Vegans who get enough protein in their diets usually still lack vital amino acids, new research shows.
While most of the vegans studied โate an adequate amount of total daily proteinโ, according to a team of nutritionists based at Massey University in New Zealand, โa significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucineโ.
They analysed detailed, four-day food diaries kept by 193 long-term vegans living in New Zealand, using information from the United States Department of Agriculture and the New Zealand FoodFiles database to calculate participantsโ intake of different amino acids from the different foods they ate.
About three quarters of participants met daily total protein requirements. Only about half of them met daily requirements for lysine and leucine, though.
