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I suggest other plant protein sources, like soy or pea. Wheat, in particular, has a terrible amino acid profile for humans [0]. Aside from making it so that an

I suggest other plant protein sources, like soy or pea. Wheat, in particular, has a terrible amino acid profile for humans [0]. Aside from making it so that anyone with coeliac can't consume their burgers, it's just not as effective for humans as animal protein. Pea and soy, however, are nearly as effective and much better for the earth/environment. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3887888 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3887888

nickik 8y ago
The Impossible Burger is designed to use environmentally friendly ingredients that can scale. I don't understand what your issue is.
- stochastic_monk 8y ago
  I’m suggesting they simply use different plant protein to do so. Would you consider wheat protein to be the only kind that can scale? If so, why?
  - cpeterso 8y ago
    Beyond Meat, another meat-substitute company, uses soy and pea protein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Meat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Meat
Aromasin 8y ago
Quinoa is also an excellent source for a full amino acid complex. It has substantially higher Lysine content then that found in other grains. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1546052 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1546052
nate_meurer 8y ago
The incomplete protein thing is a myth [1]. The amino acid profile of single ingredients is almost never a concern in practice, because meals nearly always contain complimentary proteins. It's actually really difficult to avoid complimentary proteins if you have anything like normal dietary habits. Furthermore, it's not even necessary for every meal to provide all essential amino acids, as long as your diet isn't chronically deficient in any of them over time. Wheat protein is easy to complete. This is acknowledged at the link you gave: > when combined with other food proteins such as legumes, oil seeds or animal products the proteins of wheat exhibit excellent nutritional complementarity. Lysine is the limiting amino acid in wheat protein. Lysine is easy to find in other places, and wheat protein can be made fully complete using half as much pea protein, for example. A single 20 g portion of wheat protein similar in size to one impossible burger contains over a quarter of the RDA of lysine [2]. Nearly any other protein you consume in a day will easily provide the rest, even with sensible vegan diets. 1 - https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-myth-of-complementary-protein/ https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-myth-of-complementary-pr... 2 - https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Wheat_flour%2C_whole-grain_nutritional_value.html https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Wheat_flour%2C_whole-grain_nu...
- stochastic_monk 8y ago
  It depends on your protein needs and goals. Survival is different from optimal performance.
  - nate_meurer 8y ago
    Not sure what you mean by "optimal performance". Your body needs a finite daily amount of each essential amino acid for tissue growth and repair. If you're an athlete you might need more at times, and some health problems can cause usage of particular aminos to spike, but the requirement is always finite. Consuming more than those amounts has no proven benefit (unless that protein is meant to displace calories from carbs or fat, which is a completely different topic). Optimal daily intake of all essential amino acids is easy to achieve with any sensible dietary habit, even for very active adults. If you're consuming adequate protein each day, given your activity level and health, then the amino profile of your protein intake is completely irrelevant unless your diet is really goofy. I'd encourage you to read that Forks over Knives article.
    - stochastic_monk 8y ago
      I’ve seen a lot of results regarding net protein synthesis with respect to amino acid profiles, and in general, higher concentrations of specific amino acids were tied to greater synthesis. (Especially Leucine through mTOR.) Is this misleading somehow?
      - nate_meurer 8y ago
        Yeah, leucine is a bit of a hot topic among the intermittent fasting crowd because of its apparent ability to arrest fasting-induced autophagy. Some amount is clearly critical for anabolic signaling, but the evidence I've seen indicates that extra dietary leucine (in excess of typical consumption) has no effect on actual muscle synthesis [1]. There is compelling evidence supporting supplementation of some conditionally essential amino acids such as carnosine (perhaps vis-a-vis beta-alanine) and glutamine. There's also increasing interest in restriction of specific amino acids, namely methionine, for anti-aging and cancer treatment. But all this talk of supplementation and restriction, outside of what occurs naturally in foods, stands in opposition to the dietary notion of protein completeness. My hope is that it will eventually lead to more appropriate and flexible measures of dietary protein quality. 1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844186 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844186
rebuilder 8y ago
The question you're replying to isn't the one being asked. Also, per the article, the current iteration of the Impossible Burger is no longer wheat-based.

nickik 8y ago

The Impossible Burger is designed to use environmentally friendly ingredients that can scale. I don't understand what your issue is.

stochastic_monk 8y ago
I’m suggesting they simply use different plant protein to do so. Would you consider wheat protein to be the only kind that can scale? If so, why?
- cpeterso 8y ago
  Beyond Meat, another meat-substitute company, uses soy and pea protein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Meat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Meat

Aromasin 8y ago

Quinoa is also an excellent source for a full amino acid complex. It has substantially higher Lysine content then that found in other grains. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1546052 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1546052

nate_meurer 8y ago

The incomplete protein thing is a myth [1]. The amino acid profile of single ingredients is almost never a concern in practice, because meals nearly always contain complimentary proteins. It's actually really difficult to avoid complimentary proteins if you have anything like normal dietary habits. Furthermore, it's not even necessary for every meal to provide all essential amino acids, as long as your diet isn't chronically deficient in any of them over time. Wheat protein is easy to complete. This is acknowledged at the link you gave: > when combined with other food proteins such as legumes, oil seeds or animal products the proteins of wheat exhibit excellent nutritional complementarity. Lysine is the limiting amino acid in wheat protein. Lysine is easy to find in other places, and wheat protein can be made fully complete using half as much pea protein, for example. A single 20 g portion of wheat protein similar in size to one impossible burger contains over a quarter of the RDA of lysine [2]. Nearly any other protein you consume in a day will easily provide the rest, even with sensible vegan diets. 1 - https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-myth-of-complementary-protein/ https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-myth-of-complementary-pr... 2 - https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Wheat_flour%2C_whole-grain_nutritional_value.html https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Wheat_flour%2C_whole-grain_nu...

stochastic_monk 8y ago
It depends on your protein needs and goals. Survival is different from optimal performance.
- nate_meurer 8y ago
  Not sure what you mean by "optimal performance". Your body needs a finite daily amount of each essential amino acid for tissue growth and repair. If you're an athlete you might need more at times, and some health problems can cause usage of particular aminos to spike, but the requirement is always finite. Consuming more than those amounts has no proven benefit (unless that protein is meant to displace calories from carbs or fat, which is a completely different topic). Optimal daily intake of all essential amino acids is easy to achieve with any sensible dietary habit, even for very active adults. If you're consuming adequate protein each day, given your activity level and health, then the amino profile of your protein intake is completely irrelevant unless your diet is really goofy. I'd encourage you to read that Forks over Knives article.
  - stochastic_monk 8y ago
    I’ve seen a lot of results regarding net protein synthesis with respect to amino acid profiles, and in general, higher concentrations of specific amino acids were tied to greater synthesis. (Especially Leucine through mTOR.) Is this misleading somehow?
    - nate_meurer 8y ago
      Yeah, leucine is a bit of a hot topic among the intermittent fasting crowd because of its apparent ability to arrest fasting-induced autophagy. Some amount is clearly critical for anabolic signaling, but the evidence I've seen indicates that extra dietary leucine (in excess of typical consumption) has no effect on actual muscle synthesis [1]. There is compelling evidence supporting supplementation of some conditionally essential amino acids such as carnosine (perhaps vis-a-vis beta-alanine) and glutamine. There's also increasing interest in restriction of specific amino acids, namely methionine, for anti-aging and cancer treatment. But all this talk of supplementation and restriction, outside of what occurs naturally in foods, stands in opposition to the dietary notion of protein completeness. My hope is that it will eventually lead to more appropriate and flexible measures of dietary protein quality. 1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844186 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844186

rebuilder 8y ago

The question you're replying to isn't the one being asked. Also, per the article, the current iteration of the Impossible Burger is no longer wheat-based.