Yes I’m going to have to address this issue, first as a whole, and then from an Indian cultural/religious practices perspective. I’m also going to try and keep this as short and direct as possible.
What is a Protein?
What are important aspects of a Protein I should concern myself with?
A Protein from any source is made u of a combination of Amino Acids. There are 22(number varies 20-22 from book to book) Amino acids in total.-
9 Non – Essential, meaning not required directly from food, since the body can get them from other sources within the body.
2 Conditionally Essential, meaning required only if you feel that you need a faster recovery/better immunity and other requirements.
9 Essential. YOU NEED TO GET THESE FROM YOUR FOOD. These cannot be manufactured in the body and cannot be formed from other proteins. You need these for proper functioning of you body.
I explained Biological Value/BV in the previous post on protein as well where I explained classes. Second class sources of Protein, will never have all the 9 EAAs present in them. First class sources will always have all 9 EAAs present in them in some combination or the other.
Why are Amino Acids important/How do they work?
I’m going to paste this amazing picture that helps us understand a lot simpler and quicker.
This is going to help me explain the importance of amino acid combination much better.
When you eat any Protein food, it doesn’t straight away get picked up and transported directly to your muscles(or your skin/hair/organs/enzymes – all protein formations).
First the food is digested/broken down into it’s component amino acids, and are put into what is called as an Amino Acid Pool. Then the body decides what needs to be repaired/rebuilt (hair/skin/muscle etc) and then picks up the amino acids it requires for their formation and goes ahead with the work.
If muscle protein requires amino acids 1, 2,3, and 4. Where 4 is an EAA, whereas 1,2 & 3 are all Non-EAAs.
If we take in 50 gms of protein from Dal/Nuts/Pulses/Legumes or any Second class source. We are going to be getting only 1-2-3-? but no 4. So despite having the 50 gms of Protein, the muscle is not being made/developed.
So we triple the amount and take in 150gms of protein from the same sources… Guess what?!? NOTHING HAPPENS! You still don’t have EAA-4!
However we add 1 gm of First Class protein from Milk/Whey/Casein/Chicken/Beef/Fish/Human and we get the EAA 4. That gets dropped into the Amino Acid pool, it gets picked up with the rest of 1,2 & 3 and we finally have the amount of muscle that can be built from 1gm of Protein. Those 149gms of Second class sources were a complete waste.
What are Protein/Carb/XYZ sources?
If a doctor prescribes a powerful drug called A which you require in 1mg. Would you be going to the chemist and finding that stand alone A which gives you exactly 1mg per serving, or would you buy a multi drug cocktail with 1mcg(microgram) of A and a couple of milligrams of B,C & D other potentially strong and harmful drugs?
I think the answer is quite simple and obvious. But for some reason people do not apply the same logic with foods, especially Protein, at least in the Indian society.
If you want 100gms of Protein for rebuilding/repairing your muscles, then have 100gms of First class protein. Don’t have 20gms of Protein coming in from Dal, 10gms from nuts and 50 gms from Soya and what not other sources.
For something to be a source of anything, the item has to have majority proportion in the ingredient list. In a vati/serving of Dal, you have about 5-8 gms of Inferior quality protein, and 20+ grams of Carbs! How is that a protein source? It’s not the job of your wife or mother to find this out for you, if you want results, it’s YOUR job to know the good from the bad and have the required.
How do some Vegetarians still manage to get big and strong?
This question has a lot of varied yet rather interesting answers.
First of all, especially in our Indian cuisine, we dominantly have mixing of second class sources, sometimes called as complementary proteins viz. Pulses and Legumes, grains and seeds, grains with nuts/seeds or legumes with nuts/seeds. Some examples would be Dal & Rice, peanut butter/toast, rice/beans and humus, which is chickpeas and sesame paste mixed together. So instead of taking one food source that would satisfy the requirement, you try and play mix and match and never end up knowing whether or not you actually got in enough protein or not. Not the smartest solution.
Legendary “Vegan” Bodybuilder – Bill Pearl.
Correction – Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian*
Secondly, and shockingly many people don’t know which vegetarian one is talking about. There are different classes of being vegetarians also:-
- Semi-Vegetarian :-
A pollo vegetarian avoids red meat and fish but eats chicken.
A pesco pollo vegetarian avoids red meat but eats chicken and fish.
- Lacto ovo vegetarian: A lacto ovo vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry but includes dairy products and eggs.
- Lacto vegetarian: A lacto vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry, as well as eggs and any foods containing eggs. A lacto vegetarian would, however, eat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cheese.
- “I-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-I-am-but-it-sounds-cool-to-be-named-a-vegetarian” vegetarian : Person who can have anything of whatever they want whenever they feel like, but like to be called vegetarians publicly so that it sounds like they have some form of discipline in life. Increasingly found all over the internetz and in teh real wurldz.
- Vegan – TRUE “VEGETARIAN”
Technically, the term vegan refers to more than just the diet alone. A vegan is a vegetarian who avoids eating or using all animal products, including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, any foods containing by-products of these ingredients, wool, silk, leather, and any nonfood items made with animal byproducts. Some vegans avoid honey.
What about Soya?
Rubbish. Addressed in previous protein post, link above.
But I have a friends friend who is pure vegetarian and he’s Mr. Olympia! Herp-Derp!
I am 6’2” 78.4 kgs at the time of this post. I am currently sick from allergies. I also have no Punjabi/Haryanvi genetics, rather mine are from the North which thankfully make me tall and good looking(or at least are supposed to :p ).
Yet 4 days ago I hit a Deadlift PR of 164.75kgs for 3 reps.
If I was Black/had African American Genetics, I would be thrice my current size, ripped/lower body fat and probably would deadlift ~ 190kg.
If I was a foot shorter, I would probably be Deadlifting 220kg.
If I was the above and had my knowledge and education I would probably be Dead-lifting 270kg+. And these are some very miserly estimates.
If I was all the above, with a few 10-15 years of experience, and on top of that had Ronnie Coleman’s insane genetics, an insane, inhuman hard-working mentality, and top, state of the art Doctors with perfect drug cycles, I would probably never be defeated as Mr. Olympia.
And if even then, at that level, at the very top of the top of competitive human potential, I was vegetarian. And I then switched to non-vegetarian, I would be better than my own previous self. And there is nothing better than that, to get better than what you were the day before.
No matter what level you are, no matter what genetics you are given, no matter where you come from, the right sciences in training and nutrition are going to improve your performance. Because that’s why they are the “right” sciences and that’s why they have been developed, to help you get better.