Transcription
Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome back to another video. I'm Derek from SimNet Nutrition, and if you like to nerd out on different plant-based protein sources, then you are going to love this video.
So, I'm often getting asked, "What are the best plant-based sources of protein to consume?" And rather than just making a video talking about the top sources, I thought it'd be fun to do a tier list. So, for the most part, all the foods I'm going to talk about in this video are fairly good sources of protein, but I'm definitely going to throw a few wild card ones in there that people think are good sources that really aren't.
So, keep in mind that this is my opinion. It's a subjective list. So, if you disagree with me or you think I should like, move some stuff around in the list, definitely let me know in the comment section down below.
In the scoring of these foods, I'm going to consider a bunch of different things, not just the amount of protein per calorie each food has. Because if I were to do that, some food like spirulina or chlorella or something would probably win, but we know that nobody's eating a significant amount of calories of food like that. Huh. So, total protein in grams per 100 calories is going to be a big factor in how high one of these food scores. And I'm going to be putting up a chart along the bottom that kind of shows each food as we go compared to one another, so it's kind of nice and easy to keep track.
But I'm also going to be considering things like how healthy the food is, how processed it is, the cost, you know, how easy it is to cook with, how delicious it is, and also how much leucine each food contains. I also have a chart for that. So, I thought this would be interesting because leucine is not only one of the nine essential amino acids, it's also one of the three branch chain amino acids, but it seems to be the one that is most, most important for muscle protein synthesis. So, the one that is going to help to repair and grow muscle, basically good for hypertrophy, making those gains.
But with all that being said, getting enough protein on a plant-based diet isn't difficult. Eat enough calories from a variety of plant foods, focus on incorporating a few of these higher protein foods throughout the day, and most people will get more than enough protein to be healthy and active. However, if you are trying to build muscle and perform your best in the gym and you want to maximize your efforts, knowing what the best protein sources are can definitely be helpful. It seems that around 1.6 to 1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of lean or goal body weight is about what most natural lifters are going to benefit from, maybe up to two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. But definitely, there's a point of diminishing returns once you get up that high, and in my experience, I've made gains consuming much less protein than that.
All right, so let's get started with this tier list. So, for those of you who are not familiar with what a tier list is, I think it started in either the gaming or the anime world, and it's just basically a list where you rank, you know, characters or foods, in this case, from best at the top to the very worst. So, at the top, S stands for superb, and then it just goes by like a regular grading system for the rest of the list.
All right, first food is beans. So, this is going to go for black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, pretty much most of the common beans are going to have the same amount of protein and very similar macros. So, I've seen beans getting a lot of disrespect lately in the online community from different, like, plant-based influencers, especially ones that are like the real ones that push like a super high protein diet, and they say that beans are not a good source of protein because they don't really contain that much protein, it's mostly carbs. I think there's something like 23% protein as far as the macros go. So, I think they're still a pretty good source of protein. And besides, they are super nutritious. They're definitely fairly low-calorie food. They're pretty inexpensive. They're easy to cook. They're, you know, if you get canned beans, they're just like already made for you. They're full of antioxidants. They've got a good amount of fiber, obviously. And then they're also a good source of minerals as well, like iron and zinc. So, looking at the chart here, at 6.7 grams of protein per 100 calories, it might not be the highest protein-containing food on the list, but for a whole food, I think it's a pretty dang good source. So, I'm going to put it in the B tier.
So, chickpeas are going to be very similar to beans and those other beans I mentioned, so I won't spend much time on them. And they have very similar nutritional benefits as well, so I won't go too much into chickpeas. But they are slightly higher in fat than most beans are, and they do have a little bit less protein at 5.4 grams of protein per 100 calories. So, obviously, extremely healthy, very versatile, and probably one of my favorite legumes. And for this reason, I think even though it has a little less protein than beans, just because of the fact that you can make hummus with it, I think it definitely deserves to be in the B tier.
So, out of the three, chickpeas, beans, and lentils, lentils definitely have the most amount of protein at 7.8 grams per 100 calories. They're dirt cheap. They have more antioxidants than most beans do. They're also higher in leucine and also zinc and iron. So, for this reason, I think lentils deserve to bump up to the A tier.
Legume pasta. So, obviously, there's going to be some variance in this because different legume pastas mix different legumes with, you know, other flours as well. Sometimes it's like rice flour, quinoa flour, whatever. But generally, the legume pastas have about 10 grams of protein per 100 calories. While a little bit more expensive and a bit more processed than regular legumes, this is obviously a great protein choice. So, it's going to have very similar nutrient profiles to beans and chickpeas and that sort of thing, and definitely a good amount of leucine. So, this one is tough. I think I almost want to put it in the S tier, but we have some pretty good food coming up with a lot of protein. So, I think for now, I'm going to put it in the A tier.
All right, the next food is quinoa. So, quinoa gets a reputation for being a great source of protein, often because it's referred to as a complete protein. And that's just because it has fairly even levels of all nine of the essential amino acids. But all plant foods have all nine of the essential amino acids, and our bodies are smart and they're very resourceful, and as long as you eat a variety of plant foods, you are going to get all the amino acids. So, having a complete protein at one meal or like protein combining or whatever, really isn't an issue. So, I don't know if quinoa gets any points for that. It is a delicious food and it's extremely healthy, don't get me wrong. However, it's not that high in protein. Like you can see here in the chart, it has 3.7 grams of protein per 100 calories, which is our lowest contender so far. So, if you compare it to a food like rice or something like that, and you have it in place of that, of course, it's going to be a good option instead of that if you're looking to bump up your protein. But compared to some of the other protein options on this list, it's really not that high. And then looking at the leucine, it's also not that high in leucine, in spite of it being touted as a complete protein. So, while it is an extremely healthy food and great to have in place of like white rice or, you know, white pasta or something like that, as far as a protein source, it's not the best. So, hmm, I guess this is going to probably go in the D tier. But again, remember, this is not, you know, what food is the best. This is for protein sources. So, while we're taking into account the, you know, how healthy a food is, it's not the biggest factor. The biggest factor is how much protein it has.
Next food is tofu. Let's go. I love tofu. I eat it many times a week, probably one of my favorite foods. And I know there's a lot of chatter about it being not so good for you because people are worried about like their hormones and it's going to give you like man boobs or whatever. But that's definitely not the case. And if anybody would have man boobs by now from eating tofu, like I eat it many times a week and I've done this for many years now, so it definitely would be this guy. And I don't. But if you want to learn more about tofu, I do have a great video where I go into tofu and all of the concerns and everything around it, and I will link that in the description box down below.
So, extra firm tofu contains 12 grams of protein per 100 calories. Well, actually, all tofu should contain about the same amount of protein per calorie. It's just that extra firm tofu is going to be a lot more dense of a source, and then something like soft tofu is going to have a lot more water in it, so it's not going to be as dense. So, per gram, it's not, you know, extra firm tofu is going to have more. But, uh, per calorie, they should all be the same. A lot of people say that it's a highly processed food, and I would have to disagree. I would say that it's a minimally processed food. There's really nothing added to it and not much taken away, except for some of the carbs and some of the fiber. So, I think, you know where I'm going to put tofu. I mean, it's easy to eat, relatively cheap, it is so easy to make delicious, there's so many different ways you can cook from it. Look how much leucine it has in it. So, this is definitely one amazing food for bodybuilding, super anabolic, and it is going to have to go in the S tier. If there was one above that, I'd probably put it there.
All right, I guess it makes sense to move into tempeh next. So, tempeh also made from soybeans. However, the soybeans have been fermented, making it more digestible and more bioavailable. In my opinion, not quite as tasty as tofu, but it definitely has potential if you know how to cook it. So, it's definitely less processed than tofu and not quite as much protein, not quite as much leucine. So, A or S tier? I think because of the protein content is lower, and considering, you know, it's still healthy, but it's like not quite as delicious as tofu, I think I'm going to put it into the A tier.
Edamame. So, this is obviously just like the young whole soybean, and slightly less protein than tempeh and tofu at 9.8 grams per 100 cals, but quite a bit more vitamin K and also vitamin A than either of those. I guess because it's like more of a vegetable than it is like a bean at that point. So, I like edamame, but in my opinion, it's not quite as tasty or versatile as tofu or tempeh. I mean, the bean is just like the bean, it's easy to throw into things, but it's hard to like, you know, change it to make it anything different. So, it looks like it's got a similar amount of protein as legume pasta, and it's got whole food. So, think I'm going to put in the A tier.
TVP. So, you guys probably know this stuff. It's textured vegetable protein, sometimes it's called textured soy protein. And it really doesn't have any flavor on its own, and it's kind of, it looks like dried breadcrumbs. But it is so easy to throw into things like curries, into soups, chilies, uh, mix it up with some tomato sauce and put on top of pasta. It's also really good to uh rehydrate and then fry up as like a ground beef or, you know, ground meat substitute. So, very versatile. TVP is different than Butler soy curls, which I'll rate after this, but Butler soy curls are made from the whole bean, where TVP is made from a soy protein isolate. Generally, TVP and soy protein isolate is made by separating the soy protein from the fats. And to do this, they use a chemical solvent, hexane. Hexane is a byproduct from the oil and gas industry. I think it can also be extracted from sugar cane, but almost all the hexane that's used in like food processing is pretty much from the oil and gas industry. Interestingly enough, the fat that is separated from the soybeans is soybean oil, and this is how a lot of oils are made. So, unless you're buying oil that is cold pressed or expeller pressed, it is probably made using this process. So, a bit of a sidetrack, but interesting nonetheless.
So, it seems sketchy, but this is how most companies make their TVP. But they do claim that only trace amounts are left in the final product, and it's far less than what would be harmful for human health. So, it's definitely pretty highly processed food, so it's going to get some points off for that. I should mention that there's a couple of companies out there that do make hexane-free TVP, so if that is a concern to you, you could always look for that. But I've never seen that in Canada, probably in the United States somewhere though. Anyways, with all that being said, it is very high in protein, 22 grams of protein per 100 calories, definitely the highest on our list so far. It also contains tons of leucine, so it will be very anabolic for those gains. It's also really cheap. I know Dr. Greger has some videos on soy protein isolate and how it is not as good for us to eat as just regular soy protein. I think it can raise IGF-1 levels and there's like some other concerns as well. So, definitely not going to be an S tier, although it's a great source of protein, I think probably deserves to go in the A tier.
Butler soy curls. So, this is one of my favorite things to cook with. These are so fun. Uh, and I was actually surprised. I thought that they were going to have like sky-high levels of protein, kind of like TVP. But as you can see here, it's very similar to edamame, which makes sense because it is made from the whole bean. I couldn't find anywhere that stated exactly the amount of leucine or any of the amino acids that are in it. However, I would assume it to be very similar, if not the same, as edamame since it has the same amount of protein and it's made from the whole soybean. So, while it's much less processed than TVP, it does kind of have that same quality of not really tasting like anything but taking on flavors very well. And I have a video that I make three amazing Butler soy curl recipes, and they are absolutely incredible. The ginger chicken one is just to die for. So, you definitely have to check that out if you haven't yet. I'll put a link to that in the description box down below as well. So, because it has less protein but it's less processed than TVP, I think I'll put it alongside TVP in the A tier.
So, I couldn't do this list without including fava bean tofu. This is a fairly new product to the market. It's actually made by a Canadian-based company and it's available in Canada and the US. And they actually make tofu out of fava beans. Lately, we haven't been able to find the plain one around here, just this smoked one, but it is pretty much the same thing, just a little bit smokier. So, check it out. It is super high in protein at 20 grams of protein per 100 calories. So, this is at the top of the list, the most protein per calorie of any food that we've looked at so far. And then on top of that, it has almost 2 grams of leucine in the same amount of calories. So, this is definitely an S tier protein source. This actually has more protein per calorie than steak, so that's pretty epic.
Hemp seeds. So, these are another one that are often touted as an amazing protein source, but per calorie, it's really not that high. As you can see, similar to chickpeas, but much higher in fat. So, don't get me wrong, this is an extremely healthful food. We should definitely be eating this one consistently, especially because it's a great source of omega-3s. It's high in minerals like magnesium, iron, and zinc. However, per calorie, it is just not that good of a source of protein. So, it's not even really that great of a source of leucine either. So, healthy, but as a source of protein, not really the best. I'm going to say this is in the C tier.
Peanut butter. So, I was actually going to start off with a joke about peanut butter, but I didn't want any of you stealing it because it was just too smooth. And I know you guys would take it and spread it. Okay, not funny. But neither is people saying that peanut butter is a great source of protein, because really, it's not. It's a great source of calories, but protein, it's really not that good of a source. I mean, in 100 calories, there's only 3.7 grams of protein and there's 8.6 grams of fat with it. So, this is going to be similar for most nuts and nut butters. If quinoa is in the D tier, I think peanut butter probably has to go in the E tier. Sorry, peanut butter, I love you, but you're just not a great protein source.
The Beyond Meat Burger. So, I definitely couldn't make this list without including this, and I think we all know by now that this is not a health food. This is not something we want to be consuming all that often. It's okay every once in a while, but I mean, it is highly processed. It is full of a whole bunch of refined oils. But it does have 8.3 grams of protein per 100 calories, which isn't too bad. So, this is about the same as tempeh, but obviously with tons more ingredients and definitely some saturated fat in there as well. H, where to put this one? So, I think it has to go lower than tempeh, and maybe let's put it in line with quinoa. I'm not saying it's as healthy as quinoa or we should be eating as much as quinoa, but just as a protein source, in my opinion, D tier.
And then I thought I'd throw mock meats just kind of in general in here, and those are going to be signified by the Gardein strips. So, there's obviously lots of different kinds of mock meats. Some are going to be healthier than others, but I thought I'd just throw them in here just because, you know, I can probably put them in A tier. It'd probably be a cool idea to do a tier list on like all the different mock meats that there are out there, but I don't know, I'm not really a big fan of these things, so I don't know about that. So, something like the Gardein chicken tenders are probably going to have a little bit less protein than the Beyond Meat, but it's probably going to have less like fat, probably better macros, but, you know, it's also highly processed food. I'm just going to put it in E tier alongside of that.
So, the next food to judge is seitan. So, this is made from vital wheat gluten. And vital wheat gluten is very high in protein. Basically, what vital wheat gluten is, is just wheat flour where all the starch has been washed away, and you're just left with that gluten protein. So, it was hard to get exact numbers for this because people aren't just eating vital wheat gluten, you're making seitan out of vital wheat gluten, and sometimes that contains other things. And, uh, if you're buying it from a store, like, uh, seitan sausages or something like that, it's often going to have a whole bunch of different things in it. So, I looked up most seitan products, and the ones that are higher in protein generally have around 20 grams of protein per 100 calories. So, definitely one of the highest on the list so far. It's very high in protein and pretty high in leucine as well, as you can see. So, it's not something that I eat often, but I do sometimes eat these seitan sausages by a company called Field Roast, and they have some other stuff in there as well. So, they're not quite as high in protein as, uh, what I just stated, but best-case scenario, 20 grams of protein in 100 calories. So, while this one is a processed food, it's really not overly processed. And if you don't have a problem with gluten, and you're using like organic vital wheat gluten to make it, and you're making it yourself at home, it doesn't have a whole bunch of other crap added to it, I think it probably has to go in the S tier. I mean, it's just so high in protein.
Protein powder. So, just like with a bunch of the other stuff on the list, there's definitely variables to this because different protein powders are going to have different protein amounts. But for this list, I'm going to have to go with Veggie Protein because it is the best plant-based protein out there. And of course, if you use my discount code Derek15, you save 15% on it. But seriously, it is a really great product. It tastes amazing, it mixes up smooth every single time, it's tested for heavy metals, tested for purity, it's organic. It uses a blend of pea, pumpkin seed, and sunflower seed protein, and it also has the highest leucine content of pretty much everything we're rating today. So, it's definitely great for building muscle, super convenient. And considering I'm usually having it with other things that are healthy, like berries and bananas and flaxseed and all that sort of stuff, I think I'm definitely going to have to put this in the S tier.
All right, what's left? Oh yeah, nutritional yeast, or nooch, as it's known by many of us. So, I thought it'd be fun to throw a few oddball ones in here at the end, just because they kind of surprised me. And I know this isn't going to contribute like a bunch of protein to your diet because you're not likely to be eating large amounts of this. But I was surprised to find out that 100 calories of nutritional yeast is like just over three heaping tablespoons, and in that, you actually get 11.7 grams of protein. So, that is definitely not insignificant. So, I'm sure many of you already have your uses for it. I love putting it on top of pasta, you know, some popcorn, whatever. Uh, I'm definitely not eating like spoonfuls or bowlfuls of this stuff, but it is cool to know that you can just, you know, top up your food with it and seriously boost up the protein content of your meals. So, I think just because it's like a condiment or whatever, it's definitely can't be higher than S.
Spirulina. So, this one, you're definitely not going to be consuming any significant amount of. 100 calories of spirulina is like five tablespoons. Nobody's eating that much spirulina. But it is kind of interesting because look at this, in 100 calories of it, there's almost 20 grams of protein, which is actually even higher than protein powder. And look at that, it also contains very high amounts of leucine as well. So, the reason why I wanted to add this is because these are one of the foods that I often see compared to things like steak. People like make a post, it'll be like, look at this, spirulina has more protein per gram than steak. But you're just not going to be eating that much. But I just wanted to have a look at it, and I thought you guys might want to check it out too. So, I think for this reason, it's got to go in the E tier. It is not a great source of protein to be relying on.
Okay, you know what? After looking at this list now that it's all done, I think I'm going to have to move some stuff around here at the bottom. I mean, nutritional yeast being higher than quinoa and Beyond Meat just doesn't really make sense. So, remember, this is not just based on like health, you know, this is the amount of protein that you're getting, and then, you know, some other things considered, but protein is the most important thing here. So, h, I hate to do this, but I think I'm going to move Beyond Meat and mock meats up one tier, and maybe nooch down. H, no, I'm going to leave nooch where it is. I mean, almost 12 grams of protein in 100 calories is like pretty good. All right, yeah, I think I'm happy with that. That is my plant-based protein tier list.
So, I'm curious to hear what you guys think about this. Am I right? Am I wrong? Would you move anything around? Definitely let me know in the comment section down below. Should I have included any other foods as well? Did I forget anything?
So, that's it. Thank you so much for watching this video all the way to the end. I definitely appreciate it. And if you enjoyed the video, definitely hit the like button. Subscribe if you are interested in my content and you want to see more. I would very much appreciate that. And I will see you soon with another video. Bye-bye.
Here's some other videos of mine that I think you might like. And if you're looking for some delicious and healthy plant-based recipes, check out my new recipe ebook, Easy Vegan Comfort Meals. It contains over 60 plant-based recipes, lots of delicious sauces that I know you're going to love. Thanks for watching and thanks for the support.