A Soy Food Product Has More Protein Than Steak?

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There is a plant-based form of food that is packed with protein, though it’s probably not well known in the mainstream. It is called TVP, textured vegetable protein, or sometimes textured soy protein. There is a restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area which has been around for decades that makes all sorts of dishes using TVP as a meat substitute. The dishes are Chinese cuisine. When I was there, there were spicy green beans with fake chicken slices, ‘mock bock,’ made of TVP mostly. There were also fake beef dishes. All the food was tasty and contained no animal meat.

One reason to consider TVP is that it has a great deal of protein; 100 grams or 3.5 ounces has over 50 grams of protein, according to this source. I have a bag of Bob’s Red Mill TVP and it only cost $5. The nutrition panel on the back says the 12 ounces of TVP have about 180 grams of protein. Some people might try to say the protein is not complete though. They would be incorrect, as the TVP protein is complete. It also has no saturated fat and no cholesterol. Additionally, it has more potassium than one might expect: over 2,000 milligrams. (Twelve ounces of Gatorade has about 50 milligrams.) TVP is also high in iron.

A New York Strip steak portion of 100 grams has 21.3 grams of protein, according to FoodData Central. It has over 11 grams of fat, much less potassium, and less iron than TVP. The same portion size of boneless ribeye steak has about 18 grams of protein according to the same site. The ribeye steak also has about 20 grams of fat. The same amount of TVP has more protein. There is a caveat: the TVP in the Bob’s Red Mill bag is dry. It needs to be cooked in water or a soup or stew where it will absorb water and expand. 

The Bob’s Red Mill bag of TVP I have is 12 ounces and cost just $5. The same amount of ribeye steak generally costs twice that or more, according to various American websites. Twelve ounces of New York Strip costs even more than the ribeye for the same amount.

It should be pointed out the steaks have no fiber, which is an essential nutrient for human health. The TVP does contain fiber.

TVP is also more sustainable than steak because beef is the highest carbon food or one of the most high carbon foods. High-carbon foods contribute more to climate change than low-carbon foods. If you want to reduce your personal carbon footprint and lessen your own climate change impacts, getting rid of beef might be a good idea.