There’s protein water, protein beer, protein marshmallows. Millions follow “meatfluencers” on TikTok. If you’re hungry for dessert, God bless you, a protein Pop-Tart will sustain you with 10 grams of protein alongside red No. 40.
Behind this macronutrient madness are three assumptions: We’re not getting enough protein. The more the better. Meat is the best way to get it.
The problem? They’re not true. Humans need (some) protein, of course. But an entire multibillion-dollar industry has sprung up to sell us a lot more of something we don’t need in such quantities – at significant cost – that doesn’t make most of us healthier, and in some cases, leaves us worse off.
You would not guess that from the online discourse. So several months ago, I began wading through it in search of an ideal protein for my busy, hungry mornings. The bar was high: convenient, affordable, healthy, tasty and satiating. I was open to any source – eggs, dairy, plants or meat – but preferably something I could make with one hand while holding an infant.
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My journey through the scientific literature and decades of nutritional research led to one conclusion: We’re overthinking this.
The perfect protein is probably one you’re already eating.
But first, I had to dispel the three myths to see some simple truths.
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Myth 1: We’re not getting enough protein in our diet
This seems logical. Protein is one of the body’s three essential macronutrients (the other two are fats and carbohydrates). Our bodies make proteins from fundamental building blocks called amino acids.
Of the 20 amino acids our bodies require, nine can’t be produced in-house. We recruit these from our diet. Our bodies use these amino acids to assemble thousands of different proteins that make life possible from growing and repairing tissue to building hormones and the brain itself.
We’re always doing this. Each day, our bodies replace 1 to 2 percent of our muscle proteins. Within a few months, our entire musculature is completely refurbished. That sounds like a lot, but our cellular machinery recycles most of these amino acids on a daily basis, with about 30 percent of these amino acids directly coming from what we eat.
Entire data centers are devoted to the debate about how much protein the everyday (mostly male, very online) American needs. But the amount is pretty modest. The recommended daily protein intake for adults in 2025 is at least 0.36 grams per pound, according to the National Academies. For a 180-pound person, that amounts to roughly the protein in a single bean-and-chicken Chipotle burrito, about 65 grams of protein per day.
Meeting this target is not hard. “Almost everybody eats more than they need just eating regular food,” said Gardner. In fact, the everyday American exceeds the recommended daily allowance, consuming 55 percent more among men and 35 percent more among women (even among vegans or vegetarians). “I often ask [at medical conferences,] ‘How many of you in your career have ever treated someone for protein deficiency?’” said Gardner. “To this day, not a single hand has come up after asking the question for 10 years.”
But is that really the ideal amount? Here, there’s disagreement. Some experts, like Luc van Loon, a muscle physiologist and professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, see the official guidelines as more of a baseline. “I don’t think the requirement is the same as optimal,” said Van Loon, who recommends between 1.2 and 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight (0.55 to 0.68 grams per pound). Athletes, seniors (who are vulnerable to muscle loss as they age and may not meet the minimum requirement) and patients recovering from surgery are on the higher end of that range. “I do not see any benefit of going higher,” said Van Loon, but he argues that most people benefit from exceeding the official recommendations.
Does this apply to you? If you want to bump that up to 1.2 grams per kg of body weight, for a 180-pound person, that’s the equivalent of adding 32 grams of protein – roughly the amount in 1.5 cups of cooked lentils or Greek yogurt or five eggs. Want to add more? Be careful about what comes with it. “There’s nowhere to store extra protein in your body,” warned Gardner. “But there’s an unlimited capacity to store fat.”
But, I hear you say, I need more protein to gain muscle at the gym. Unless you’re headed to the Olympics, pricey protein supplements aren’t much good. Evidence shows well-balanced plant-based diets support muscle strength and mass just as well as omnivorous diets. “More than 90 percent of the weight gain in the gym is working out,” said Gardner, “and less than 10 percent is getting adequate protein.”
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Myth 2: Meat is a superior source of protein
Meat is more protein-dense than a plant. But saying it’s “better” is a bit like saying a rocket ship is the fastest way to get around. That’s true, in a way, but overlooks key downsides about picking up your kids from school in one.
Meat, Van Loon said, is easy to digest and rich in essential amino acids. It’s still the gold standard for amino acid composition, alongside eggs and dairy. But such animal-based proteins also lack healthy things you need – fiber, antioxidants and certain nutrients – that reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes among other diseases.
In real life, we never rely on one protein source. Getting all (or most) of our protein from meat misses the point, said Van Loon. A better question to ask is not how much protein you need, but what’s the healthiest way to balance the volume of protein I’m already eating. The health complications may outweigh marginal benefits from a “denser” source of protein.
“I think it’s much more important to think of higher- or lower-quality diets,” said Van Loon. “Otherwise, you would only eat animal-derived proteins if it’s only about protein quality. A nice meal with different protein sources provides a very healthy diet.”
There’s no need to cut meat out for nutritional purposes. But plants, as part of a balanced diet, can provide just as much protein as meat with equivalent health benefits, as well as building and maintaining muscle. While researchers still debate whether they’re identical, serving for serving, the consensus is that other factors such as exercise and overall diet are far more important.
“If we provide all the people with ample amounts of protein from a vegan diet or an omnivorous diet, we don’t see differences,” in muscle mass or function, said Van Loon. “They’re all fine.”
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Myth 3: Plants are an ‘incomplete’ protein
Many experts still get this wrong even years after the research disproving it was published.
In the 1930s, research on rats identified essential amino acids, some of which are found in lower concentrations in plants. That led to the assumption that plants lacked certain proteins that must be combined to make them complete (a claim popularized and later retracted in the 1971 book “Diet For A Small Planet”).
The truth is that all plants, from nuts to lettuce, contain all 20 amino acids, including the nine essential ones, according to a 2019 peer-reviewed paper in Nutrition Reviews. Some, like amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa and soy, even have proportions of amino acids very similar to meat. So while proportions are different, none are “incomplete.”
Now for the grain of truth: Some plants are lower in specific amino acids. Famously, rice and beans are low in lysine and methionine, respectively, but each has a surplus of the other, making them perfect complements. But scientists agree none of these need to be combined in a single meal: The body assembles the necessary proteins from a pool of free amino acids in our bodies, as well as various foods we consume during the day.
It’s also true that whole-food plant protein is generally not as easily digested as meat and contains less protein per serving than animal protein. But, said Gardner, you can easily compensate for this by eating a bit more plant-based proteins, or just adding eggs and dairy.
Gardner compared it to a game of Scrabble: If you’re missing an “L,” you can add some tiles to the game to complete it. In daily life, this happens automatically as we eat among varied foods. “That’s the part that people leave out,” said Gardner: Any “quality” deficit is solved by boosting the volumes slightly.
Besides, if we were to pit proteins against one other, pound for pound, prime rib loses. You just can’t beat whey, rice or soy protein powder.
Whatever you eat, Gardner said, don’t panic – even vegetarians: “You’d have to work hard to not get enough protein.”
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Hunting for the ‘perfect’ protein
Every morning, I make a shake.
My Vitamix turns a bunch of healthy things into a meal in seconds while I juggle two kids and a dog. I add a handful of nuts, fruit, cocoa, ginger, greens, soy milk and flip the switch. If I have time, I may make eggs or French toast. I want something satisfying without making me sluggish. And as I age, I was looking for easy ways to boost my protein.
Humans start losing muscle, at least 3 to 5 percent of our muscle mass per decade, after age 30 or so (exercise slows this). The process known as anabolic resistance means our cells stop responding as well to signals to build more muscle.
I assumed eggs, dairy or meat would be ideal, even necessary. But the search led me to protein powder, because – let’s be honest – its convenience is unmatched, and it’s often cheaper than any animal protein.
So I set about combining a simple, affordable and delicious (or, in this case, almost tasteless) protein powder. I didn’t love pea protein on its own. Soy wasn’t my wife’s favorite. Hemp was great but pricey.
I finally settled on an ancient combination: rice and beans (or, rather yellow pea and brown rice powder). The mild taste was undetectable in the shake. The proteins were nourishing, digestible and dealt a full hand of amino acids. The total cost was cents per scoop.
But I had another realization: I don’t really need it.
I’m optimizing something that is already close to optimal: a pretty healthy, tasty diet I enjoy that delivers enough protein without me even thinking about it.
Most of what people expect from proteins have nothing to do with amino acids. It’s from working out and eating well. The most “complete” protein is whatever helps make that possible.