Nutrients in 100 Calories of Beef

Beefiness Versus Broccoli: Making an Apples-To-Apples Comparison

Tips for Making Sense of Conflicting Nutritional Claims

Why is the earth of nutrition so total of conflicting and confusing advice?

Part of the problem is that even a simple question can be answered many different ways, giving conflicting answers.

This article is a two-for: we answer a "simple" question about protein content, and nosotros larn how to be more critical consumers of nutrition information.

Question: Which has more protein, broccoli or beef?

Plant-based eaters claim that broccoli is superior to beef for protein content. Meat-eaters have aghast. Who is right?

Answer: Information technology depends.

Information technology depends on which method you choose for your comparison, as well as on which cut of beef you choose.

Five Means to Compare Protein Content

1. Per centum of calories (calories from protein divided by total calories)
2. Calorie-matched servings (e.one thousand grams protein per 100 calories)
3. Mass-matched servings (e.g. grams of poly peptide per 100 grams)
4. Volume-matched servings (east.g. grams of protein per loving cup)
5. 'Typical' serving size (e.g. grams or protein per random serving size, not necessarily the same for the ii foods)

Which Cut of Beef?

I based my analysis on ground beef, because information technology is the about commonly consumed type of beef in North America. Within ground beef, I opted for 85% lean (on the bacteria side of the near common ground beef cuts).

Show Me the Data!

The nautical chart beneath shows my findings, with each row displaying a different method:

Unlike ways to compare poly peptide content of broccoli vs footing beef. Data from USDA.

*Amount of ground beef per cup based on this tool.**For serving size, I chose 2 cups of broccoli and 120 grams / 4 oz of beef.

And the Winner Is…

Broccoli "wins" co-ordinate to percentage of calories from protein and grams of protein per 100 calorie serving. Ground beefiness "wins" using servings of 100 grams, i cup or a 'typical' serving size .

If I had called 81% lean ground beef (the most common cut), broccoli would have 'won' by a larger margin on the calorie-based metrics. If I had chosen a leaner cutting of beef (upwards of 90% lean), beef would have won beyond the lath.

Which Method is Best?

The correct method depends on the intent of your question.

If you are wondering which food on your dinner plate has more protein, and so you should be using the portion sizes on your plate.

In virtually other cases, I recommend using calorie-based metrics (either percent of calories from protein, or calorie-matched comparing).

The Instance for Calorie-Based Comparisons

Using percent-calories or calorie-matched methods has several advantages:

1. They avoid the need to choose arbitrary serving sizes (my broccoli serving is probably much larger than yours!)
2. They are not impacted past h2o and fiber content. Foods loftier in water or fiber volition always score lower when you compare servings by weight or size. Information technology's no surprise that a loving cup of nuts has far more protein than a cup of spinach — spinach is mostly water (merely 7 calories per cup!)
3. Last but non least, these methods put the protein content in context. They tell us the nutritional contribution of protein relative to other macronutrients. If all the calories in a nutrient make upwards a pie, these methods tells us how big the protein slice is (versus the fat and carbohydrate). See image below:

Introducing the Broccolivore

It can be a useful thought exercise to take things to the extreme. How well nourished would you lot exist if all you ate were broccoli? Or just ground beefiness?

Guess what…

If all you ate were broccoli, y'all would stop upward eating more than protein than if you were a ground-beef-only carnivore!

Let'south assume yous ate 2,000 calories in either example (the national recommended daily intake averaged between adult men and women). For broccoli, this translates to 220 grams of poly peptide (20 x 11 grams per 100 calories). For ground beefiness, this ways 180 grams of protein (20 ten nine grams per 100 calories).

I'1000 not actually recommending a broccoli-only diet, I'one thousand simply pointing out that if you lot took this to the extreme, broccoli would 'win' against ground beef. This is because the broccoli'southward protein slice of the calorie pie is larger than ground beef's piece.

This may sound similar theoretical nonsense but you'd be surprised what people will exercise. All-meat diets (carnivorism) are on the rise…perhaps there will be an all-broccoli diet coming soon!

The Bottom Line

As an information consumer, you should look for communication that:

1. Provides reputable information sources.
2. Provides clear methods backside the findings.
3. Provides a rationale for the option of method (icing on the cake!).

Nutritional 'experts' should exist creating clarity not confusion. May the clearest, about rational vox win, rather than the loudest!

Future Directions

It saddens me that the public has become so disenchanted with nutritional enquiry that they are ready to throw upwards their artillery (or take already) and ignore information technology. What can we do so that nosotros don't throw out the infant with the bathwater?

A big part of my mission with Fueled by Science is to equip non-scientists to become more disquisitional consumers of health and nutrition research.

This article speaks to one small piece of the nutritional confusion puzzle — the impact that choice of methods and data sources have on your findings. There are many other pieces of the puzzle, from the circuitous underlying science, to limitations in the tools we have to study human nutrition, just those are for another time!

Learn more at Fueledbyscience.com

Limitations and Caveats

• This analysis does non take into business relationship differences in protein absorption. In general, these tend to exist lower with plant-based proteins, but not by a big plenty margin to alter the overall findings.
• This analysis does not look at the specific essential amino acids contained in broccoli versus beef. I cover this topic in my mythbuster commodity beneath on the 'abyss' of plant-based proteins.

Related Articles

• Busting the Myth of Incomplete Plant-Based Proteins — compares poly peptide quality between establish and animal proteins.
• Your Child May Non Demand as Much Protein as You Remember — shows you how to calculate your child's protein needs ( in grams and percent of calories)

Data Sources

• Data on beef consumption from: Us Section of Agriculture — for case: https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/lm_xb459.txt
• Broccoli: USDA Nutritional Database entry 11740 (Broccoli, bloom clusters, raw)
• Basis Beef: USDA Nutritional Database entry 23567 (Beef, footing, 85% lean meat / fifteen% fat, raw)

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Source: https://chanapdavis.medium.com/making-sense-of-conflicting-nutritional-claims-tips-from-a-scientist-165f89f4482e

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