Hemp or Plant Protein?

I use hemp once and a while in a post workout shake. Very rarely though. Protein supplementation is over rated anyway IMO.

Seems to work for ya huh? Well thanks.

You can't really judge if a protein supp is working well or not . All you are going to get is anecdotal statements unfortunately.

As a raw vegan that's what I use very occasionally.

Edited by ipull400watts 2010-05-31 9:37 PM

So as a vegan do you stick to beans and nuts/seeds for your protein? 

I do very few beans and nuts though. Maybe a tablespoon of natty peanut butter during breakfast is about it, two once in a while. I eat sprouted beans occasionally and would like to do that myself sometime. I recently sprouted some buckwheat and that tastes really fantastic, it has a good nutty flavor.

Percentage wise, I'm usually under 10% for the day, 15% max for protein. Very low for an endurance athlete.

As a almost completely raw vegan, there is a theory that raw food's enzymes have not been destroyed by cooking. Well that's not the theory. The theory is that in essence I am getting protein in the form of the amino acids from the enzymes I am eating. When you eat grain for example, you break that protein down, so I am simply skipping that step.

There is very little research or credible information out there on that though, since food has almost always been studied in the cooked state unfortunately.

I often use a hemp protein powder supplement- more for it's omega 3 factors and a variation to meat and whey/soy based powders. I am a meat eater, but see the nutritional value offered in a hemp protein vs. soy or other option. Vegetable based proteins will have a lowered biological value- meaning that a comparable amount of grams of protein will be absorbed and used differently compared to the same grams of animal protein. But still a valuable option. Omega 3/6 ratios are an important factor we are finding out.

The hemp sounds interesting.

I'm also vegan, not raw. My workouts are not longer than 2h(biking) yet, so I don't use any protein on the go.

However, I agree with 'energy70Mgirl' in their inclusion of Omegas into the equation.

In my opinion, go with the one that tastes best, livvil21.

Here is my quick and dirty review of three types of plant protein.  You couldn't pay me to eat isolated soy protein, so no review for that one.

Life's Basics Plant Protein (mix, mainly pea protein): 
Pro: Good protein content
Cons: Hard to mix, scoop sizes are HUGE
Taste: Weird.  Like a very funky vanilla birthday cake with even funkier icing.  I honestly don't hate the taste but this is one of the few things that has activated my gag reflex (I think because it's chalky).  I can't bring myself to finish my canister.

NutriBiotic Rice Protein
Pro: Good protein content
Cons: slightly funky smell which kind of affects the taste, but it's successfully used in cooking
Taste:  Okay - because of the smell I tend to use it in baking (pancakes) or oatmeal

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein
Pro: Omega3, complete protein source, hemp is awesome
Cons: Skip the flavored varieties, at 9g protein per serving you're going to get more protein from plenty of other things that aren't so expensive.  Choose HempPro 50 or 70.  This is a slower digesting protein, if that matters to you.
Taste:  It's kind of like sand and tastes very earthy, so it takes some getting used to.  If I mask it in a smoothie with a bunch of fruit then it's fine.


Edited by DMW 2010-06-20 9:38 AM

I use hemp protein powder in post (long) workout smoothies. I enjoy it, but like DMW said you gotta get the right ratio of "other stuff" so the taste is not too overpowering.