Biochemical Controversies Regarding the Use of Vegetal Proteins in Performance Athletes

AbstractConsumption of animal proteins is increasingly contested by those who choose a vegetarian diet, but for athletes, protein quality is a key component in optimizing athletic performance. The purpose of this article is to provide a nutritional guide for the vegetarian athlete who does not have to give up nutritional preferences to achieve performance in sports, and well-informed counseling by respecting principles of biochemistry can overcome the already known deficiencies of vegetal proteins in certain amino acids. The second aim of this paper is to recommend methods to assess protein quality by consulting the recommendations of the world’s most important regulatory agency in the field of nutrition and food quality: the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In conclusion, even though vegetal proteins have a lower anabolic effect due to their low digestibility and a limited quantity of essential amino acids (especially leucine) and that amino acids of vegetal origin are more likely directed towards oxidative metabolism than towards anabolic processes, recent studies present strategies (consuming higher amounts of vegetal proteins, dietary supplements with amino acids) through which a well-planned vegetarian diet can have similar benefits to omnivorous diet regarding stimulating endogenous protein synthesis.

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TRENDS

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.10.5.619 ◽

1952 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 619-623

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

The United States ◽

World Health ◽

United States Government ◽

Food And Agriculture ◽

Equatorial Africa ◽

Food And Agriculture Organization ◽

The United Nations ◽

Health Organization ◽

Emergency Fund

IT APPEARS timely to call attention again to the work and objectives of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Particularly noteworthy is the trend to use this fund more and more in efforts to help other nations help themselves. Thus the mass attack on tuberculosis, yaws and malaria are, it is hoped, bringing those diseases into proportions where their continued control can be more effectively managed. Similarly, increasing attention is being given to the training of professional and technical personnel. The plans and long-range purpose of the UNICEF have recently been described by Maurice Pate, Executive Director of the fund: "Five years ago, in May 1947, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund received its first pledge of support, a contribution of $15,000,000 from the United States Government. A number of other pledges and contributions soon followed, and procurement of supplies was begun. By the middle of 1948, those supplies were reaching several million children. "Those early beginnings were in the minds of many of us at the recent meeting of the Fund's 26-nation Executive Board (April 22-24), for on that occasion UNICEF's aid was extended to the only remaining area of need in which it had not been operating— Africa, south of the Sahara. "In the Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa, Liberia, Togoland, the Cameroons and West Africa, UNICEF, side by side with the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, will soon be working with the governments and people on a number of child-health projects. The largest of these is to be an attack on kwashiokor, a dietary deficiency disease that affects thousands of young children in these regions.

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