For example…The best sources of dietary protein are whole eggs at 47% AAU followed by meat, poultry, and fish, at 32% AAU. Protein powders are said to be good for building muscle, but most of those only have 17% AAU, that means 83% of the protein is being turned into sugars.
AAU = amino acid utilization
Im very much so interested in this as well
Hey @BlueDuck! I presume you’re referring to the nitrogen protein utilization method? This method of determining protein quality has it’s limitations, residing mainly in the difficulty of precisely determining nitrogen losses and miscellaneous nitrogen losses. Additionally, the experiments which NPU was based on (along with many other markers) were performed on rats, and the rat amino acid requirement pattern is not identical to that of humans.
Although not without it’s own shortfalls, the present day accepted form of measuring protein quality is the protein digestability-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS). See our Guide to Protein Quality, Digestion, and Absorption article here. This method takes into account the profile of indispensable amino acids of the protein in question, as well as its digestibility in humans. Scores are from 0.1 to 1.0, with 1.0 being a high-quality protein.
The protein in Huel Powder and Ready-to-drink is mainly provided by pea and brown rice protein, with additional from oats and flaxseed. The pea protein used in Huel has a PDCAAS of 0.82 and the rice protein 0.47. Combined, they have a perfect score of 1.0, more than enough to ensure all amino acids are suplied and that the protein in Huel has high bioavailability.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, I am about a month into my Huel regime and your info is quite interesting, however I am a
little set back that you did not provide an AAU number regardless of your translations of it’s usefulness.
Not having a number is making me think Huels numbers are in the protein powder range, that does not put me off HUEL, liking the vanilla but makes me wonder if I need to supplement.
+1, an aau would be nice
At the risk of being unpopular, this whole worry over getting enough protein is really an example of “majoring in minor things”. From all the reading and research I’ve been doing over the last several months, I’ve come to the conclusion that most people’s concerns over protein are overblown. A person would really have to go out of their way to give themselves an isolated protein deficiency. You occasionally hear about these in babies who are being fed a very limited raw vegan diet by the parents. (Because growing kids have a higher protein need relative to their mass.)
But in a fully grown human, this is not really an issue. We know for a fact that a human can survive on a diet of only white potatoes for extended periods of time and be just fine. Obese patients under the care of a doctor can do water/broth fasting for a few months and not suffer muscle loss. The body readily conserves the lean tissue during these fasts. (not that I am advocating this. I am merely pointing out an example to make a point.) In essence, from what I have read, a human being will get all the necessary protein they need from almost any diet, so long as they get enough food to not starve. Yes, a person who is truly starving will have a protein deficiency, along with a multitude of other nutrient deficiencies. (An obese person doing a prolonged fast is not technically starving since they have excess stored body fat to provide all necessary energy during the fast.) But so long as you get enough total food to eat, the macronutrients will go along for the ride.
In this country, our biggest dietary problems are excess. We eat too much. We get too much protein. We get too much sugar. We get too much saturated fat. The only true nutritional deficiency that is widespread in America is a fiber deficiency.
Watch this video with an open mind and see if maybe anything he says may be true. I found this video to be very interesting.
I think we value different things
As someone who works out at the gym often, I wanna get strong 
so I need that protein, so i’m interested in the AAU number
I exercise as well. At home. I’ve been getting stronger over the last year. I never worry about my protein intake. I suppose the World’s Strongest Man or pro body builders would need that kind of analytical data. But for 99% of men/women strength training at the gym, counting protein or timing of protein intake is not necessary. A proper strength training program is really the driving force behind most muscle growth. It’s the job of the elite 1% strength athletes to convince the other 99% of us that we need to supplement with protein, since they endorse these products. Body building websites would be boring if they told people honest, common sense information about strength training. Most of their material is advertising disguised as science.
But you do you. Get as much protein as you think you need. Spend as much money on protein supplementation as you want. I’ll stick to Huel, beans, grains, tubers, fruit, nuts, seeds, and green vegetables. I’ll just randomly eat from this list and I am certain I will not have any protein deficiency.
Interesting perspective
Not heard it before (so not saying you wrong, just it’s hard tp convince mysslf you right, when everyone else i talk to is on the protein wave 
)
It took me a while to let go of the notion that I had to include meat or dairy in my diet in order to obtain all necessary amino acids. The fact is that plants make all the 9 essential amino acids needed for humans. Not all plants make all 9, but some do. Some make all 9 but a few are in very small amounts.
The point is that the cow, pig, and chicken share most of the same essential amino acids. In fact, the cow needs the same 9 essential AAs that I do.
So the essential amino acids I need are not synthesized in the cells of cows. If I choose to eat beef I will obtain those 9 essential amino acids only because the cow originally ate them and incorporated them into his/her muscle tissue. In essence, I am recycling the essential amino acids originally made by the plant. So getting our essential amino acids is possible from meat, but not actually necessary.
B12 is not made in the cells of cows, pigs, chicken, fish, or any animal. It is made by microbes. These factory animals live in filth so they easily ingest bacteria and that’s where they get their vitamin B12. Eating their flesh will allow me to absorb their already-absorbed B12 stores that originated from the bacteria. Or I can take a B12 supplement or eat nutritional yeast. The point being that B12 did not originate from a mammal.
No essential nutrient needed for humans come originally from cows, pigs, chicken, fish, eggs, or milk. These do contain the essential nutrients. But we recycle them when we eat them. All nutrients are originally made in plants, except B12 and vitamin D (sun activation). None originate from animals. We share a lot of the same physiology as animals and therefore we have the same nutritional needs. In essence, eating cow is a legalized form of cannibalism where we eat another mammal. I used to do it for many years myself. It’s a normal part of society, but is is NOT NECESSARY. It is purely a choice we all make.
Thanks for your insight. I appreciate it
I’d also like to point out that the largest land mammals (horses, hippos, giraffes, elephants, gorillas, cows) obtain all necessary protein from eating whatever plants they normally eat. They just eat their diet based on their animal instincts, at whatever amounts their normal hunger and instincts tell them to. They have muscles magnitudes bigger than us, eat only plants, never “supplement” with any special human-derived or human-invented protein supplement. They don’t understand what an AAU is. Mother nature has already taken care of them.
The natural cow is a 500 to 800 pound beast who got all his lean mass from eating grass. Grass. Let that sink in for a moment. The factory farmed versions of these creatures are fed corn and soya. But none the less, these simple grains are all the cow needs.
Proper nutrition is incredibly simple and rather boring. It doesn’t make for interesting articles or exciting supplements. When you look at the actual components of Huel, they are relatively simple compared to their competitors. Only a handful of ingredients are at the core of their product.
I believe that is the after-slaughter weight of the meat.
The average weight of a living cow is around 1,400 pounds – which makes your point even more impressive:
Among all the people in our poll, the average guess was 1,287 pounds. Penelope weighed 1,355 pounds. So the average was only off by 68 pounds (about 5 percent). Interestingly, the crowd was kind of split: people either thought Penelope weighed between 850 and 950 pounds or they thought she weighed between 1,250 and 1,350 pounds.
Plus:
My honest response to this was Holy Cow. And then I realized the awesomeness of my pun. Didn’t realize they got to be that big.
We should all be eating grass… except our digestive systems can’t process it as well as they can.
I only sort of know the poundage of cows because I was born and raised in Nebraska.
Fistulated steers, and such:
Some things you cannot unsee, or unfeel.
https://extension.unl.edu/mobile-beef-lab-takes-hands-on-learning-to-a-new-level/
I like what you said about not needing to eat “recycled protein!”
au contraire…the how’s and why’s of all things protein are of major concern to the aging. I’ll let you figure out who that is.
I started this thread, forget cows and poundage of beef blah blah blah… The question is and remains unanswered is: What is the AAU number of HUEL? I’d really like to know if I’m getting and using the aminos in the best way. The AAU number tells that.
Oh wait, I see what you did there, you killed this thread with blather, didn’t you Deron?
Chill homies
But I agree let’s get back on track
