Animal protein builds muscle mass – plant protein doesn’t

[Turkish Juicer]

Animal protein builds muscle mass – plant protein doesn’t

Women who eat vegetarian are dependent for building muscle on – paradoxically – the amount of animal protein in their diet. Finnish health scientists from the University of Helsinki write this in an article that will soon appear in the British Journal of Nutrition. It’s too bad for vegans, but plant proteins are not good muscle builders.

The Finnish population is ageing and is slowly going over – like the rest of the world – to vegetarianism. Is this likely to lead to problems? That’s the question behind the researchers’ study. As elderly people lose muscle mass – and women are more vulnerable when it comes to this than men – they become less able to look after themselves. Because a vegetarian diet means fewer building blocks for muscles, the researchers are concerned that vegetarian women especially are at risk of losing their independence as they get older.

To find out whether their concerns are founded, the Finns measured the body composition of a grand total of 1 vegan woman, 10 lacto-vegetarian women and 8 lacto-ovo vegetarian women. They compared the data with the body composition of 21 meat eaters. The vegetarians had been meatless for an average of twelve years.

The vegetarians had 4.4 kg less muscle mass than the omnivores, the researchers discovered.



When they examined the women’s blood they noticed that vegetarianism results in up to fifty percent higher concentrations of the binding protein SHBG. SHBG neutralises the muscle building hormone testosterone . But after doing their calculations the researchers concluded that the higher SHBG level does not explain why vegetarian women have less muscle mass than meat eating women.

When the researchers analysed the women’s diets, they noticed that it was above all the amount of animal protein that determined how much muscle the women had.



Plant protein had no effect. To give you a better idea of the women’s diets: all women in the study consumed about one gram of protein per kg bodyweight per day. For the vegetarian women, about 0.54 g of this figure was animal protein. For the omnivore women the figure was 0.71 g.

The researchers suspect that while many traditional plant protein sources, like legumes and grains, contain amino acids on paper, the body doesn’t actually absorb these well in practice. Another possibility is that plant protein has a less anabolic effect because plant proteins contain less of the amino acids leucine, methionine and lysine. Muscles need these amino acids. Leucine especially is important for muscle building. Muscle cells work their anabolic machinery harder the more leucine they get. Leucine is what makes the muscles cells ‘see’ that they are getting lots of amino acids.

The researchers admit that their study was very small. But they say the results are serious enough to do further research on whether elderly vegetarian women lose more muscle power.

In 2007 researchers at Sherbrooke University also reported that older women have more muscle mass the more animal protein they eat. [J Nutr Health Aging. 2007 Sep-Oct;11(5):383-7.] But it seems that not all plant proteins work in the same way. There are studies that show that soya proteins have just as much anabolic effect as animal proteins. [J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007 Jul 23;4:4.] Laboratory animals given only protein from lentils and beans experience a decrease in muscle mass. [Ann Nutr Metab. 2006;50(3):197-205.]

Source: Br J Nutr. 2009 Aug 14:1-8. [Epub ahead of print].

ergo-log

[Gaspaco]

Never liked to read any studies, but dam your are pretty good TJ!

[Nestor Otto Sewell]

The world is going vegetarian? wow I thought it was only wealthy americans and the poorest folks elsewhere that could afford to be vegetarian.

[Brazensol]

I'll never go vegan. It's just not healthy... imho.

[tigerspawn]

Thanks for the post Turkish. I know several body builders, power lifters, and gym rats that are vegetarians and they are jacked. After reading this thread I can only imagine the size they could have achieved if they ate animal protein instead of plant.

[Turkish Juicer]

Thanks for the post Turkish. I know several body builders, power lifters, and gym rats that are vegetarians and they are jacked. After reading this thread I can only imagine the size they could have achieved if they ate animal protein instead of plant.

IFBB Pro BB Albert Beckles remained a vegetarian throughout his career and his muscularity was very impressive. He looked better than most of his competitors even at the age of 50, he may even be possibly considered the most muscular PRO of all times at his age category at the time.

One thing that should be considered; however, vegetarian pro BBs and competitive lifters of other categories are on generous amounts of synthetic hormones throughout the year and there is the benefit of supplementation. They don't deny the benefits of whey protein, casein and various amino acids which all have very high biological values regarding building & maintaining of lean muscle tissue.

[meganaruto]

plant has lower digestiblity than animals ....130 g plant protein equal to 100 g animal protein for example .. usually vegetarian eat less protein than omnivore that mean the study maybe not fair ,especialy the study not indicated the amount of protein intake for each group.

higher SHBG is due to higher fibre intake ...but there are high protein low fibre plant foods like wheat gluten ,pink lentils .


there are many raw vegan bodybuilders like robert chekee and patrik baboumian.

[MajorPectorial]

very informative post again tj,;-), i will always be a meat muncher,

Wait..

That dont sound right. :/

[meganaruto]

vegies build muscles also but with more intake

[Turkish Juicer]

vegies build muscles also but with more intake

Would you like to back up this statement with any human studies?

[meganaruto]

Would you like to back up this statement with any human studies?

the study not indicate the amount of protein consumed for each group

usually vegans and vegetarians consumed less protein than omnivore

i remember another study compared between vegetarians and omnivores ...the study indicate that vegetarian consume about 70 grams protein while omnivores have 90 grams protein !!
wich mean these studies comparing between normal vegans and normal omnivores not including who strict calculate his intake from plant proteins!!

for plant protein wich are less degistible we must increasing intake more than omnivores to overcome this problem ...i hope to look good this point

just look pro vegan bodybuildiers i think they do not lie !!

see this:

life.dailyburn.com/diet-and-nutrition/5-famous-vegetarian-bodybuilders/

or this:

greatveganathletes.com/bodybuilders

[GPalmer]

Study shows wheat protein with added leucine more anabolic than whey.

(not allowed to post link, so Google it or go to Ergo Log)
Added leucine makes wheat protein as anabolic as whey

Effect of protein source on resistive-training-induced changes in
body composition and muscle size in older men

Conclusions: These data suggest that increases in muscle strength
and size were not influenced by the predominant source of protein
consumed by older men with adequate total protein
intake. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:511–7.

The effects of 8 weeks of whey or rice protein
supplementation on body composition and
exercise performance
Results: No detectable differences were present in psychometric scores of perceived recovery, soreness, or readiness
to train (p > 0.05). Significant time effects were observed in which lean body mass, muscle mass, strength and power
all increased and fat mass decreased; however, no condition by time interactions were observed (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: Both whey and rice protein isolate administration post resistance exercise improved indices of body
composition and exercise performance; however, there were no differences between the two groups.

Not so much the source of protein that affects anabolism as it is the amount. When enough is consumed, the same anabolic results occur. So if you are veg, and want to gain muscle, just eat more or add plant protein powders to your diet.
It is really simple math.

[gbrice75]

Honestly, who cares? Are any of you vegetarian?