By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

According to the comprehensive book, Plant-based Sports Nutrition, doing resistance exercise and eating protein both signal our body to build more muscle. Thus, athletes and others who want to increase muscle mass are encouraged to do strength training and meet protein needs. Eating more protein than is needed does not lead to larger muscles.

Protein derived from animals is often touted as being better than plant-derived protein for muscle building. If you walk down the supplements aisle of a grocery store, you’ll see container after container of protein supplements with dairy- (casein or whey) and egg-derived protein. Plant-derived protein is believed by some to be less effective than animal-derived protein because of its amino acid content and lower digestibility.

A recent study calls into question the need for animal-derived protein to build muscle. In this study, dairy milk and a mixture of plant proteins were equally effective in promoting muscle protein synthesis in healthy young men. The researchers randomly assigned 24 healthy, recreationally active young men to either a group who were given 30 grams of dairy protein or to a group who were given a blend containing 15 grams of wheat protein, 7.5 grams of corn protein, and 7.5 grams of pea protein. Over the next 5 hours, muscle biopsies were done in order to assess the rate of protein synthesis. The two groups’ rate of muscle protein synthesis was not significantly different over the 5 hour period. If anything, the rate of muscle protein synthesis increased somewhat more after the men consumed the plant-derived protein than after the animal-derived protein, but this difference did not reach statistical significance.

The researchers conclude, “Balanced plant-derived protein blends can have anabolic [muscle building] properties that do not differ from high-quality animal-derived proteins.”

Reference

Pinckaers PJM, Kouw IWK, Gorissen SHM, et al. The muscle protein synthetic response to the ingestion of a plant-derived protein blend does not differ from an equivalent amount of milk protein in healthy, young males  J Nutr. 2022;152:2734-2743.

To read more about protein for vegans see:

Protein in the Vegan Diet

Protein

To read more about vegan diets for athletes see our website section on athletes.