17 Reasons to Devour a Vegan Protein Shake

Article Updated 29th February 2020

 

When was the last time you got stuck into a quality vegan protein powder? This involves tearing off the lid, scooping out more powder than you need and hooking-in with a spoon, mixed with your favourite milk alternative of course.

 

Fortunately, for vegans and plant-based enthusiasts, there has been decades of innovative research and development with plant protein powders as a result of some healthy industry competition.

 

This has led to constant and consistent improvements in the taste, texture and quality of plant-based protein powders. And at this point, it looks like they're just going to keep on getting better and better.

 

Some vegan protein shakes are so delicious that they can actually be enjoyed as a dessert. And many do just that! With flavours like salted caramel, choc coconut and vanilla chai that deliver the smooth consistency of velvet, it can be hard not to overdo your serving size.

 

 

So why are there 17 reasons to devour a vegan protein shake? Sounds a bit gimmicky, right? We could probably list thousands of reasons to hook into a quality vegan protein shake; if we got creative and had some serious time on our hands that is.

 

But you've got to admit, 17 is an interesting number—completely odd and intriguing, to say the least. So let's see what reasons we can dig up on vegan protein powders.

 

#1: Essential Amino Acids

Just the essential amino acids alone that are found in quality vegan shakes have tonnes of vital uses in the body.

 

Without going into a crazy amount of detail, lets just say that there are nine essential amino acids (EAAs) that the body cannot synthesize and therefore needs to obtain from the diet or supplements.

 

In this case, vegan protein powder does in fact contain all nine EAAs, three of which are branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). These amino acids are required for a range of structural and physiological processes in the body, from forming the structure of bones to providing building blocks to create neurotransmitters in the brain, which shape our mood and influence our experiences.

 

And, of course, EAAs are required to support the adaptation of muscle tissue to exercise and to maintain a healthy amount of muscle mass.

 

 

Are Vegan Protein Shakes Healthy?

If you are not eating enough protein to meet your needs, then yes. However, even if you are consuming enough protein to meet your needs, and your gut is not working too well, then yes, an organic vegan protein powder can be classed as healthy, as it will provide an easily digestible source of protein.

 

And this is one of the great benefits of protein powders. They're convenient, low calorie and can make it easy to meet your protein needs, particularly if these needs are quite high. Let's take a bodybuilder, for instance, who weighs 100kg and sticks to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram (higher end of protein requirement).

 

That's a solid 200 grams of protein per day. Two scoops of quality protein can provide close to a quarter of this requirement, making it easy to make up the remaining 150 grams through whole foods sources from three meals. And the it helps to lessen the load on the digestive system in the process.

 

If you're a purist, you might like to go for protein that is pure, without even a single natural sweetener or flavour. This will still provide all the quality nutrition, just with less additives.

 

 

#2 & 3: Improved Satiety & Low Calorie

 Essential amino acids are incredibly important nutrients for the human body. Even in developed countries, where protein-rich food is cheap and plentiful, many people still do not eat enough to support optimal health.

 

And this is likely due in part to the fact that starch, sugar and fat-rich foods often taste better and are cheaper. However, research is indicating that protein rich foods lead to better satiety than a carbohydrate-based meal.

 

A vegan protein shake typically delivers quality bioavailable protein with minimal calories too, which can be hard to find on a vegan diet. This means an awesome payload of protein, without bloating the daily calorie intake. 

 

Let’s take EHP Labs Blessed Protein as an example, which is based on pea protein. The humble pea has been downtrodden over the years, seen by many as inferior to its dairy-based relative, whey protein.  

 

Pea protein was believed to contain much lower levels of essential amino acids, and in a poorer balance as well, compared to whey protein. All is not lost though, vegan friends, as research is starting to emerge in fast to support the use of raw vegan protein powder, whether it be a pea or rice-based protein powder.

 

Check out this research article below if you've got some time up your sleeve. It’s quite heavy and technical in parts, but you're sure to get something out of it. Or even just check out the summary (abstract) in the image below.

According to this piece of research, pea protein was equally effective as whey protein at supporting adaptation to exercise, which, in this case was improved muscle thickness.

 

#4: Enhanced Muscle Recovery

In fact, the pea protein out-performed whey protein by 4.6%! However, this small difference was statistically insignificant. Therefore, one could make a case that pea protein is extremely effective at supporting muscular adaptation to resistance exercise.

And remember, the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, who published this research paper, are one of the most prestigious and well-respected medical sports journals in the world.

 

They really do publish only quality research that they first review extensively and exhaustively.

 

EHP Labs Blessed Protein delivers raw and activated pea protein isolate, containing 81% protein, which is spectacular for a flavoured vegan protein.

 

Once flavours are added to a plain protein powder, the protein content drops as a  percentage, just via the process of dilution.

 

And this all very normal and fine, we just have to take a little more powder in order to get the protein we need. Anyway, it's small price to pay to have a finished product that is devour-worthy. EHP Labs Blessed Protein is a raw vegan protein shake at its best.

#5: Up to 90% Protein!

Vegan protein powders can be as high as 90% protein content. Not just quality, but quantity too.

 

This makes it easy to get the protein you need without excessively large serving sizes that are heavy and leave you feeling bloated.

 

#6: Typically All-Natural

EHP Labs Blessed Protein contains all natural sweeteners, flavours and even some dietary fibre sources, which are great for digestive health and to keep us fuller for longer. And let's face it, not everyone gets enough dietary fibre these days.

 

Most organic vegan protein powders are all-natural, containing no artificial sweeteners, flavours or other chemical additives. Though to be sure you should always check the ingredients listing, as there are still a few brands using artificial sweeteners and flavours.

 

#7: Gourmet Flavours

Vegan protein powders come in a range of awesome flavours these days. With Choc Coconut, Vanilla Chai and Salted Caramel, EHP Labs have taken gourmet to the next level of all-vegan goodness.

 

This might be due, in part, to the fact that plant-based protein powders are harder to make taste good, compared to whey protein. So R&D teams need to go full gourmet in order to cover up all the vegetable notes in the finished product.

 

 

Can vegan protein powder help you lose weight?

Vegan protein powders can be used as a part of a healthy fat loss or weight management program. One of the most important parts of a weight loss program is what happens when you finish.

 

Unfortunately, many people put in the hard yards to get in shape, yet don’t manage to keep the weight off once they finish. This is often due to the fact that old lifestyle and eating habits creep back in.

 

Integrating some aspects of the weight loss program into everyday life helps with this.And this should ideally be considered during the weight loss program, or ideally before even beginning it. After all, we want to keep healthy and in-shape for life, right?

 

#8: Reduce Rebound Weight Gain

Research indicates that meal replacements and high protein diets are associated with less rebound weight gain, which is the weight put back on after a weight loss program is completed. This is great news for vegan protein. Check out the abstract below for more information, or click on it for the entire article.

 

Rule 1 Plant Protein can be used to replace one meal per day, as it contains plenty of quality protein derived from pea, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and watermelon seed. It's naturally sweetened and flavoured and comes in choc fudge and vanilla cream.

 

When to Take Vegan Protein Shakes? - #9, 10 & 11

That's the beauty of vegan protein powder that lends itself to being devoured—they are versatile. Vegan protein powder may be taken after exercise to assist with recovery. It can also be used to fill in the gaps between major meals, like morning tea and afternoon tea.

 

#12: Enhance a Low-Protein Meal

 It's easy to create a low protein meal without meaning it. And this isn't always an issue, unless you've got quite a large daily protein requirement figure that you need to hit.

 

Sure, there may be a mouth-watering satay sauce on top of the wild rice and a colourful mix of organic vegetables. But it may not deliver much in the way of quality protein.

 

 

These meals are great to top off with a 1/2 or 3/4 serve of quality vegan protein.

 

Let’s face it, a lot of vegan food is not high protein. And that’s okay. Protein is not the only nutrient that we need to stay healthy.

 

It just means we have to take a little more consideration in covering our needs, just as we would do with other important nutrients that are limited on a vegan diet, such as Vitamin B12, Zinc and Iron.

 

All diet's have limitations, and strengths too. It's a good idea to be aware of these, particularly when adhering to a particular set of dietary principles for decades of your life at a time. This way we can better accommodate for them.

 

As you can probably imagine, sticking to a diet for decades at a time, or a life-time, will have a definite nutritional and health-related impact. 

 

#13: Rich in Fibre

Tony Sfeir's Designer Physique Pea Protein is a great product that can be used any time of the day. This company offers a 100% Belgium-sourced pea protein, and never use cheaper Chinese varieties of pea protein.

 

Tony Sfeir's is all natural and has a nice smooth texture, just like any high quality vegan protein powder should. It delivers a small amount of fibre, which is another benefit of plant proteins.

The beauty of Designer Physique Pea Protein is that IT COMES IN BUCKETS!

 

That’s right, if you’re a vegan protein powder enthusiast, you can grab a 3 kilogram bucket and scoop away until your heart’s content.

 

Can Vegan Shakes cause Weight Gain?

This question is best tackled with an example: Jenny eats roughly the same amount of calories as she expends, and is therefore maintaining body weight.

 

However, she is not eating quite enough protein for her needs. So, if Jenny were to increase her quality protein intake by 30 grams per day, and decrease her carbohydrate intake by 30 grams daily, technically she is still consuming the same amount of calories per day and maintaining body-weight, right?

 

However, much of this protein will be used for tissue maintenance and anabolism and will not be used for energy, like the 30 grams of carbohydrates were. Therefore, she may find that over time, she starts to lose a small amount of body fat and gain lean mass.

#14 & 15: Protein is Thermogenic and Triggers Protein Synthesis

This eventual weight loss happens because protein is more thermogenic than fat or carbohydrates and is not as readily used for energy.

 

Not only do we use some of the protein calories for the structure of muscle and other important tissues, but the process of rebuilding these tissues is also quite energy-demanding, which helps to create a calorie deficit.

 

#16: Highly Unlikely to Lead to Fat Gain

Generally speaking, vegan protein powders do not contribute to weight gain. Though, if someone has not been eating enough protein for years, they may gain some initial weight in the form of muscle mass and other important tissues. This is called lean body mass, and an increase is a very good thing!

 

Unless you are already consuming a lot more protein and calories than you need, vegan protein powder will not contribute to fat gain.

 

Royal Hemp Protein Powder is a new product delivering quality nutrition from the all-powerful hemp seed. This product is more of a nutrient extravaganza than a straight-out protein powder.

 

Hemp protein is loaded with beneficial omega 3 and 6, and contains some other hard-to-find fatty acids, like GLA and CLA. These are great for keeping the inflammatory pathways under control and keeping us lean and mean, or ideally, lean and emotionally well-balanced.

 

#17: Minerals and Fatty Acids

Vegan Protein powders can contain quite a broad range of helpful minerals, fatty acids and fibre, which makes them supportive of general health.

 

This mineral content can be an absolute boon, especially given that these minerals typically include zinc and iron, which can be limited on a vegan diet.

 

And most westerners don't get enough Omega 3 fatty acids in their diet, which does make hemp seed protein an attractive proposition indeed.

 

Conclusion

Though you can probably come up with more than seventeen reasons to enjoy regular vegan protein shakes, this article certainly offers a solid start to understanding the validity of vegan protein powders for human health.

 

Does the top of your fridge have tower of vegan protein containers that rocks back and forth perilously every time you open and close the fridge?

 

If not, why not?

 

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