VEGAN DIET MAY FALL SHORT IN 2 ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS, STUDY SAYS, SO EAT MORE NUTS, SEEDS
Vegans may have adequate protein but often lack lysine and leucine, essential amino acids that are found in soy, nuts and grains
Vegans who get enough protein in their diets usually still lack vital amino acids, new research shows.
While most of the vegans studied "ate an adequate amount of total daily protein", according to a team of nutritionists based at Massey University in New Zealand, "a significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucine".
They analysed detailed, four-day food diaries kept by 193 long-term vegans living in New Zealand, using information from the United States Department of Agriculture and the New Zealand FoodFiles database to calculate participants' intake of different amino acids from the different foods they ate.
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About three quarters of participants met daily total protein requirements. Only about half of them met daily requirements for lysine and leucine, though.
"Meeting adequate total daily protein intake in a vegan diet does not always guarantee a high protein quality diet, and simply considering total protein intake without delving into protein quality will overestimate protein adequacy among vegans," the team warned, in research published by the medical journal PLOS One.
The Massey team, led by Bi Xue and Patricia Soh, said its findings "underscore that meeting total daily protein requirements does not necessarily mean meeting indispensable amino acid requirements".
"While the human body can synthesise most of the amino acids we need to live, we completely rely on the food we eat to provide the nine 'indispensable amino acids' we cannot make ourselves," the researchers said.
Legumes, nuts and seeds emerged as valuable plant sources to support overall protein intake, and to specifically increase lysine and leucine quantities in a vegan diet.
"Achieving high protein quality on a vegan diet requires more than just consuming enough protein - it also depends on the right balance and variety of plant foods to supply all the amino acids in the quantities that our body needs," the team said.
It called for more research into how vegans can boost their amino acid intake.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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2025-05-03T10:28:51Z
