Soy is better than animal protein. Health care professionals and consumers alike are becoming more aware of the potential benefits that adding protein to the diet can provide. Throughout our lives, protein in our bodies is continuously broken down and remade, thus requiring the addition of protein to our diets. High quality proteins provide the best and most efficient way to meet human nutritional needs. Therefore, it is important that the protein added to the diet is of the highest quality possible.
The nutritional quality of soy protein has been studied in depth. Studies have shown that nitrogen balance, digestibility, and protein utilization are similar between beef and soy proteins. Other studies show that soy protein can support nitrogen balance and does provide adequate amounts of the amino acid methionine, which is important for growth and development. Recent studies have reported that nitrogen absorption, protein digestibility, biological value, and net utilization of soy protein are similar to milk protein.
The high digestibility of soy protein, the content and bioavailability of its amino acids, and the nitrogen content make soy protein a high quality protein. Based on protein digestibility calculations, soy protein achieves a score of 1.0, the highest score possible and on par with other high quality proteins like egg whites and milk proteins. Therefore, the addition of soy to the diet is a good way to meet all of your protein nutritional requirements. Proteins consist of 28 amino acids.
We manufacture 19 amino acids in our livers. Nine essential
amino acids must be obtained from the foods we eat. Many
people believe that animal and plant proteins are exactly
the same. That is not true.
One of those "essential" amino acids is methionine.
One needs methionine for many human metabolic functions
including digestion, detoxification of heavy metals, and
muscle metabolism. However, an excess of methionine can be
toxic and create that acid condition in your blood.
The center atom of methionine is sulfur. That's the problem.
Eat foods containing too much methionine, and your blood
will become acidic. The sulfur converts to sulfates and weak
forms of sulfuric acid. In order to neutralize the acid, in
its wisdom, the body leaches calcium from bones.
"Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood
which can be neutralized by calcium mobilized from the
skeleton." {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995;
61,4}
Animal proteins contain more methionine than plant proteins.
Let's compare cow's milk to soymilk:
Methionine in 100 grams of soymilk: .040 grams
Methionine in 100 grams of whole milk: .083 grams
Methionine in 100 grams of skim milk: .099 grams
Now, let's compare 100 gram portions of tofu to meat:
(All of the meat products are lean and without skin)
Silken soft tofu: .074 grams of methionine
Hamburger: .282 grams of methionine
Hard boiled egg: .392 grams of methionine
Roast ham: .535 grams of methionine
Baked codfish: .679 grams of methionine
Swiss cheese .784 grams of methionine
Roast chicken: .801 grams of methionine
Why do nations with the highest rates of bone disease also
have the highest milk/animal consumption rates? The highest rates
of osteoporosis are to be found in America,Denmark, Holland, Norway,
and Sweden.