Seitan comes from wheat

zki

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I'll use it as a protein however since it comes from wheat do I even need to pair it with a whole grain carb like rice, quinoa or barley etc..,
It only has 13 g carbs per serving while rice has 45g. Is it a personal choice kind of thing? I'm thinking that since its cooked in soy sauce and its a complete protein, perhaps I don't have to add anything other than vegs to it. Helpful comments? Thanks!
 
Zki, please research!!!
Example: here: https://www.mangomannutrition.com/protein-combining-fact-fiction/

The "Complete Protein theory" has been discounted by the very person who originally authored it, Frances Moore Lappé, a few years later.

I remember reading an interview with her, where she was quite exasperated that even though she tirelessly tries to inform people that it is not needed to eat "complete protein" at every meal, people only remember her first idea that you need to do it, and never her later research.

In fact, it is enough to eat all the essential amino acids within some timeframe (think it was about a week), as your body combines them itself to form the protein.
 
Just drop that whole protein combining plan. Protein combining is not valid science. All plant proteins are complete proteins. Ok, sure, some plant foods have different proportions or ratios of amino acids but its not necessary to combine different plants on purpose and certainly not in just one meal. Without really trying you will probably not only get adequate amounts of protein each day but as long as you choose healthy foods you will get adequate amounts of each amino acid, too.

Seitan can be used in almost all the same ways as tofu. You can stir fry it with vegetables or grill it and add it to a salad. Sliced seitan is popular as an alternative to lunch meats. Try putting it between two slices of bread with ailio, ketchup. lettuce and tomato. Seitan can be shaped into a loaf and turned into the main dish, serve it with baked potatoes and string beans. Or a patty or a tube to replace burgers and dogs.

I tried some Field Roast Bratwurst for the first time. I grilled it and put it on a plate with sour kraut, a side of baked beans, and sweet corn. I tried cutting in half and grilling it and putting half on a roll. I also tried it by wrapping a tortilla around it.
 
In fact, it is enough to eat all the essential amino acids within some timeframe (think it was about a week), as your body combines them itself to form the protein.

Don't be hard on Ski. The "Complete Protein Myth" has been around for decades. It has quite the headstart on the truth. Remember what Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.”

The complete protein myth has been everywhere and built houses and stuff.

The "some timeframe" you referenced in not as generous as a week. It's more like the same day. The body has no way to store proteins (or amino acids) like it has for sugars and fats. The amino acids just travel around in the bloodstream till they bump into a cell that needs them. If (or when) the amino acid concentration in the blood gets too high, then amino acids are broken down and turned into glucose or further decomposed and excreted. (1)

I do not know if the body has any kind of way of targeting one amino acid over another. I guess (/logic dictates) that the amino acids that are in the greatest supply get "decomposed" more often. the ones in great demand get utilized more often.

Also, this might be a good time to add that eating too much protein can be just as bad as eating too much sugar or fat. When the body decomposes amino acids, the byproduct is nitrogen wastes. Nitrogen wastes are toxic and the liver and kidney are tasked with scavenging them from the bloodstream and removing them from the body. Chronically eating too much protein is hard on the liver and kidneys.




(1) -https://opentextbc.ca/anatomyandphysiology/chapter/24-4-protein-metabolism/
 
Since it would be difficult to just eat seitan just by itself, put it in a salad, casserole, soup, sandwich, wrap, bowl or whatever and eat it with other healthy things and you'll likely have a balanced and delicious meal.
 
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Reminds me of when I first started making seitan- my son asked what it was exactly, and then said "so I've basically been eating bread sandwiches"
 
Reminds me of when I first started making seitan- my son asked what it was exactly, and then said "so I've basically been eating bread sandwiches"

To be more exact, if it is sliced seitan on bread its a gluten sandwich. I'm planning on having a gluten tube on a bun later.
 
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Zki, please research!!!
No, if they had researched the question already, then they wouldn't have bothered to ask here :)

I do not agree with the rest of you that you can simply abandon all thought when it comes to protein and amino acids. The "just eat healthy foods" or "just eat a balanced diet" sort of responses to these questions are unhelpful because, let's face it, the majority of the population have absolutely no idea whatsoever what that actually means.

Also, the "all vegetables contain all essential amino acids" statement is of course factually correct, but masks the fact that some of these amino acids are only found in negligible amounts in most vegetables - you have to eat legumes or products containing legumes to get significant amounts of lysine, for example, although I believe there are a few exceptions like quinoa and seitan.

A person could perfectly well be consuming just brown rice, wholewheat pasta, vegetables, fruit, maybe some oats and almond milk, and "a big salad" because that's super healthy, right? But little to no legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, peanuts and so on) because they don't like the taste, never ate that before they went vegan, and/or are afraid of gas or bloating, and then end up with a sub-optimal lysine intake.

Personally, I follow the rule that a proper meal should contain legumes of some kind, since legumes provide lysine, which is the typically limiting amino acid in vegan diets. Yes, the different amino acids don't have to be in the same meal for the body to make use of them, but if they are, then I don't have to worry about it later, and have to cook a special meal late in the day to make up for my unbalanced meals earlier.

Also, since no one else attempted to try to explain how seitan is "complete protein" while other wheat products are not:

Seitan is different from just wheat because seitan is more or less wheat protein, i.e. wheat without so much of the non-protein components. Therefore, as there is some lysine in wheat, when the protein is extracted/purified like this, the amount of lysine per volume in seitan becomes higher than the ratio of lysine per volume in, say, bread or pasta. In fact it gets high enough to qualify as "complete protein".
 
No, if they had researched the question already, then they wouldn't have bothered to ask here :)


Personally, I follow the rule that a proper meal should contain legumes of some kind, since legumes provide lysine, which is the typically limiting amino acid in vegan diets. Yes, the different amino acids don't have to be in the same meal for the body to make use of them, but if they are, then I don't have to worry about it later, and have to cook a special meal late in the day to make up for my unbalanced meals earlier.

Also, since no one else attempted to try to explain how seitan is "complete protein" while other wheat products are not:

Seitan is different from just wheat because seitan is more or less wheat protein, i.e. wheat without so much of the non-protein components. Therefore, as there is some lysine in wheat, when the protein is extracted/purified like this, the amount of lysine per volume in seitan becomes higher than the ratio of lysine per volume in, say, bread or pasta. In fact it gets high enough to qualify as "complete protein".

I also eat a lot of pulses/legumes plus seitan(for the protein intake) as lysine is a important for one's health and well being :


https://veganhealth.org/protein-part-1/
 
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