PDCAAS value of protein sources

PDCAAS value of protein sources

The PDCAAS value of protein species

Protein is known to be the building material from which the body can create its own cells. Muscle cells naturally also belong to these cells. As a result, you have to eat a high protein diet if you want to build muscle mass as quickly as possible. As with all things in life, the same applies here that it is not just the quantity that matters, but above all the quality. For this reason, several methods for determining the quality of proteins have become established over the years. The best known among them relate to the biological value or the Biological value (BW) (See explanation below) and the so-called PDCAAS value.

What is the PDCAAS value?

The PDCAAS value is a quality specification that, in contrast to many other evaluation specifications, is even recognized as permissible by the WHO (World Health Organization), the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and the American FDA (Food and Drug Administration). The guiding principle of the PDCAAS scoring system was to find the best possible protein sources for malnourished children.

The abbreviation PDCAAS stands for Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score. The decisive factor for this score or value is on the one hand the actual amino acid content of a protein source in relation to the human amino acid requirement and on the other hand the digestibility of the amino acids contained. What seems to make sense at first sight, has to be put into perspective with regard to hard training athletes who are concerned with building muscle quickly and sustainably.

The reason for said relativization is simply that the PDCAAS value, according to its intended purpose, is based on the needs and digestion of young children aged two to five years, which is why it is based on the protein quality requirements of an adult and above especially of an ambitious athlete is only of limited significance.

Regardless of this, the PDCAAS value decreases with every essential amino acid that is completely absent from a protein source or only occurs in small amounts, regardless of the relevance of this amino acid for building and maintaining impressive muscle mass. In addition, in addition to essential amino acids, non-essential and semi-essential amino acids can also have an effect on muscle growth, but are still not taken into account in the PDCAAS value.

The PDCAAS value of protein sources

A PDCAAS of 1 is the highest and 0 is the lowest. The table shows the evaluation of selected foods.

Protein PDCAAS
Egg white 1,00
Whey (whey or whey protein) 1,00
Casein (milk protein) 1,00
Sojaprotein 1,00
Mycoprotein (vegetable) 0,99
Beef (beef protein) 0,92
Chickpeas 0,78
fruit 0,76
black beans 0,75
vegetables 0,73
other legumes 0,70
Cereals and derivatives 0,59
peanuts 0,52
full grain 0,42

What is meant by the biological value of proteins?

The biological value relates to the nitrogen absorption rate and the nitrogen retention rate, i.e. to a certain extent the breakdown and reconstruction of proteins. The decisive factor for the value is how high the nitrogen retention of consumed proteins is and how much endogenous protein the body can accumulate from the retained nitrogen. Put simply, one could say that the muscle-building effect of a protein increases with its biological value.

The only problem is that when it comes to biological value, certain crucial points are completely ignored. For example, the biological value says nothing about the actual digestibility or absorption properties of a protein.

It should also be borne in mind that the body not only uses retained nitrogen for muscle protein synthesis, but also uses it, for example, for the endogenous formation of so-called metabolic proteins. That being said, some of the nitrogen is also simply absorbed by the liver. As a result, not all proteins consumed are converted directly into muscle protein or muscle mass, without exception.

Conclusion

As you can see, one cannot say per se that the PDCAAS value or at least the biological value gives more information about the actual quality of a protein. With regard to pure muscle building, you should still clearly focus on the biological value.

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