• howrar@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Legumes tend to be very filling for the amount of protein they provide, plus having to complement them with grains to make a complete protein greatly increases the Calories to protein ratio. Rice and beans do make for a great cheat meal when you can fit it in though.

    • Pencilnoob@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’ve never heard of needing to add grains to make a complete protein. What does that even mean?

      • Linecutter@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Proteins are made from amino acids, same as words are made from letters. If you eat a protein source that’s short on some of those letters then you need to mix it with a source that has more of them… Otherwise you can’t create all the proteins that you need. (It’s a bit more complicated, but that’s the bit that you need here)

        • Falken@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          You must have triggered some vegan to get a downvote. Yeah you need the 9 essential amino acids in your diet as your body can’t synthesize them. They’re called essential for a reason.

          • Floey@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Which pulses? AFAIK all of the common ones have plenty of the essential aminos. With grains it can go either way, rice and wheat for example aren’t great sources of specific aminos, but oats and quinoa are good.

        • howrar@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          IIRC, his point was just that it doesn’t have to be in one meal. Your diet as a whole still needs all the amino acids.

          • TJA!@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            Kind of. Most meals already have all the amino acids you need. Even if you were just eating plain rice. But just not as much from some types as others. In beans it would be the other way around.

            If you are already regulating what you eat and praying a lot of attention to the nutritional value or the calorie count, it might make sense to use this hack to limit the amount of food you are eating.

            But if not, you probably are already getting all the amino acids and proteins you need. Just not in the maximal efficient and compact way.

            • howrar@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              But just not as much from some types as others

              Yeah, and that’s exactly what we’re talking about in the context of protein completeness.

              If you are already regulating what you eat and praying a lot of attention to the nutritional value or the calorie count […]

              The context of this comment chain is bodybuilding, so it applies for the majority of this population. But you’re right that for the general population, you don’t need to concern yourself with any of this as long as you have a varied diet. I’d still encourage everyone to have lots of rice and beans though because that shit’s delicious.

    • Floey@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Incorrect. Legumes do not need to be complemented by grains. Some grains like wheat may need to be complemented by legumes or some other protein source however, though this is not true of all grains, such as quinoa.