You’re not alone if you’ve ever been overwhelmed by the number of protein powder selections on a supermarket shelf.
I believe that increasing daily protein consumption is a fantastic initial step for most clients who are starting a new chapter in their health and wellness plan to improve overall health, metabolism, and vigor. And, for our frequently time-pressed lifestyles, consuming a protein powder offers unrivaled ease.
However, the ever-growing variety of possibilities ” ranging from whey to casein to collagen to vegan, all with different add-ins and characteristics ” may be overwhelming, and customers frequently want assistance in deciding where to begin.
While each product has its own set of benefits, plant-based, vegan protein powder is one that most of us may benefit from adding to our routine.
What Are The Benefits Of Using Vegan Protein Powder?
Even if you don’t live a vegan or vegetarian diet, you could find that including vegan protein powder into your regimen is beneficial.
1. Protein Rotation Might Help You Maintain A Healthy Stomach
Digestive and gut health is becoming increasingly prominent in health and nutrition circles, and for good reason: proper digestion is essential for optimum health.
While there are various products that promote gut health and eating regimens that improve digestion, rotating proteins is one of the greatest habits to start with. To put it another way, try not to eat the same sort of protein every day for months on end, whether it comes from food or supplements.
Switching up your protein sources will help prevent the development of undesirable food responses and sensitivities that can occur as a consequence of diet repetition, not to mention that a more varied diet plan results in a more diverse intake of nutrients.
While you may have a favorite protein powder, it’s a good idea to branch out and try something new every now and again. Many people will benefit by including a vegan option because it may not be something they eat on a daily basis if they eat meat.
2. It’s A Dairy-Free Option
One of the most prevalent dietary sensitivities is cow dairy, and as a result, a growing trend of dairy-free eating has emerged. Determining whether dairy is beneficial or harmful for your body is a personal decision that takes trial and error as well as careful observation of your response, inflammation, and symptoms when consuming it. (If you’re unsure whether going dairy-free might be good to your health, try a short-term elimination diet to see what works best for you.)
However, many dairy-based meals, such as milk and yogurt, are high in protein, and popular dairy replacements, such as almond milk or coconut milk yogurt, can’t compare in terms of protein content to their traditional dairy equivalents.
As a result, folks who eliminate dairy from their diet often need to supplement with more protein. Vegan protein is the ideal alternative to whey and casein, which are both derived from dairy.
3. You Might Feel Less Bloated
When introducing any type of protein powder into your diet, it’s important to keep in mind that some people may feel bloating or discomfort at first. It’s typical to believe that the protein is the problem, but this isn’t always the case, especially if their digestive enzymes are sufficient and they’re breaking down meals properly.
Most of the time, it’s the type (or quality) of protein powder that’s creating the problem. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed this a lot with clients who take soy-based protein powders, which is likely due to the fact that soy is a frequent dietary sensitivity and allergy. When people move from supplements containing soy protein isolate to alternatives that are less inflammatory, their symptoms generally disappear.
For people who have difficulties digesting whey protein, switching to a grass-fed whey protein concentrate with digestive enzymes (such as bromelain and papain) added or moving to an ultra-pure, lactose-free whey isolate will help. However, the structure of whey protein might induce bloating or gas in certain people.
In such situation, a high-quality, soy-free, plant-based vegan protein powder is typically the way to go, since it provides a straightforward method to up your protein consumption without causing digestive discomfort.
4. It May Offer Similar Advantages To Other Protein Powders
Plant proteins, according to some critics, are not worth supplementing since they are less digested than animal proteins. While it is true that plant protein supplementation has lesser digestibility and bioavailability (AKA, absorbability) than animal protein, studies demonstrate that it still has significant advantages.
Pea protein supplementation showed equivalent improvements in muscle thickness to whey protein supplementation in people who strength train in trials comparing the two. The use of either pea protein isolate or whey protein isolate showed equivalent good effects on appetite control, daily calorie intake, and daily calorie burn in a short study of 15 males.
Pea protein combined with fiber (as in our Vegan Protein Plus All in One Shake) has also been shown to promote good blood sugar regulation, which is essential for reaching and maintaining optimal health. According to the research, this advantage may not be due to pea protein alone, but rather to a higher protein, higher fiber diet in general.
5. It Performs Better In Certain Recipes
Outside of smoothies, there are a slew of inventive ways to use protein powder. If you’ve ever tried to substitute another protein powder for the collagen, whey, or vegan protein powder called for in a recipe, you’ve probably learned the hard way through a recipe fail that different protein powders react differently in cooking.
Because plant-based protein is thicker and absorbs liquids better than whey or collagen protein, several protein-enriched recipes rely on vegan protein’s qualities to turn out appropriately. When a thicker consistency is required, I’ve found that pea protein mixes (such as those mixed with rice protein, chia protein, or chlorella protein) are the greatest option because they don’t taste as chalky as other plant-based options, such as hemp protein.
I enjoy utilizing vegan protein to make protein-rich delights like morning brownies, black bean brownies (you won’t taste the beans, promise! ), chocolate truffles, or baked oatmeal when I need to up my protein intake in a fun way.
I enjoy the diversity that these vegan protein snacks can bring, even when I’m utilizing whey protein in my daily shake regimen.
Types Of Vegan Protein Powder
Common types of vegan protein powder include:
- Blue-Green Algae
- Chickpea
- Hemp
- Pea
- Pumpkin
- Sacha Inchi
- Rice
- Soy
- Spirulina
What To Look For In A Vegan Protein Powder?
It’s no surprise that, like other supplements, not all plant-based protein alternatives are made equal in terms of components and source.
The body need 21 amino acids, or protein building blocks, to operate. There are nine essential amino acids, which means your body cannot produce them and must be supplied through food or supplementation.
Because they include all nine necessary amino acids, animal proteins are referred to as “complete proteins.” Complete proteins may be found in some plant sources, such as soy. (Note: Because soy sensitivity is a common dietary sensitivity, it may not be suitable for everyone.) Read “The Pros and Cons of Eating Soy” for further information.)
Many plant-based meals, such as rice, beans, peanuts, and wheat, are considered “nearly complete,” meaning that one or more necessary amino acids, such as leucine, sulfur-containing amino acids, or lysine, may be missing or very low.
When looking for a vegan protein powder, look for one that contains complementary plant proteins to ensure a more complete amino acid profile ” especially if you rely on protein powder to satisfy your protein requirements. Combining a cereal source (such as rice) with a legume source (such as pea) has been demonstrated to be a useful way to boost the nutritional content of plant-based protein powders.
The plant-based Life Time Vegan Protein powder uses a mix of rice protein concentrate and pea protein isolate to approximate the amino acid profile of whey protein, a well-researched animal protein derived from dairy. Similarly, Life Time’s Vegan Protein Plus All in One plant-based smoothie mix, which is widely used as a vitamin-and-mineral-rich snack replacement, is made up of pea, chia, and chlorella proteins, which give a robust amino acid profile that is high in essential and branch-chain amino acids.
Both formulas are designed to provide you a good supply of all nine necessary amino acids for good fuel health.
Benefits Of Vegan Protein
1. Improved Digestion
Healthy fibres found in vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds help to enhance digestion and absorption, promote motility, and minimize gas and bloating symptoms.
2. Metabolism Booster
The combination of fibre and protein in vegan whole meals takes your body a long time to digest. The harder your body strains to metabolize plant protein, the more efficient it becomes at burning fat.
3. Cardiovascular Health
Plant-based diets are high in healthful plant sterols and low in cholesterol and saturated fats, which can assist to promote heart health and overall well-being.
4. Avoid Added Hormones And Antibiotics
Many animal-based protein sources may contain added hormones and antibiotics, whereas plant-based protein sources are high in antioxidants, phytochemicals (naturally occurring plant compounds), vitamins, and minerals, all of which are important for good health.
5. Complete Proteins
Many individuals assume that animal protein sources are the only ones that are “complete” (i.e. they contain adequate levels of all 9 essential amino acids). This simply isn’t the case. Complete protein sources include soy, tempeh, edamame beans, and golden peas. There are also a variety of methods to mix vegan meals to acquire all of your amino acids in one meal (see below for details).
Foods With Good Amounts Of Vegan Protein
Black beans, chickpeas, edamame, kidney beans, lentils, golden peas, pinto beans, and soy beans are all legumes (tempeh, tofu).
- Amaranth, buckwheat, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, and whole-wheat bread are all wholegrains.
- Almonds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, peanuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds are among the nuts and seeds available.
By mixing at least two of the aforementioned food categories in each meal, you may ensure that you are obtaining your full complement of 20 amino acids. Beans and rice, hummus and seed crackers, almond butter and rice crackers, and lentil soup with whole grain toast, for example.
Supplementing with a vegan protein powder, such as Nuzest’s Clean Lean Protein, is the quickest and easiest method to guarantee that you’re receiving enough high-quality complete protein in your diet. It’s not just vegan, but it also includes all 20 amino acids and is gluten-, dairy-, and GMO-free.
What About Heavy Metals?
When compared to whey protein or egg proteins, vegan proteins have higher levels of heavy metals, according to vegan protein detractors.
While this is correct, it is critical to consider the facts in context. Heavy metals are found naturally in the environment, and we can be exposed to them through the air we breathe, the water we drink, or even the food we eat (from the plants absorbing it in the soil). This isn’t an excuse to stop breathing, drinking, or eating veggies, though. Because vegan protein powders are manufactured from plants, they are likely to include certain heavy metals that occur naturally.
The Clean Label Project was a consumer advocacy group’s project that uncovered supplement manufacturers that have greater amounts of heavy metals and pollutants in their goods than would be anticipated given natural sources and manufacturing.
Life Time’s goods were not included in the Clean Label Project’s research. Life Time, on the other hand, conducts heavy metal quality control on every batch of items manufactured, but many manufacturers cut costs by performing “skip-lot” testing, which only checks every third, fourth, or fifth batch, for example.
This assures that Life Time’s products meet all accepted quality standards for both raw materials and finished products; any supplement that fails to meet these standards will not be placed on the shelf, nor will it be accessible for purchase or consumption. We do extensive quality testing for a reason: we respect safety and efficacy and want to ensure that any supplement us sell is one that you (and we, for our own use) can rely on.
Conclusion
Vegan protein powder can provide convenience and unique advantages to your nutrition plan, whether you favor an omnivore or plant-based eating pattern.
Start by emphasizing quality and source above all else, just like you would with any supplement or product you take on a daily basis, to ensure that what’s on the label is truly in the bottle.
After that, look for plant-based protein supplement solutions that are not only a good supply of all nine necessary amino acids, but also low allergen and soy-free, naturally flavored and sweetened, and delicious.