Eat plant protein or animal meat?

Protein accounts for about 20% of the body. Humans cannot synthesize it themselves, but rely entirely on food sources.

You should eat a balanced diet with enough protein from both animals and plants to complement each other and limit the risk of disease - Photo: TTD

Meat and fish are animal foods and beans are plant foods that provide a lot of protein for the human body. Many nutritionists and home cooks are still wondering: Is animal or plant protein better for humans? Which should be prioritized, red meat or white meat?

Meat is a complete protein, but it is very risky.

All meats contain “meat substance” (myoglobin). The pink-red color of meat varies depending on the amount of myoglobin contained in that type of meat.

Red meat is the type that has a lot of myoglobin and white meat is the type that has less myoglobin. Beef contains 1-2% myoglobin, pork has 0.1-0.3% (called red meat), poultry (chicken, duck) has only about 0.05% myoglobin which is white meat.

Both red and white meat are sources of high-quality protein for humans. Protein from animal meat, in addition to being full of amino acids, is also full of other nutrients such as vitamin B12, vitamin D, DHA, other omega-3s, iron - heme, zinc.

But there are also many risks when eating too much meat because meat often contains a high amount of animal fat.

These fats often contain a lot of cholesterol and saturated fatty acids, so they are at high risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, strokes... Red meat is rich in Neu5Gc sugar - a type of sugar that promotes inflammatory reactions and cancer progression in rodents.

Many statistical surveys show a positive correlation between red meat consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

In addition, when processing meat at high temperatures, frying also produces heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic compounds that can cause cardiovascular disease, metabolism, and cancer.

Fish is an easily digestible animal protein, rich in omega-3.

Fish is also an important source of animal protein for humans. Unlike animal meats such as beef, pork, and poultry that often contain a lot of fat, saturated fatty acids, and cholesterol, which are not good for health, fish contains unsaturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids, and fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A and D, which are essential for the body to fight free radicals and oxidative stress.

When eating fish, especially large offshore fish such as tuna, shark, swordfish, mackerel, whale... you also need to be wary of heavy metal contamination.

Incomplete plant protein but beneficial

Many plant foods contain protein, especially in beans such as soybeans, peanuts... the amount of protein is even higher than in meat and fish. Even rice and vegetables also contain a small amount of protein.

The biggest disadvantage of vegetable protein is that it often lacks all the amino acids that animal protein does. Nutritionists classify vegetable protein as “incomplete” protein and also lacks vitamins such as B12, D... In return, beans, in addition to vegetable protein, also contain many types of oils with unsaturated fatty acids.

Thanks to these unsaturated fatty acids, foods rich in vegetable protein have many health benefits such as: weight loss, reducing blood cholesterol, reducing cardiovascular disease, reducing the rate of diabetes...

According to Tuoitre