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Protein is made up of amino acids, and protein is considered more “complete” or “high quality” when it has all of the nine essential amino acids in roughly equal amounts. These are the amino acids the body can’t produce on its own and needs to obtain through food.⠀
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I’m not about to say that every time you eat protein it needs to be complete. With a few notable exceptions (like soy and quinoa), most plant-based sources of protein are incomplete, but that doesn’t make them useless. A lot of them can be great ways to build muscle because they have enough of the right amino acids.⠀
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What are really great for building muscle and stimulating muscle protein synthesis arebranched chain amino acids, especially leucine. Leucine is everyone’s favorite because a ton ofstudies show it’s best for stimulating muscle protein synthesis and preserving muscle during fat loss. Two to five grams is generally considered a good dose for this effect. But you’re not going to get that very easily from nuts, and here’s why.⠀
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Peanut butter isn’t a great source of protein⠀
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The amount of leucine in peanut butter is about 1.9 grams.⠀
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That’s not great if you’re eating 100 grams of peanuts, but remember that a serving is only about an ounce (28 grams). That’s one handful, or two tablespoons if you’re talking butter. Meaning that an actual serving of nuts will have well under a gram of leucine.⠀
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Granted, if you’re eating 150 grams of peanuts then you’ll hit a decent amount of leucine (and some 35 grams of protein overall), but that’s where we meet another hurdle with nut protein.⠀
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Peanuts Are Really, Really High in Fat⠀
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Want to make sure you’re getting at least two grams of leucine? Eat at least 150 grams. A hundred and fifty grams (or about one cup) of nuts has a solid 35 grams of protein, but it comes in at over eight hundred calories.⠀
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No diet plan on Earth recommends you eat eight hundred calories of nuts in a day. So considering peanut butter as a good source of protein will be useless in your diet.⠀
Nutrition 