Plant vs Animal Protein Sources: Evaluating Bioavailability and Cardiovascular Health Outcomes

Abstract

The nutrition debate surrounding plant-based and animal-based proteins has gone beyond simple nutritional sufficiency to one focused on improving long-term metabolic health and preventing disease. This review aims to compare the structural profiles, amino acid composition, and digestion kinetics of plant and animal proteins. Animal proteins typically have complete profiles of essential amino acids and high bioavailability. Plant proteins, on the other hand, are frequently found to be deficient in specific essential amino acids and contain anti-nutritional factors which are inhibitory to enzyme cleavage.

However, prospective cohort studies and clinical trials repeatedly show that replacing animal proteins with plant proteins decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), improves lipid profiles and increases insulin sensitivity. This paper summarizes the biochemical mechanisms responsible for these observations, and discusses the interaction of different matrix components, including dietary fibre, phytosterols, saturated fatty acids and heme iron, with the gut microbiota and vascular endothelium, and their effect on cardiovascular outcomes.