Thoughts on this:
"In the first post of this series, I addressed important little known or understood facts about amino acids. Such as a properly balanced essential amino acid formula is the answer as it requires no digestion, is absorbed into the blood stream in 23 minutes after ingestion, and is 99% utilized by the body to make protein. In fact, 10 grams of a high quality essential amino acid formula is equivalent to 40 grams of protein with no calories. The benefits to you being greater lean muscle mass, quicker recovery, reduced calories and inflammation.
In this post, let’s delve a bit deeper into the power of essential amino acids and place them to a battle against dietary protein.
Introducing the contenders:
In the left corner, we have dietary proteins consisting of animal meat, eggs, dairy, grains, nuts, legumes and protein powder. In the right corner, we have EAA, a complete essential amino acid formula consisting of 50% brain chain amino acids.
Let the battle begin:
Round 1: Taste
Protein: It is hard to beat poached eggs, grass-fed fajita or burgers, grilled salmon , roasted chicken or a vegan options such as falafel or bean chili.
EAA: There is no escaping the fact that raw unflavored essential amino acids are very bitter. And because of that there is only one naturally-flavored EAA on the market that is both effective and actually tastes good.
Winner: Protein
Round 2: Convenience
Protein: Grilled salmon, egg salad or hamburgers don’t travel well and aren’t appealing prior to, during or after physical activity. And while protein powders such as egg, whey, rice or hemp are convenient, they can be difficult to hand mix and aren’t tolerated well by most prior or during physical activity
EAA: With a naturally-flavored powdered formula, all you need to do is add water, stir or shake lightly and you are good to go. No refrigeration is required.
Winner: EAA
Round 3: Absorption
Protein: In order for your body to utilize the essential amino acids in protein, it most first enzymatically digest and fully absorb the protein in the food eaten. Not only does this take a number of hours to complete, but for many due to gastrointestinal health, age, illness, stress and amino acid imbalances
that deplete digestive enzymes, most people don’t adequately digest and absorb the amino acids from dietary proteins. Even the more rapidly absorbed protein powders require digestion and absorption and do not adequately provide all the essential amino acids.
EAA: Since EAA is not a protein but a comprehensive blend of essential amino acids, it requires no digestion. So when taken alone on an empty stomach, it is almost 100% absorbed within 25 minutes regardless of your age and health.
Winner: EAA
Round 4: Food Sensitivity
Protein: Due to the large size of the protein molecules present, people with leaky guts or immune imbalances frequently develop sensitivities or allergies to many dietary proteins including eggs, dairy, soy, whey, nuts, beef, chicken and fish.
EAA: Since EAA here is not protein, it is almost 100% tolerated by all.
Winner: EAA
Round 5: Nutritional Content
Protein: Whole foods and many powders (even though they are processed) not only contain protein but also fats, vitamins, mineral and phytonutrients.
EAA: Consists only of essential amino acids and natural flavorings. Its intended use is to provide a highly effective source of complete amino acid supplies to meet the body’s requirements for optimal energy, recovery and performance. It is meant to supplement a whole foods diet.
Winner: Protein
Round 6: Biological Value (BV)
BV is a measure of the proportion of absorbed protein from a food which becomes incorporated into the proteins of your body and allows us to compare how readily proteins can be used. BV does NOT take into account how easily a food is digested or absorbed. So a food can have a high BV but in reality because it is not digested or absorbed completely be in effective in providing the needed amino acids to the body.
Protein: Whey protein and whole eggs have close to 100% BV. While meat, chicken, fish and vegan sources such as nuts, grains, meat, fish and chicken are between 70 to 80%.
EAA: Has a 100% BV and is rapidly and completely absorbed.
Winner: EAA
Round 7: Anabolic vs Catabolic (NNU)
A follow up round to BV. Net Nitrogen Utilization (NNU) is a measure of what percent of a substances amino acids content is actually used anabolically (growth and recovery) to create other proteins. So even though a protein may have a high BV, if NNU is low then much of the amino acids are not being used effectively.
Protein: Dietary proteins have an NNU between 16 and 35% with eggs being the highest and protein powders being the lowest. This means that up to 85% of the amino acids in dietary protein are not used for their intended anabolic purposes for growth and repair but in reality, burned as energy.
EAA: 99% of the amino acids in EAA are used anabolically towards building proteins. Meaning only 1% follows a catabolic pathway! EAA knocks dietary protein to the mat. It is 3 to 5 times more effectively used by the body than dietary proteins. It does not look good for dietary protein.
Winner: EAA
Round 8: Calories
Protein: Has 4 calories per gram.
EAA: Since they are only 1% used for energy, EAA is calorie free at .04 calories per gram or less than ½ calorie per 10 gram serving.
Winner: EAA.
Round 9: Contraindications
Protein: Choices and quantity are limited for vegans, those who have impaired digestion, food sensitivities, kidney or liver disease.
EAA: Because it is a vegetable-derived, protein-free formula with a 99% nitrogen retention, EAA is a perfect protein replacement for almost anyone other than the very small percent of people with genetic amino acid disorders.
Winner: EAA
Roud 10: Purity
Protein: Many protein sources are raised in factory farms with antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, heavy metals, artificial flavors and GMO ingredients.
EAA: Is derived from vegetable sources and flavored with organic, GM0-free ingredients.
Winner: EAA
The referee has seen enough and in a TKO has declared EAA the winner over dietary protein in 10 rounds, 8 to 2.
Post-Fight Commentary
While it is completely possible to exist and even thrive consuming only essential amino acids, for optimal health we all need foundational levels of high quality dietary proteins from foods for the pleasure, sustenance and the nutritional density that it provides.
But due to individual variations in digestion and absorption, using excess dietary protein for specific health and fitness purposes has limitations. In addition, large amounts of daily protein (over 1.5 grams/kg bodyweight) require the body to expend a considerable amount of energy to process, digest and excrete and have been linked to more rapid aging and disease.
On the other hand, due to its convenience, rapid absorption and almost 100% use by the body, you can use EAA to both supplement and/or reduce dietary protein to meet specific dietary restrictions or health and fitness goals such as increased strength, energy, fat loss, recovery, appetite suppression, deeper sleep, cold thermogenesis, intermittent fasting and more."