How to Combine Food to Make Complete Protein

For many adults, getting enough high-quality protein isn't a problem. However, for vegetarians and vegans it can be a serious challenge. Therefore it's extremely important to know how to combine foods to make complete protein sources, which provide all of the essential nutrients that your body needs. It's also important to understand what qualifies as high-quality protein so that you can ensure proper intake.

Instructions

• 1

  Familiarize yourself with the nine essential amino acids. A complete protein is one which contains all nine of these amino acids, all of which need to be consumed because the human body cannot produce them on its own. These nine amino acids are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.

• 2

  Make a list of which complementary proteins can be combined to form one high-quality protein source. For example, grains are limited in lysine and legumes are high in lysine. Conversely, legumes are limited in methionine while grains, nuts and seeds are rich in them.

• 3

  Eat complementary proteins within the same day. Formerly it was believed that complementary proteins needed to be ingested within the same meal; however it is now known that eating them at any point within the same day is fine.

• 4

  Follow the protein guidelines for all adults regardless of where your protein comes from. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. You can find out your weight in kilograms by dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2. Therefore, an adult weighing 180 pounds weighs about 82 kilograms.