What are the Benefits of using Plant-based Protein Powder?

Content you'll find:

What is vegan protein?

Is Plant Protein Powder better then Whey?

General Vegan Protein Health Benefits?

Why choose Kinetica Plant Protein?

What is Vegan Protein?

Vegan protein is generally made from legumes such as pea and soy or grains and seeds like rice and hemp.

The difference between a Vegan and a Plant-Based consumer is that a vegan also restricts the use of products made from animals, not just food, so items made from leather for example. A Plant-based consumer focuses on avoiding animal derived products within their diet mainly. A vegetarian would avoid all flesh foods, but they may still consume dairy and eggs.

Other examples of plant diets are outlined below:

• Lacto-vegetarian – Milk and dairy products would be consumed but eggs and other animal foods would be avoided.
• Ovo-vegetarian – This diet includes eggs but not dairy products.
• Lacto-ovo-vegetarian – Includes eggs and dairy products.

As you can see, there are plenty of consumers that will benefit from a vegan protein for a multitude of reasons. Even people that consume dairy might be interested in Plant Protein for digestive or even sustainability reasons too so it’s important when bringing a Plant-Based option to the market that the focus from a marketing perspective isn’t too narrow as you want a broad range of consumers to be able to benefit from it.

Is Plant Protein powder better than whey?

Not better, but different. Some people opt for plant protein for digestive purposes as they struggle with digesting dairy and may be lactose intolerant. Vegans, in particular, would choose a plant protein over whey protein as they would restrict all animal foods from their diet.

In the past, it was thought that whey protein was superior to plant protein. One of the reasons for this was that plant protein was not viewed as a complete protein. A complete protein, like whey, would be high in quality and have all essential amino acids. Amino acids are important for muscle growth and development.

Plant proteins tend to be low in one or more amino acids. KineticaPlant Protein is a blend of pea protein and rice protein. Pea protein is low in the amino acid methionine, but it high in the amino acid lysine. Rice protein, however, is high in methionine but low lysine. When these two plant-based proteins are combined they become complete meaning they would have all essential amino acids.

Vegan Protein Health Benefits

Overall, protein is an important macronutrient for our health.

• It helps support our immune system.
• It plays a key role in building and preserving lean muscle alongside resistance training.
• When we train, there is a breakdown of protein within the body. As a result of this muscle mass and muscle protein content changes in response to the stimulus of training. To help rebuild, repair and allow the muscle to become stronger protein intake is critically important.

So, if you are an elite athlete, a weekend warrior or if you just like to stay active, then upping your protein intake above the RDA of 0.8g/kg of bodyweight can be help prevent muscle breakdown. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommended that protein intake for exercising individuals should consume 1.4-2g/kg of bodyweight. This increase helps support muscle repair, training adaptations and protein turnover.

Why Kinetica Plant Protein?

Kinetica Plant Protein was created to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Whey. We didn’t want to launch a range that merely satisfied a dairy-free need, we wanted to bring a product that tasted great and mixed easily that everyone can enjoy, vegan or not! Our blend is made of pea and rice protein. Each 30g scoop contains 23g of protein which we are really proud of achieving. The products come in either Vanilla or Chocolate flavour with our vanilla flavour delivering 2.33g of leucine per scoop and chocolate flavour containing 2.13g. Leucine is an important amino acid for muscle growth.

Kinetica Plant Protein is tested to comply to WADA exacting standards under the Informed Sport testing regime. Product safety is always our number one priority.

About the author.

This blog was written and researched by Kinetica’s Performance Nutritionist Seán Prunty. Having played football professionally both is the UK and Ireland, Seán developed a keen interest on how nutrition can play an important role in performance, recovery, injury prevention and return to play. Seán has delivered workshops to football teams in Ireland on ways to improve sports performance and recovery.

Seán is a qualified Performance Nutritionist, having completed his studies and exams with the internationally recognised and world leading, Institute of Performance Nutrition.