I always find this question bewildering.
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I always find this question bewildering. There are so many vegan protein sources, some of which are really close to meat in taste/texture or which taste great on their own.
With insects, we'd need to invest lots of work to come up with recipes, to build farms and we'd ultimately need to grow plants to feed them, too, meaning they would generally be more expensive.Is it just the assumption that because it's a dead animal, that this makes it 'better' somehow? Otherwise, I don't understand why we're even considering insects.
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I always find this question bewildering. There are so many vegan protein sources, some of which are really close to meat in taste/texture or which taste great on their own.
With insects, we'd need to invest lots of work to come up with recipes, to build farms and we'd ultimately need to grow plants to feed them, too, meaning they would generally be more expensive.Is it just the assumption that because it's a dead animal, that this makes it 'better' somehow? Otherwise, I don't understand why we're even considering insects.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I'm not able to go vegan. Crickets are a pretty low impact animal protein product, and I don't find it any harder to work cricket flour into recipes than I did trying to make things vegan. I actually like cricket stew, crackers, and cookies.
Could be good for pets, too, if obligate carnivores/omnivores can get the same nutrition from more environmentally friendly sources.
For background, I was vegetarian for about a year before both a doctor and a nutritionist confirmed it was why I felt sick, tired, and in a fog most of the time.
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I always find this question bewildering. There are so many vegan protein sources, some of which are really close to meat in taste/texture or which taste great on their own.
With insects, we'd need to invest lots of work to come up with recipes, to build farms and we'd ultimately need to grow plants to feed them, too, meaning they would generally be more expensive.Is it just the assumption that because it's a dead animal, that this makes it 'better' somehow? Otherwise, I don't understand why we're even considering insects.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Mostly its a concern about the DIAAS of the protein source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestible_Indispensable_Amino_Acid_Score There is a reference of published DIAAS for different sources here https://www.diaas-calculator.com/
Basically a function of how much usable protein a human gets from different sources. i.e. Liberg's Barrel of Amino Acids https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Liebig-barrel-illustrates-the-limitation-of-protein-synthesis-due-to-the-lack-of-an_fig20_333729916
PBF Protein sources come attached to plant byproducts that some people can't tolerate very well, lectins, oxalates, etc https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/natural-toxins-in-food
In addition much of the human Plant based food supply has problems with agricultural contaminants being ingested by humans, such as glyphosates which some people are intolerant of.
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Mostly its a concern about the DIAAS of the protein source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestible_Indispensable_Amino_Acid_Score There is a reference of published DIAAS for different sources here https://www.diaas-calculator.com/
Basically a function of how much usable protein a human gets from different sources. i.e. Liberg's Barrel of Amino Acids https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Liebig-barrel-illustrates-the-limitation-of-protein-synthesis-due-to-the-lack-of-an_fig20_333729916
PBF Protein sources come attached to plant byproducts that some people can't tolerate very well, lectins, oxalates, etc https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/natural-toxins-in-food
In addition much of the human Plant based food supply has problems with agricultural contaminants being ingested by humans, such as glyphosates which some people are intolerant of.
The thing with DIAAS is that it's hardly relevant and I feel like it's played up by misinformation from the meat industry.
Let's say you only eat red lentils for your proteins, which according to that DIAAS calculator has only 59% of the SAA compared to the amino acid distribution that your body needs. Then the solution is simply to eat twice as many red lentils to get to 118% SAA. Your body needs a certain amount of each amino acid, but if you give it more, it can work with that perfectly fine.
DIAAS is only relevant, if you eat close to the minimum amount of protein that your body needs in general, which is hard to do. For example, in the US, the Recommended Dietary Allowance is at 0.8 grams protein per kilogram of body weight. Which is a one-size-fits-all number they chose to cover the necessary intake even for athletic and pregnant folks. The majority of people need less protein than that. And yet, according to this site the average American eats 1.6 times as much.
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The thing with DIAAS is that it's hardly relevant and I feel like it's played up by misinformation from the meat industry.
Let's say you only eat red lentils for your proteins, which according to that DIAAS calculator has only 59% of the SAA compared to the amino acid distribution that your body needs. Then the solution is simply to eat twice as many red lentils to get to 118% SAA. Your body needs a certain amount of each amino acid, but if you give it more, it can work with that perfectly fine.
DIAAS is only relevant, if you eat close to the minimum amount of protein that your body needs in general, which is hard to do. For example, in the US, the Recommended Dietary Allowance is at 0.8 grams protein per kilogram of body weight. Which is a one-size-fits-all number they chose to cover the necessary intake even for athletic and pregnant folks. The majority of people need less protein than that. And yet, according to this site the average American eats 1.6 times as much.
Let’s say you only eat red lentils for your proteins, which according to that DIAAS calculator has only 59% of the SAA compared to the amino acid distribution that your body needs. Then the solution is simply to eat twice as many red lentils to get to 118% SAA.
That isn't quite how Liebig's barrel works, just to be clear you need to eat till the minimum amino acid is satisfied.
So Red Lentils, you need to eat 200g to get 25g of usable bioavailable protein. For a average adult with a 130g daily protein requirement, that means they will need to eat ~5x that dose, so 1,000g of red lentils per day. Now, a body builder may be willing to eat 1kg of cooked red lentils per day, but that is a big ask for the global population.DIAAS is only relevant, if you eat close to the minimum amount of protein that your body needs in general, which is hard to do.
Most people under eat their protein; Especially if we look at consumed protein by diaas measurement and not "crude protein" estimates based on nitrogen readings.