Expert: The Role of Plant-Based Protein Powders in Nutritional Supplementation

In an interview with Pharmacy Times®, Phil Vigeant, CEO of PlantFusion, discusses the growing popularity of plant-based protein powders, driven by factors like allergen avoidance and the nutritional benefits of plant-based diets. Vigeant shares concerns about potential heavy metal contamination in some plant-based sources like rice. He highlights the importance of a complete amino acid profile in plant-based proteins and emphasizes the key role pharmacists can play in guiding patients towards reputable supplement brands.

Pharmacy Times

What are some of the key nutritional benefits of incorporating plant-based protein powders into one's diet?

Phil Vigeant

The whole plant-based protein category became popular because of a flight away from some other protein powders for a variety of reasons. Obviously, some people want to buy a plant-based protein powder because it's vegan and it might fit their lifestyle of being vegan or vegetarian or very strongly preferring a plant-based diet. I'd say, independent of that, I think one of the biggest benefits is generally the allergen issue. If somebody has a dairy allergen or a soy allergen — which those were the most common sources of protein previously, plant-based proteins in general, are a very good option. It's one of the reasons I started PlantFusion, the brand because I'm allergic to dairy. I'm not severely allergic where I would be anaphylactic, but it's something that for me that I don't want to take any more dairy than I must, because it causes some other side effects for me. Same thing with soy, I won't go into what the side effects are, but a lot of people have an allergy to soy as well. It's one of the reasons it's one of the common FDA — 1 of the 8 most common allergens that must be listed on labels. Even though that is a plant-based protein, it was not considered one of the best sources of protein, I'd say in the last 10 or 15 years, it lost its luster. But one is to avoid other sources of protein so that you don't deal with some of the allergen effects.

Also, I think that the science is overwhelming that people who follow a very a low animal diet and a high plant-based diet, there are a ton of nutritional benefits. Everything from longevity to getting a lot of the naturally occurring nutrients that occur in a plant-based diet in general, and plant-based protein brings a lot of that to the table. Even in something like pea protein, which we use a lot, there's a lot of naturally occurring fiber. There could be a lot of natural current fiber in there that's also beneficial. But I really would say, I think the biggest sort of claim to fame, and benefit is what's not in there and one of the biggest benefits, it's a very safe protein, and it fits well into mitigating. I'm not necessarily a fan of saying you shouldn't have any animal products in your diet, but it helps mitigate some of the other sources of protein that might be higher in fat. Somebody doesn't want to eat meat because they have a very high cholesterol or other issues like that. It's a great way to supplement their diet with a protein. Still get the protein and the benefit of what meat may offer, whether it's red meat, chicken, etc., but at the same time, not have any this, I'll say the downside of consuming some of those products. It also wants to have the hormones. There's much bigger awareness over time as we eat an animal-based diet, and so many of them are fed hormones, there's a concern over time. It's not instant, but it's concerned over time, about the impact on all our health, about the consumption of some of the hormones that are still there as we ingest some of the animal meats.

I think most of your pharmacists would agree that it's not what we do 1 day or 1 month that affects our health, it's what we do consistently. I think there are these carnivore diets and things like that to become very popular. I think anything in the extreme, those things tend to get exaggerated and overly hyped, whereas a balanced diet is still a very critical part of long-term health.

Pharmacy Times

Why might certain plant-based protein sources, like rice, be more susceptible to accumulating heavy metals like lead compared to others?

Vigeant

The main reason is the way it's grown. If you think about the way rice is grown, it's grown in or around water and very close to the ground. What you're seeing is you're going to automatically absorb almost anything that is grown in or around a lot of water or moisture. If you think of even the ocean, the ocean has a lot of heavy metals in it, although they may be naturally occurring. You'll find that there are some people that eat too much of saltwater fishes, or ocean fishes, they can wind up getting a heavy metal content if they're more susceptible to that. But rice, not saying it's grown near the ocean, but it's certainly grown in water. I think you're going to find that there's a heavy metal issue with anything, I'll call it root type vegetables, but also things that are grown in and around water. Water just has a higher level of heavy metals and if that's a big part of the way it's processed or grown, then there's likely to be a lot more naturally occurring in there.

There's also an issue with a lot of rice, because a lot of it does come from Asia, and then a lot of it comes from China and some other, what I'll call developing countries, where the pollution is much higher in those countries. It's more likely that in those types of countries where they don't have some of the same environmental controls and regulations in place, it's much more likely that some of the soil that being grown in is going to naturally contain more heavy metals from a variety of sources of contamination. Whereas something like pea protein is grown in Canada. It's grown very much in Northern Europe, where you don't have nearly the same amount of those issues.

Pharmacy Times

What is the significance of a "complete amino acid profile" in a plant-based protein powder?

Vigeant

We've really focused on this because, candidly, one of the benefits of an animal-based protein, like a whey or meat is that it has what they call a more complete ratio of the amino acids. So specifically, they're branched-chain amino acids which are valine, leucine, isoleucine. That's one of the benefits of having some of the animal-based proteins, whereas the plant-based proteins tend to be a little bit lower in those branched-chain amino acids which are very important for overall health of the body, and one of the benefits of getting protein. Pea protein, although it's not absent of those amino acids, it is lower, admittedly. This is the one of the downsides, or arguments against the plant-based diet, is some of the amino acid profile the lack of complete proteins. We have fortified our products with those branched-chain amino acids. Vegan source of those branched-chain amino acids to mitigate the loss of them, but also make up for it, so that the amino acid profile in PlantFusion, is much more similar to dairy or meat or other sources of protein so that the consumer who's taking it doesn't have that, I'll say the deficiency of the branch chain amino acids in there.

Pharmacy Times

How can pharmacists play a role in educating patients about the importance of choosing reputable brands and products when it comes to protein powders and other nutritional supplements?

Vigeant

In general, what I've seen in retail shelves is most of the brands there that are nutritional — I'm not talking about the weight loss products and things like that, those sexier items that tend to get a lot of attention. But I think in general, you're going to find that the supplements sold, those multivitamins, other nutritional supplements, vitamin C, B complex and so forth are generally sold by some of the more reputable brands. That's one of the things I think, for them to focus on. If I'm a pharmacist, I don't know what you're going to buy online, right? I'm not saying everything online is bad, because many of those brands sell online too, but they do understand better what's on their shelf and how it got there, and so they're not working as blind. I think that in general, that's one simple thing, because they have taken very complex issues and boil it down for their consumers and for their patients. I would say one way to keep it simple is most of what's on our shelf is coming from very reputable brands, and this is a better place to buy them than whoever you might be buying from online. It doesn't mean everybody online is not selling supplements, but it's just very hard for them to understand what every marketer is doing out there. It's not feasible for them. That's one general rule that they can follow. Fortunately, it does require that if they're really recommending a lot of supplements, is to do some of the research on some of the brands that are out there and even call those brands and ask some of the more technical questions if they're trying to better understand it.I think that there are some pharmacists that I know that don't really delve much into the nutritional supplement category, and there are others that are extremely passionate about it and very interested in it, and they do a lot of research on it. The advantage is they have a tremendous science background, and so they're able to better disseminate. Most pharmacists are much more equipped than even most doctors to better understand if they talk to a company and get information from them, they're much more equipped to understand the validity of the information that they're receiving from those companies.

Pharmacy Times

Is there anything you would like to add?

Vigeant

Having worked with a lot of pharmacists over the years, I have found that the pharmacists in general — the ones that are passionate and interested in nutrition, are awesome at giving nutritional advice to consumers. I touched on this before, but it's one of the reasons they're so trusted, because they really blend the best of both worlds, which is all their education, learning about the prescription drugs, the over-the-counter drugs, but then also nutritional supplements. That's rounded out by their general science and educational background that helps them link all those together and help deal with and address side effects and interactions and so forth, which are a big part of the questions that they get from consumers. Pharmacists in general, have a phenomenal opportunity. I've seen some great ones that have done a great job with really understanding the role of prescription versus over the counter versus nutritional supplements, and how to integrate them collectively, versus looking at one as being all bad or one being all good, or vice versa. They are at the forefront of the integration of nutrition with what people must do more prescribed drugs or things like that that also have side effects.