Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score

Nine Essential Amino Acids ☀️

Proteins, the building blocks of life, are large molecules made up of amino acids that are important for cell function, tissue structure, and body regulation. There are 20 amino acids that function as building blocks of proteins. Humans require 9 amino acids that must be obtained from diet. These 9 amino acids are called essential or indispensable👇

• Histidine: Histidine helps make a brain chemical called histamine that plays an important role in your body’s immune function, digestion, sleep and sexual function.
• Isoleucine: Isoleucine is involved with your body’s muscle metabolism, immune function, hemoglobin development and regulate energy.
• Leucine: Leucine helps your body make protein and growth hormones, grow and repair muscle tissue, heal wounds and regulate blood sugar levels.
• Lysine: Lysine is involved in the production of hormones and energy, and calcium function.
• Methionine: Methionine helps with your body’s tissue growth, metabolism and detoxification, and helps with the absorption of essential minerals, including zinc and selenium.
• Phenylalanine: Phenylalanine is needed for the production of your brain’s chemical messengers, including dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine.
• Threonine: Threonine provides structure to your skin and connective tissue, help form blood clots, aids fat metabolism.
• Tryptophan: Tryptophan helps maintain your body’s correct nitrogen balance, helps make a serotonin that regulates mood, appetite and sleep.
• Valine: Valine is involved in muscle growth, tissue regeneration and making energy.

DIAAS🥛🐔🥚🥩🥦🥬🐟💪🏻

Not all protein is of the same quality and may not offer the same nutritional or health benefits. 

DIAAS (Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score) measures protein quality by comparing a food’s digestible amino acids to age-specific requirements. 75-99% indicates good protein quality. 100% or higher represents excellent protein quality (values sometimes exceed 100%).

Once again, dairy proteins like whey score the highest using the DIAAS ranking, considered “excellent.” See Raw Milk Nutrient Content

The below data (provided by Wikipedia) provides a DIAAS per food source and a comparison with the prior PDCAAS protein score method👇

Food	PDCAAS	DIAAS for 0.5-3 yo	Limiting AA
Milk Protein Concentrate	1.00	1.18	Met + Cys
Whey Protein Isolate	1.00	1.09	Val
Soy Protein Isolate	0.98	0.898	Met + Cys
Pea Protein Concentrate	0.893	0.822	Met + Cys
Rice Protein Concentrate	0.419	0.371	Lys
Whole milk powder	1.000	1.159
Tilapia		1.00
Tuna (canned in oil)	1.00
Chicken breast	1.00	1.08	Trp
Pork		1.17
Beef	1.000	1.116
Whole milk	1.00	1.14	Met + Cys
Egg (hard boiled)	1.00	1.13	His
Egg		1.01
Chickpeas	0.74	0.83	Met + Cys
Tofu	0.70	0.97	Met + Cys
Peas	0.782	0.647
Cooked peas	0.597	0.579	Met + Cys
Soybean	1.000	0.996
Soy		0.91	Met + Cys
Soya Flour	1.00	1.05
Fava Bean		0.55	Met + Cys
Cooked kidney beans	0.648	0.588
Roasted peanuts	0.509	0.434
Almonds	0.39	0.40	Lys
Wheat	0.463	0.40-0.48
Wheat flour	0.40
Wheat bran	0.53-0.60	0.41-0.49
Barley	0.591	0.472
Rye	0.553	0.476
Triticale	0.553	0.498
Corn	0.37	0.36	Met + Cys
Corn Grain	0.473	0.424
Corn-based cereal	0.078	0.012	Lys
Rice		0.47	Lys
Cooked rice	0.616	0.595	Lys
Oats		0.57	Lys
Cooked rolled oat	0.670	0.542
Potato	0.99	1.00
Quinoa	0.677
Quinoa flour	0.79
Gelatin		0.02	Trp
Wheat/potato (30/70)		1.00
Vegetables	0.73-0.89
Tubercles	0.74-0.89
Fresh Fruits	0.64-0.76
Dried Fruits	0.48-0.66
Legumes	0.70-0.89

Related reading Examining Nutrient Bioavailability and See Carlene Starck, PhD Achieving a Protein Quality Diet

Chef James👨‍🍳 has several delicious natural food duos🥘for peak performance! See Natural Food Duos for Peak Performance.

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