 | | Lets say that you are hungry and decide to eat some very rich cake. After one slice, | | | you are full and stop eating. Now instead, if you decided to eat some bread, you might
have to eat two slices to get full since each slice has only half the calories as the cake.
You eat the same amount of calories (energy) in either one slice of cake or two slices of
bread. If you want to add protein to your meal and decided you wanted to eat 10 grams
of protein, then you need to add 10 grams to your one slice of cake but you only need to
add 5 grams to each slice of your bread to ingest the same 10 grams in either meal. So
on a percentage basis (%) the cake has twice the protein of the bread but the end result
is the same. The protein % needs to be added to the diet in the proper ratio to energy
not as some set arbitrary percentage. Also the digestibility and absorption of the protein
needs to be taken into account. If you eat a piece of steak, you will end up getting a lot
of the protein into your body. But if you eat some beans instead, you need to eat more
beans since you will digest and absorb less of the protein. The bean protein is not
“worse” than the meat protein, in fact it may be healthier for you, but you need to eat
more of it to get the same nutrients. The plant protein also has the advantages of no
cholesterol and no risk of bacterial contamination that meat often has. So for example,
a 15% protein diet with meat protein may be about the same as a 20% diet with plant
protein.
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