Vegetarian Diet

Vegetarian Diet
Name
Institution
Vegetarian Diet
Proteins are essential for bodybuilding activities such as maintenance of muscle and bone mass. They also strengthen the immune system and preventing fatigue. Most people assume that it is hard to obtain proteins from plant foods. However, it is very easy to meet the recommended daily allowance of proteins in a vegan diet especially when they consume foods high in lysine such as legumes, amaranth and pumpkin seeds among others (Venderley & Campbell, 2006). More so, almost all vegetables, grains, nuts beans and seeds contain a substantial amount of proteins. Plant protein sources such as soya beans, spinach, and some grains are considered as high-quality proteins since they have a significant amount of essential amino acids. Other plants sources may be deficient in one or two essential amino acids. For example, grains have low amounts of lysine while legumes are high on methionine. Therefore taking a variety of plant protein sources would help meet the recommended daily allowance as restoring the deficient amino acid in plant protein source will give a response rate that is equivalent to that of animal protein.
Digestion of proteins begins in the stomach where an enzyme known as pepsin is responsible their breakdown. The enzyme breaks the peptide bond that holds the protein molecule into polypeptides. These polypeptides then move to the ileum where they are broken down by the pancreatic enzyme into smaller units known as peptides (Sherwood, 2015).

The enzymes continue breaking down the peptides into amino acids, which are absorbed into the bloodstream. Plant protein sources are different from those of animals and hence there are some differences in their absorption. This is because animal proteins are the same as proteins that are found in the body and therefore they are absorbed more easily as compared to plants. However, when plant proteins have the same amount of amino acids, they can be absorbed almost similar to animal-based proteins. Total vegans may have a slightly higher protein needs since plant sources are absorbed a bit differently from animal proteins.
References
Sherwood, L. (2015). Human physiology: from cells to systems. Cengage learning.
Venderley, A. M., & Campbell, W. W. (2006). Vegetarian diets. Sports Medicine, 36(4),
293-305.