Is Protein Combining Necessary After All?

One of the biggest nutrition trends right now is a move toward more plant-based or plant-forward diets. Although the number of strict vegetarians or vegans has not changed all that much, a lot of people are trying consume fewer animal products. I’m sure you’ve seen the explosion of plant-based milk and meat substitutes in your local grocery stores and restaurants, and we’ve talked about many of them on the podcast.  

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At the same time, there’s been a lot of interest in how dietary protein affects things like satiety, weight loss, muscle building, aging, and recovery.  We’ve talked about a lot of that research on the podcast as well. In particular, protein’s role in building and preserving lean muscle may be particularly relevant for those who are older, recovering from illness or injury, or losing weight—because these circumstances carry an increased risk of muscle loss.

Check out:

How Much Protein Should You Eat?

Do Americans Eat Too Much Protein?

Despite High Protein Diet Craze, Seniors Likely to Be Deficient

The collision of these two nutrition trends—plants and protein—has resurrected an old question: Is it necessary to combine complementary plant proteins at the same meal in order to create a “complete” protein?  Is the traditional combination of rice and beans actually grounded in nutritional necessity?

Protein’s role in building and preserving lean muscle may be particularly relevant for those who are older, recovering from illness or injury, or losing weight.

Joining me to unpack what we do and don’t know about this issue is protein researcher Douglas Paddon Jones, who runs the Nutrition and Metabolism Laboratory at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

Following are highlights of our conversation. To hear the entire interview, please click on the audio player above.

Nutrition Diva: If you are a long time listener of the Nutrition Diva podcast, then you are already quite familiar with Doug’s research because it has been the subject of at least half a dozen previous episodes.  

It was Doug’s research, for example, that I discussed in episode #398, on...

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