucts of plant ori­gin, unlike ani­mal prod­ucts, do not pro­vide the nec­es­sary bal­ance of amino acids in the body: the absence of one may inter­fere with the absorp­tion of oth­ers.

That is why veg­e­tar­i­ans risk their health — an inad­e­quate diet, in which there is no meat, can lead to seri­ous prob­lems with the ner­vous, endocrine, car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tems of the body. To pre­vent this, it is nec­es­sary to ensure suf­fi­cient dai­ly intake of dif­fer­ent groups of plant pro­tein prod­ucts.

Weak­ness, drowsi­ness, for­get­ful­ness, fre­quent headaches and colds can be the first signs of pro­tein defi­cien­cy.

The benefits and harms of each type of protein

Despite the clear supe­ri­or­i­ty of ani­mal pro­teins over veg­etable pro­teins, it can­not be said that they are unequiv­o­cal­ly more use­ful. Yes, we get the amino acids we need from eggs, meat and dairy prod­ucts, but it is nec­es­sary to take into account their over­all nutri­tion­al val­ue, vit­a­min and min­er­al com­po­si­tion.

EThere are sev­er­al nuances that are impor­tant to take into account.

1. Pro­tein foods of ani­mal ori­gin con­tain sat­u­rat­ed fat­ty acids, which are trans­formed in the diges­tive tract into “bad” cho­les­terol. Exces­sive con­sump­tion of ani­mal fats caus­es ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis (cho­les­terol depo­si­tion on the vas­cu­lar walls) and leads to strokes and heart attacks.

2. Accord­ing to a study by Amer­i­can sci­en­tists, peo­ple who often eat red meat are more like­ly to suf­fer from car­dio­vas­cu­lar and onco­log­i­cal dis­eases.

3. Pro­tein plant foods are rich in dietary fiber, which is nec­es­sary for the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the intestines (they are not found in food of ani­mal ori­gin). They also con­tain many vit­a­mins and antiox­i­dants, macro- and microele­ments, with­out which the body can­not func­tion nor­mal­ly.

4. Legumes con­tain spe­cial com­pounds — enzyme inhibitors. They con­tribute to the rapid removal of tox­ic sub­stances from the body, pre­vent the devel­op­ment of inflam­ma­to­ry reac­tions and the occur­rence of can­cer­ous tumors.

5. Unlike beans and cere­als, only meat con­tains methio­n­ine and vit­a­min B12, which is impor­tant for the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the ner­vous sys­tem.

6. Ani­mal foods con­tain heme iron, which is much bet­ter absorbed by the body than non-heme iron from plant pro­tein foods.

7. Egg pro­tein is a high­ly digestible source of essen­tial amino acids, but often caus­es aller­gic reac­tions.

8. Soy prod­ucts could be ide­al meat sub­sti­tutes. But they con­tain phy­toe­stro­gens — ana­logues of female sex hor­mones. Their fre­quent use can cause breast can­cer in women with a genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion; in men, the risk of female-type fat deposits and the devel­op­ment of gyneco­mas­tia increas­es.

9. The most use­ful foods for get­ting a com­plete pro­tein are fish, seafood, chick­en and turkey fil­lets. They prac­ti­cal­ly do not con­tain sat­u­rat­ed fats (the com­po­si­tion of sea fish con­tains use­ful unsat­u­rat­ed omega fat­ty acids), there are vit­a­mins of groups B, A, D, zinc, iron, sele­ni­um, potas­si­um.

Conclusion

If we com­pare ani­mal and veg­etable pro­teins, the advan­tage of the for­mer is obvi­ous: they con­tain amino acids that are not syn­the­sized by the body and are bet­ter absorbed. But if we look at pro­tein foods in terms of nutri­tion­al com­po­si­tion and over­all health ben­e­fits, the sit­u­a­tion is ambigu­ous. In prod­ucts con­tain­ing veg­etable pro­tein, there are no harm­ful sat­u­rat­ed fats, but there is fiber, antiox­i­dants. But they are poor in vit­a­min B12 and iron.

Thus, our experts con­clud­ed: in the dai­ly diet of a per­son who cares about his health, there must be prod­ucts of both ani­mal and veg­etable ori­gin. It is rec­om­mend­ed to dis­trib­ute them dur­ing the day as fol­lows:

1. for break­fast — cheese, eggs, cot­tage cheese, cere­als;

2. for lunch — meat, legumes, pas­ta;

3. for din­ner — fish, dairy prod­ucts.

A var­ied diet will ensure the sup­ply of all the nec­es­sary amino acids, reduce the risk of prob­lems with the immune sys­tem, skin, nails, and inter­nal organs. Prop­er use of veg­etable and ani­mal pro­teins is the key to excel­lent health.