Bioavailability of Proteins From Plant Based Diets

Proteins play an important role as structural and functional components for the human body and prevent stunting. Protein quality has a great importance in meeting the nutritional needs of populations across the world throughout the life course, particularly during pregnancy and early childhood. Dietary protein deficiency is mainly due to protein indigestibility limiting indispensable amino acids (IAAs) bioavailability. In Morocco, as it's the case in many developing countries, diet is mainly based on a large consumption of cereals, fruits, vegetables and pulses, and is generally low in meat, which is the main source of protein and IAA. The general objective of this study is to evaluate the digestibility of Fava bean proteins and bioavailability of IAA using a dual-tracer method with stable isotopes.

This study aims to develop stable isotope labeled protein of bean cultures that could be used for other local common foods, to quantify dietary indispensable amino acids from beans made available to the body for optimal growth, development and function and to participate in the development of a simple method to assess protein quality in vulnerable populations. The project is divided in two parts: the first part of harvesting and production of deuterium labeled fava beans. The optimization test done the first year has shown that the best protocol for labelling was a pulse with 25% D2O followed with subsequent labeling with 2.5% D2O during 20 days. The second part is the intervention stuy that is going to be conducted on 6 healthy volunteers (3 males, 3 females). Each participant will receive a test meal containing 13C labelled spirulina, 2H labelled Fava bean and 13C phenylalanine. The test meal will be divided on 11 subdoses: 3 sub-doses will be administrated at T0 and 1 subdose will be administrated at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7h. The remaining sub-dose will be kept for measurement of IAA in the test meal. After eating the test meal, blood, urine and breath samples will be collected from each participant at the baseline (T0) and after 5-6, 7h and 8h.