Hi Jordan,
On one of the SS forums you said that you are not a big fan of Pea protein. Why not? For example, the Leucine content of this ( Amazon.com: NOW Foods Sports Nutrition, Pea Protein 24 g, Fast Absorbing, Unflavored Powder, 7-Pound : Health & Household) pea isolate is 2g of leucine per 24 grams of protein. This compares to 2.7g of leucine per 25g of protein for whey. So, if I take 2 scoops of pea isolate I’ll be well above the 3g of leucine needed to trigger the muscle protein synthesis response. Are there any other factors against pea protein?
The reason I ask is that I’ve been using whey as my primary source of protein in meal replacement drinks (DIY soylent), and I noticed that pea protein costs less than whey.
It’s generally not cheaper than whey by any significant amount, the BCAA content is lower (as are the EAA concentrations per serving), and it requires more of it to get a similar effect than whey.
Phillysteak,
From what I understand protien sources are not all created equal. A given raw mass of protien, say thirty grams of whey and chicken prior to consumption, will result in a different amount of protien that your body can actually process for growth depending on the source. The value having to do with the ratio of protien you can process and the protien that is wasted via excrement is the “bio-availbility” of the protien. https://goo.gl/images/bhHP3Z this table shows the bio-availbility index for a few different foods. I cannot comment on the accuracy of the values in this table it’s just one that popped up in google but you get the idea. I believe I remember reading in the past that pea protien has a value of 75 or so, thus as Jordan said sub-optimal compared to whey, independent of Lucienne content. I figured this out because I thought I found a great product that was cheap and made of gluten protien only to find out upon research that gluten protien has a bio-availibity index of like 20.