Dr. Luc (Luke) van Loon

I think in the long run it increases the efficiency by which the protein is being used for muscle and tissue protein synthesis.

But, of course, it becomes less relevant when you consume enough protein.

It becomes more relevant when your total food intake is very low.

So, for example, people that do not resistance exercise because they're lying in bed and they are hurting and they are actually anabolically resistant because they also have inflammation and sepsis.

and they can't eat food, and they can't chew, and they can't sit upright.

Then all these factors come together, and they have a very dangerous situation.

And then having all these little specks will greatly improve probably their health for the healthy person that already consumes a huge load of protein.

then those difference quality doesn't become.

So I always like to put it this way.

You can compensate for quality by greater quantity.

And that's what every athlete already does because he or she needs to consume more food because he's more active, has a higher energy expenditure, becomes more important on the other scale.

So first, and then again, I have to make the difference between whole foods, protein isolates and protein concentrates.

So if you want to consume protein through plant-based foods, so beans, lettuce, carrots,

nuts, whatever, it's more difficult to get a certain amount of protein in.

If you want to ingest 20 grams of protein through eating meat, 70 grams of meat.

If you want to get 20 grams of protein in by eating potatoes, you have to eat more than a kilogram of potatoes.

So first of all, it's just more difficult to get the same amount of protein in if you actually consume it as whole foods.

And then when you consume it as whole foods, most plant-based foods have anti-nutritional factors.

So the capacity for you to extract that protein through your body is less.

So the digestibility is lower.