Regardless of dietary style, most people experience a shortage of protein, the main building material in the body. Plant-based proteins such as pumpkin protein can help.
What makes it different from other kinds of protein?
Choosing the right plant protein isn’t easy. For starters, you need to know the difference between protein and plant protein.
Protein is the same protein that a person consumes every day in the form of eggs, cottage cheese, meat, nuts, legumes, but specially prepared. Sometimes fermented, dried, and packaged in bags or cans with no extra fat or carbohydrates.
Protein can be animal or vegetable. It should be noted here that not all plant-based products have the necessary amino acids in their composition, which means you need to consider their amino acid profile.
The most popular proteins on the market are rice protein, wheat protein, hemp protein, soy protein, from chia seeds and sunflower seeds, pumpkin protein, pea protein, cedar protein, almond protein, and peanut protein. These can be consumed as a complete source of protein without supplementing with animal protein.
It is not easy for the human body to get the necessary amount of protein from plant products. For example, the daily portion for an adult is about 80-100 g, and in order to get even 25 g of nuts, it is necessary to eat at least 100 g, which is 600 kcal and 50 g of fat. This is why protein in the form of concentrated powder was created.
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Read more about pumpkin protein
In terms of protein content, pumpkin protein can be compared to lamb, lentils and cashews — 25 g per 100 g of product. If you compare it to other vegetable proteins, it has a protein content of 66% and 18 amino acids. As for the essential amino acids, it is the leader in tryptophan, aspargin, and glycine. Pumpkin protein ranks second in threonine content (after hemp protein), valine (after sunflower protein), methionine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, lysine, histidine. In terms of serine, proline, tyrosine, and arginine content it ranks second after cedar.
Pumpkin protein also contains fat-soluble vitamins A, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, E and K. Of the water-soluble ones, this product contains C, B1, B2, B3 (PP), B4, B5, B6 and B9. The mineral composition is rich in magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and manganese.
Also pumpkin protein contains vegetable sterols that reduce «bad» cholesterol, provides a «thermal» effect, that is, during digestion it creates heat in the body.
By the way, it tastes the best. The daily recommended dose of pumpkin protein is about 1 tbsp. or 15-25 g.
The product is very quickly digested. Its nutritional value: 66 g of protein, 11.48 g of carbohydrates and 6.9 g of fat. The caloric value is 394.
How is it extracted and made?
Pumpkin protein is the dried, ground, peeled seeds. They are first pressed, then the oil is removed from them. The resulting cake is dried and ground. But this is not enough — from the raw material should be obtained and easily digestible protein, and for this purpose it is necessary to destroy the cells.
Until recently, this was done with alkaline solutions, but for foodstuffs it is harmful. Today, raw materials are fermented with microorganisms that break down the cell structure and reduce the amount of carbohydrates.
After successive stages of fermentation, washing and sedimentation, plant protein is obtained. Its consistency is characterized by fine grinding (particles less than 100 microns), which gives high solubility and almost complete absorption.
It is a native vegetable protein, it contains 10 % of fiber and amino acids. Protein differs from fiber in terms of protein content, and from flour in terms of temperature of production.
Benefits and harms
Benefits of plant protein:
- Making up for protein deficiencies in the body;
- stabilization of the gastrointestinal tract;
- elimination of toxins;
- strengthens the immune system;
- Acceleration of metabolism and help in losing weight;
- normalization of blood sugar levels;
- Fast digestion — 99%, without overloading the body;
- preservation of muscle tissue volume on a «drying out» period of active physical activity;
- low allergenicity;
- does not cause flatulence;
- environmental friendliness in production;
- requires fewer natural resources than dairy whey and casein.
What are the contraindications and disadvantages of pumpkin protein?
Currently, there is no data to find serious side effects after consuming pumpkin protein. Of the disadvantages, we can highlight only possible individual intolerance and allergic reactions.