May is BEEF Month—Make Eating Easy

The building blocks of protein are called amino acids.  Amino acids are categorized into essential and non-essential.  Our body can make the non-essential amino acids but must get the essential amino acids from food.  There are nine essential amino acids.

Proteins are then categorized into complete and incomplete proteins.  Complete proteins contain all nine essential amino acids while incomplete proteins do not.  Incomplete proteins must be combined with other foods in order to provide all nine essential amino acids.

Plant-based “diets”, often defined as vegetarian or vegan, are a rising trend in the world of eating.  These “diets” necessitate combining of incomplete proteins in order to obtain all nine essential acids our body needs to function, while BEEF is a complete protein and doesn’t need to use the “buddy system”.

For example, 3oz. of beef tenderloin (my favorite LEAN BEEF cut) contains 26g complete protein and 170 calories.  A plant-based protein such as chickpeas must buddy up with a grain such as rice to make a complete protein.  It would take 1.85 cups of chickpeas to equal the amount of protein in 3oz. of beef tenderloin.  The kicker???  This would equal 482 calories, and that doesn’t count the rice needed to make the chickpeas “complete”.

Photo courtesy of BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com

Make eating easy…leave the “buddy system” by the wayside and get your complete protein by flying solo with LEAN BEEF in a well-balanced meal plan!