Understand How to Fuel Your Body with the Best Protein

Whole Foods, Isolates, and Nutrition: How Do They Affect Plant Proteins?

The key to providing your body with the nutrients, such as protein, it needs to power through your workouts and feed your muscles is to look more closely at its quality rather than relying simply on quantity. While this is true for any kind of protein, it's particularly important when it comes to plant-based protein.

Whole Foods and Isolates: What's the Difference?

Nearly all plant proteins out on the market today are isolates. This includes all whey proteins. An isolate occurs when almost all -- if not all -- of the good stuff, such as fiber, minerals, healthy fats, and vitamins, are stripped away. The end result is mostly just protein. Typically, the next stage involves the addition of cheap and synthetic oxidized fiber, synthetic vitamins and essential fatty acids like Omega 3s. These are then derived from a plant that is completely different.

How to Find Whole Proteins

Search out a plant protein that contains mostly whole foods as the source of vitamins, fiber, protein, minerals and Omega 3s. Not surprisingly, there are just a few plant proteins available today that are able to meet this goal. The plant protein found in Clean Green Protein's blend of plant proteins contains about 60 percent food Lentein and 40 percent pea protein. It also has 100 percent of the fiber, micronutrients, Omega 3s, and protein that occur naturally in the whole foods lentein and pea protein.

Nutrition Matters: Looking Beyond the Label to Find the Truth

It pays to be a conscientious shopper these days by reading food labels. Did you know that doing so is only the first step in finding the best plant-based protein? Even if a particular label has all the right buzz words like "super food" and "green protein," it isn't necessarily an accurate representation of its ingredients. Here's how to tell:

Super Foods

While the phrase "Super Foods" sounds like it should be complete and nutritious, the reality is quite different. In some cases, plant proteins take the "fairy dust" approach to superfoods. In order to be able to say that their plant protein contains superfoods, these companies just dust the surface with superfood ingredients.

Some other companies adopt the "kitchen sink" method of adding superfoods. In order to demonstrate a long list of impressive ingredients, a little bit of everything is thrown in there. The problem with both of these approaches is the amounts used are simply too small to have any measurable benefits. These plant proteins are taking advantage of skillful marketing which isn't doing you any favors.

Instead, look for a plant protein that's built primarily from Super Foods. A good example is Clean Green Protein because the most nutrient-dense superfood available today, Lentein, makes up a full 60 percent of it.

Carbs, Fiber, Fats, and Protein: The Four Macros

Protein cannot build muscle alone. There have been multiple studies that have shown that Omega 3s increase muscle protein synthesis. When choosing a plant protein, look for one that has no added sugar for ample fat-burning prior to your workout. For the optimal in body composition, look for one that is a good source of both fiber and Omega 3s. Clean Green Protein contains more than 30 percent of the daily value (DV) of fiber, 51 percent of the DV of Omega 3s and 20 grams of premium plant-based protein.

Choosing a plant protein isn't enough if your desire is to fuel your body with the best. Instead, make sure any plant protein you choose meets the elements outlined above for the optimum in performance.