Protein complementation for vegetarians

Why protein complementation? Protein is an essential part of any diet and there are many sources of protein, both meat and vegetable. The problem for vegetarians is that no single source of vegetable protein contains all the amino acids required for health. Legumes, for example, are a poor source of methionine while wheat is a poor source of lysine.

The answer is mixing different sources of vegetable protein together to get all the essential amino acids reguired. So, eat legumes every day with cereals or nuts or seeds. The table below gives some examples of each type of ingredient.

If this seems a bit complicated just remember baked beans on toast. The baked beans are legumes and the toast is made from wheat. Eat the two together and you have all the amino acids you need.

LEGUMES	CEREALS	NUTS	SEEDS
baked beans	rice	almonds	sesame seeds
lentils	pasta	pecans	pumpkin seeds
soy beans	bread	walnuts	sunflower seeds
chickpeas	corn	cashews
lima beans	rye
peanuts	wheat
red kidney beans	barley
white beans
split peas
cannellini beans
broad beans
borlotti beans

Leave Protein Complementation and go back to Vegetarian Nutrition

Go to our Home Page to check out some recipes.