The protein nutrients supplied to human body come either from plant (pulses, cereals, nuts, vegetables, fruits) or animal (beef, mutton, chicken, fish and other sea animals) and some times from other categories like algae and fungi. But is always arguable as to which source(s) give the best quality in terms of bioavailability health functionality. Are there conclusive recommendations based on tangible evidences on the protein qualities and functionalities? Is anyone able to share me some literatures and/or guidelines from WHO or other regulatory agencies on this matter? Thank you!
If you are interested to do a comparison between animal and Plant protein you should focus on the following criteria:
1) AA profile
2) Digestibility
3) Anti-Nutritional factors
Regards
Ehab
The best to way to study this is by doing nitrogen balance studies. They require lot of methodological rigour though.
Nitrogen balance measurements of the requirement usually involve subjects
fed different levels of protein intake until they attain nitrogen equilibrium, i.e. when intake = loss, and balance = 0. Often a linear regression is used, so that the intake for nitrogen equilibrium (the requirement) is defined by an intercept (the nitrogen loss at zero intake) and a slope. The intercept is an estimate of metabolic demands, i.e. the obligatory nitrogen losses. The slope indicates the efficiency of dietary protein utilization, which incorporates both digestibility and biological value: i.e. net protein utilization.
Requirement = metabolic demand (intercept, obligatory nitrogen losses)/net protein utilization (slope)
Balance studies in rapidly growing animals and young children show clear and predictable differences between protein sources in terms of digestibility, biological value and consequent net protein utilization, with values ranging from near-perfect utilization (net protein utilization = 1) for animal proteins, to much lower values for some plant-based diets.
Measuring the difference between the 2 in terms of digestibility and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) will show which one is better utilized by the animal concerned.
Plant proteins are usually considered to be inferior to animal proteins because of their essential amino acid profile. Many animal proteins contain high amounts of essential amino acids (those amino acids that cannot be synthesized in the human body and must be consumed in the diet). They are therefore considered to be of high quality since they support growth better than plant proteins. A combination of legume and cereal proteins improves the profile of essential amino acids since the essential amino acids that are absent in cereals are found in legumes and vice versa. There are indices of protein quality and some of them have been outlined by colleagues who have answered this question. These indices provide a measure of how proteins support growth and development. The composition, amino acid profile, digestibility , bioavailability e.t.c. will all affect ability of protein to support growth and development.
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