What is Complete Protein?
A complete protein is a protein contains all 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) with adequate amount. FAO-WHO have defined the requirements for each EAAs for different age group. In general plant-based proteins are incomplete except for soy protein due to the fact plant-based proteins usually are lack or short of certain amino acids. Meanwhile most animal proteins are complete. FAO-WHO has been using PDCAAS, Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score, as the preferred method to determine protein quality. The higher PDCAAS, the higher protein quality with 1 as the highest. For example, casein, whey, egg and soy protein all have PDCAAS of 1. On the other side, Pea and rice proteins have a PDCAAS of 0.89 and 0.42 respectively. In order for plant-based proteins to become complete with high PDCAAS, various proteins have to be mixed together. UpNourish Complete Protein Shake uses VegiZest complete protein blend of Fava, Mung Bean, Pea and Rice proteins. VegiZest is patent pending and third-party tested as complete and fully digestible. VegiZest protein has a PDCAAS value of 1.