Why is complete protein important?

What is complete protein?

There are 20 different amino acids and they can come together to form a protein. However, our body are not able to produce 9 of the amino acids. These 9 amino acids are known as essential amino acids and they have to come from food since our body cannot make them on our own. Food that are complete protein has about equal amount for each of the amino acid.

They can be found in meat and eggs. Plant based complete proteins are very rare but they can be found in good amount in quinoa.

Even though beans and nuts are high in protein, they are not complete in protein.

Why is complete protein in a diet important?

1) It cannot be generated by our body hence we can only get them from food.

2) It helps the body to grow

3) It maintains healthy tissue

4) It helps to repair cells

5) It aids in producing new cells

6) It produces antibodies to fight infections