What is meant by complete and incomplete when talking about amino acids?
1 Answer
Jan 21, 2018
This centres around the essential amino acids, as explained below.
Explanation:
There are 20 amino acids that the body uses to build proteins. Of these, 9 cannot be made by the body, and must be present in one's diet. These are known as the "essential" amino acids.
A food which contains proteins that has all 9 essential amino acids is said to be a complete protein. If any of the essential acids are missing, the proteins in the food are incomplete.
To my knowledge, all animal-based proteins are complete, but no plant-based proteins are. Therefore, a person on a vegetarian diet must be careful to choice a variety of foods to ensure they get all the essential amino acids.
