Bioavailability and Aminos: What You Need to Know

How to Test Your Protein Powder

There are several protein scoring systems. Here’s what lifters should pay attention to.

Assessing protein quality comes down to bioavailability and amino acid profile. Bioavailability refers to how well you absorb a particular protein. To find this out, scientists carefully give experimental participants doses of protein, wait for it to cool, and then measure how much nitrogen is in it.

They then use the amount of nitrogen found to calculate how much protein was in the stool and compare it to how much was ingested. The last number is called BV, or biological value.

BV, PDCAAS, and DIAAS

The BV calculation was not very good because it ignored other basic human dietary patterns. First, if the protein is processed quickly, like whey, some can be converted to glucose, especially if you’ve been on a low-carb diet. Second, the bacteria in the gut tend to “steal” some of the protein. Although BV is outdated, protein manufacturers use it time and time again to play the “our protein is better than yours” game.

The current accepted standard for protein evaluation, used by the FDA, is the PDCAAS, or Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score, which combines biological value with the protein’s amino acid profile.

Some proteins contain almost everything a person needs for cell growth. We call them “complete” proteins. They contain an almost perfect combination of essential amino acids (which we cannot make ourselves) and amino acids (BCAAs), which are important for muscle growth.

Some proteins contain no amino acids or are high in BCAAs. Unfortunately, PDCAAS is not the best way to measure protein quality. To calculate it, scientists also measure and calculate nitrogen excreted, but PDCAAS, like BV, does not take into account any protein consumed by bacteria in the gut.

It also requires test takers to have an empty stomach, which exposes the test to all sorts of inaccuracies. Any food in the stomach can slow down the absorption of protein or bind some of that protein if the food is high in fiber.

That leaves a relatively new scale: the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score, or DIAAS. It measures the presence of nitrogen in the small intestine rather than the nitrogen in the feces. This allows the researchers to get a true assessment of the bioavailability of the protein because the measurement takes place before all of the bacteria consume the bulk of the ingested protein. It also takes into account the digestibility of each amino acid in the protein as a whole. It is currently the best scoring system in use.

Do you have all that? If not, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is to choose the best protein based on your needs and our current estimates on which one supports muscle and muscle growth the most.

So, How Are Different Proteins Liked?

Plant-based proteins are the fastest growing sector in the protein powder business. At first glance, it makes sense.

Anything related to plants is thought to be healthy, but the thinking is somewhat two-sided: these players of plant protein do not eat plants, but the amino acids that remain when water, fiber, chlorophyll, polyphenols, vitamins. , and minerals are extracted. Your cotton underwear is probably closer in texture to a real plant in nature than a package of plant-based protein.

Also, the amino acid level of plants is not the same as what you would find in human muscles. Sure, most of the amino acids are there, but they usually don’t have the amount you need to support proper muscle growth. That said, pea and soy protein are close to perfect.

PDCAAS shows pea protein at an impressive 0.893, while soy proteins range from 0.95 to 1.00, depending on how they have been processed. That means pea protein is close to the desirable 1.0 score that most animal proteins approach, while soy protein is neck and neck with them.

That’s a little misleading, though. PDCAAS has to sort on the curve because it really reduces the numbers. If they didn’t, whey protein isolate would score 1.2 on the scale and milk protein a tad higher, meaning they’re a plus-PLUS.

Indeed, when you compare proteins on the logical DIAAS scale, pea and soy protein score 0.822 and 0.902 respectively, while whey protein isolate and milk protein are higher at 1.09 and 1.18.

The DIAAS shows pea and soy lower scores than the two classic dairy proteins, whey and casein, because they are slightly shorter in the amino acid methionine and don’t pack the same BCAA punch as milk (and meat of meat. ) proteins.

Pea and soy proteins are also high in sodium, if that’s a concern. They use salt in the distillation process and most of it remains in the final product.

Meat proteins are incomplete and incomplete

Beef protein isn’t popular, but it seems to have a loyal following with a wide variety of Paleo diets. It is thought that these proteins, made from the meat of real animals, are very suitable for building muscles in people who use them.

Not so much. These proteins are usually made mainly in skin, bone, tendons and other functional tissues. What you get is cooked collagen, similar to Jell-O. That’s not to say that collagen doesn’t have its benefits (healthy joints, skin, etc.), but it’s not the best for building muscle and it lacks BCAAs. While beef protein from a real cow has a PDCAAS of .92, collagen scores 0.00.

So, What Is Judgment?

Whey and milk proteins (casein, in particular) seem to be the best for muscle building purposes, regardless of what dosage you use.

Traditionally, whey protein isolate has been used for workouts as it is absorbed quickly, while casein is sometimes preferred as it digests more slowly and provides more amino acids. In fact, whey protein also contains interesting immunoglobulins that seem to contribute to human health.

All in all, it looks like a combination of fast-acting whey protein and slow-digesting micellar casein (like Metabolic Drive. (Buy on Amazon)) is best for strength athletes and bodybuilders.

However, vegetarians are best served by pea protein, as soy protein often contains phytoestrogens that can affect human physiology. Although the amount of these phytoestrogens is small – much less than you would find in soy itself or soy flour – the effects cannot be discounted.

References

1. Hughes GL and others. “Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Scores (PDCAAS) for Soy Protein Isolate and Concentrate: Criteria for Evaluation.” J Agric Food Chem. 2011 Dec 14;59(23):12707-12. PubMed: 22017752.
2. Mathai JK et al. “Digestible essential amino acid score (DIAAS) values ​​for some dairy and plant proteins may be more descriptive of protein quality than values ​​calculated using the concept of essential amino acid score (PDCAAS).” Father J Nutr. 2017 Feb;117(4):490-499. PubMed: 28382889.
3. Marinangeli CPF et al. “House The possible influence of the required number of amino acids as a measure of the quality of protein in the rules of nutrition and health.” Nutr Rev. 2017 Aug 1; 75 (8): 658-667. PubMed: 28969364.
4. Schaafsma G. “The Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score.” TJ Nutr. 2000 Jul;130(7):1865S-7S. PubMed: 10867064.
5. Wolfe RR et al. “Protein quality as determined by the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score: a quantitative analysis.” Nutr Rev. 2016 Sep;74(9):584-99. PubMed: 27452871.