By Art Zemach, MD
You’ve probably heard a lot about complete and incomplete proteins. You may have heard statements like “that protein isn’t very good, because it isn’t complete,” or “vegetarians need to combine grains and legumes in order to get a complete protein.”
Let’s talk about what it means to be a “complete protein.”
Complete Proteins
Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll say there are nine essential and nine non-essential amino acids. The essential amino acids are called “essential” because the body cannot make them from other amino acids. The only way to get them is from your diet.
Those nine essential amino acids have to be present in certain proportions relative to each other in order for your body to use them effectively. Proteins that have all those essential amino acids in just the right amounts are called complete proteins.
Very few proteins are entirely complete, or entirely incomplete. To paraphrase George Orwell, “some proteins are more complete than others.”
Rice, for example, is low in some of the essential amino acids, so its protein is only partially complete. Beans are also low in some of the essential amino acids, but not the same ones as rice. So when you have rice and beans in the same meal, you’re still getting a partially complete protein, but one that is more complete than either rice or beans alone.
Just to be clear, the portion of a protein that is not complete isn’t harmful to you, it just isn’t useful to your body for rebuilding muscle. Your body will burn the incomplete parts as fuel, or store them as energy.
For Tailwind Rebuild, we take an organic rice protein, and supplement it with the amino acids it needs to become perfectly complete. This perfectly complete protein is then used effectively to rebuild your muscles after exercise.
Protein in Recovery Drinks
You may have noticed that many sports drinks that contain protein conform to a certain carbohydrate-to-protein ratio. They may have a 4:1 ratio, or a 3:1 or a 5:1 ratio. This ratio is based on calories. For example, a sports drink with a 4:1 ratio that contains 100 calories of carbohydrate will contain 25 calories of protein.
A 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate-to-protein is probably ideal if you are intending that protein to be used as fuel. In that case, adding protein to your sports drink is a way to add more calories, without adding more carbohydrate. If that’s your goal, that’s fine, but the reason for adding protein to our recovery drink is to rebuild muscle.
Tailwind Rebuild has a roughly 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate-to-protein, but that has nothing to do with our method for determining how much protein to use. What matters is the quality of the protein, and how much of it is complete. Only complete proteins are used to rebuild your muscles.
Another reason to care about the completeness of protein in your sports drink is that the nitrogen fraction of any incomplete protein must be processed as urea by your kidneys. Long, hard workouts can stress your kidneys, and that’s not a good time to increase their workload.
For the protein in Tailwind Rebuild, we start with an organic rice protein. We chose rice because allergies and intolerances to rice protein are extremely rare. Then we add individual amino acids until the protein is perfectly complete. What you end up with is 2x as much complete protein as chocolate milk, and nearly 3x as much as many other recovery drinks.
As an added bonus, the amino acids in Tailwind Rebuild stimulate the release of insulin, which improves the replenishment of glycogen and the restoration of energy after exercise.
Why does there need to be 39g of sugar in each packet? I like most people would like to cut back on my sugar intake.
Hi Andrew, that’s a great question. The reason why we have 39g of sugar is to replenish your glycogen stores. This is an important part of recovery that is often overlooked. In the first 30-60 minutes post activity your glycogen stores are depleted and you can take advantage of the insulin response to drive more glucose (sugar) into your cells. Amino acids also help and are a part of Tailwind Rebuild. We’ll have a blog post later this week to dive a bit deeper on this aspect of recovery so stay tuned.
Hi. Can one use the Rebuild during a 100miler race? Was thinking of using it at halfway or just after. Prefer the vanilla flavoured one to the chocolate but both have a great taste.
Hi Fernando, Tailwind Rebuild is designed for recovery; however, there are some customers who are using it for longer events with great success. Although we typically dissuade folks from taking protein during their event (due to a high correlation with GI distress), Rebuild’s complete protein profile is comprised primarily of amino acids which don’t require digestion. As a result, it tends to be easier on the stomach. That being said, we always recommend experimenting with it first to see how your body responds. Also, be sure to take into consideration the calorie content. Rebuild contains more calories per serving so you’ll want to adjust accordingly based on your target calorie intake/hour.
The information you have here on complete protein does not appear to be accurate based on the most recent science? Protein is stored in the liver (90g approx for an average person) and if you eat a balanced diet whether omnivore or just plant based you will get all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantities. Our body is evolved to use the liver stores of protein to metabolise the correct mix of amino acids to repair and recover the body. So taking a complete protein is entirely unnecessary assuming you eat a balanced diet of sufficient calories each day.
Hi Ben,
Liver cells are not warehouses for storing protein, nor is any other cell in your body. It can be confusing because cells do contain proteins which can be broken down into amino acids during fasting or starvation. This process is called autophagy, and it’s an important part of how cells keep themselves healthy. However, breaking down your own proteins when food is scarce is not really not the same thing as storing protein. The liver does store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen, but it doesn’t store protein.
Most proteins in your diet contain some complete protein. If this wasn’t true, we’d all be in trouble. For example, whey protein isolate is about 24% complete, and soy protein is about 30% complete. If you eat enough of either of those proteins, you’ll get enough complete protein. The portion that isn’t complete isn’t wasted, it’s burned as energy or stored as fuel, but only the complete portion can be used to rebuild your muscles.
What’s different about Tailwind Rebuild is that the essential amino acid portion of its protein is perfectly complete. It’s very efficient. You would need to eat about 30 grams of whey protein isolate to get the same muscle-building efficacy found in 10 grams (one serving) of Tailwind Rebuild.
The purpose of Tailwind Rebuild is to give your body everything it needs to rebuild muscle and replenish glycogen immediately after your workout. That way you’ll feel better sooner, and be more ready for your next workout.
– Art Zemach, M.D., Director of Research and Development