Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein , 16- Ounce

128 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

Nutrition considerations if depend on large amounts of hemp, April 12, 2011

Despite claims to the contrary, hemp protein is not a complete protein. It is very weak in lysine, and doesn’t have enough leucine and tryptophan. Because of this, if you eat it in large quantities, especially in a vegetarian diet, it cannot count gram for gram. That is not to say it is not a very positive element of a well balanced diet in reasonable diet proportions or when complementary proteins balance the weaknesses. One tip: Protein from almonds and almond milk are also just as incomplete in lysine.

Hemp seed protein has all essential amino acids – just not in the optimal proportions. You’d be hard pressed to find any protein that was nearly devoid of even one of them (ok, gelatin is a rare contender). … it is good to separate the hype in the marketing of nutritional supplements and then to enjoy it for what it offers

According to the amino acid data Nutiva, this manufacturer of this natural hemp 50% protein powder, provides on THEIR website – put in terms of proportions of each of the essential amino acids per actual gram of the hemp protein, this is NOT complete protein by definition.

The standard “complete protein” definition you can find on Wikipedia defined, or on the Self (Nutrition) site is, in mg per gram overall protein:

Tryptophan…………….7
Threonine…………….27
Isoleucine……………25
Leucine………………55
Lysine……………….51
Methionine+Cystine…….25
Phenylalanine+Tyrosine…47
Valine……………….32
Histidine…………….18

Hemp: Lysine is only 27/51: incomplete.

If you look at the essential aa’s stated on the Nutiva website and compared them to the definition of a complete protein above you will notably find less than 55% of the complete proportion of lysine. Tryptophan and BCAA leucine are also coming up short: three of the nine essential amino acids are thus lacking vs. a “complete protein”. That gives hemp seed protein quality score of under 55 when a complete protein needs to be 100 or more. Normally protein quality is nothing to worry about since randomly several sources are combined and usually work out well. But some people seem to really push their protein intake very high for bulking up, etc., and others, usually not healthy are trying to supplement their needs to meet their numbers. In both of those cases protein quality will make or break their strategy. That is not to say they need to have complete proteins each time they eat: Only; they need to approximate optimal human essential amino acid proportions basically over a day or so.

The bioavailability of hemp protein is decent – somewhere around 80% bioavailability – typical for veggies which presents a challenge. Compared to milk, egg or chicken, for example, these score in the high 90′s for bioavailability in digestion (flavor and whether it agrees with you are different concepts). In perspective, and unfortunately, that makes hemp’s protein quality worse than the approximate 55 …

All the above said hemp can be GREAT if balanced properly in the diet! You just need to quantify what you are getting and tailor it to your needs, when you use the supplements as a major portion of your diet.

SUGGESTION: The bottom line is if you are in need of protein supplementation, be careful with counting on large amounts of hemp if you haven’t complemented the relatively “low protein quality” with other “low quality” or otherwise complementary proteins (don’t get misled by the use of the word quality … all protein is good … we are just looking to meet optimal human requirements and that is where the misnomer ‘quality’ is being applied).

To get the correct mix for optimal diet needs… it would be critical to add at some point in the day, (this works) 100g of frozen spinach and a cob of corn or its equivalent in kernels to get the additional lysine and tryptophan per serving of hemp – it would be a reasonable vegetable source if you go the vegetarian route. Alternately, adding a reasonable amount of yogurt for its protein content works fine, and if you eat fish, cod is one of the best complements to hemp as it has a lysine score of about 180 vs. hemp’s 55.

“Eat a well balanced diet”. Yogurt or whey protein in your diet will take care of that – combining it with hemp protein content 1:1; soy somewhat if you are vegan – but be careful of not overdoing it for your thyroid hormone with soy since that is controversial and certainly for people who have low thyroid hormone levels… find soy extracted with alcohol if this is the case since the hormones in soy (which many tout as ‘good’) are diminished during the alcohol extraction.

Soy is great in moderation and offers better “quality” than hemp if you look at it alone, but properly part of a balanced diet, neither is better…

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37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

Protein Supplementation, December 15, 2009

As a vegan, I want to insure adequate complete protein in my diet. Nutiva Hemp Protein-50% is exactly that–product weight divided by 2= protein weight. Nutiva is a fast way to boost protein, is a complete protein, and mixes easily, without a need for a blender and its cleanup. I have Nutiva Organc Hemp Protein-50% on subscription every month and appreciate the savings for my health.