Protein is perhaps the most important macronutrient when it comes to bodybuilding and overall fitness. Protein sources are one of the most debated areas in fitness, and for good reason. It is widely believed that it is harder for vegetarians to build muscle because of lack of protein sources, but thanks to super fit celebs like John Abraham and Shahid Kapoor, that myth has been busted.

With proper knowledge and judicious usage of all the ingredients, it is not difficult for vegetarians to fulfill their daily protein requirement. There is an array of vegetarian protein sources which do the job, but there is one particular source that does it better than everything else.

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We are talking about, wait for it, soya. Soya, we reiterate, is the best vegetarian protein source from a nutrition as well as cost per gram perspective. While we have dairy and lentils etc, they don't exactly cut it when you have strict diet and budgetary constraints because dairy has a lot of fat, and lentils are mostly carbs, plus dairy can get expensive. Soya is not bound by such constraints.

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100 gm of soya chunks contain 52 gm of protein, which is more than half the volume. Anyone who has been working out or dieting to build muscle will know the struggles of deciding what to eat, keeping protein content in mind. While one full egg has around 6 gm of protein, 100 ml of milk has 3.3 gm, and 100 gm of paneer has 18 gm of protein. Keeping this in mind, soya easily ends up being the cheapest and most easily available source of protein for vegetarians (and non vegetarians too, because the protein content in soya is higher than all kinds of meat).

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Also, from a nutrition point of view, soya is a 'complete' protein as its profile contains all the amino acids required. Now, let's get to the hate it receives.

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Most of the hate soya receives is because of the myths and misunderstandings associated with it. The biggest myth is 'soya leads to feminizing effects' in men by increasing estrogen and lowering testosterone. Yes, we reiterate, while there is a reason behind this claim, asserting this in black and white without understanding the research is a fallacy.

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The reason for that concern is the presence of Isoflavones in Soya. Isoflavones contain phytoestrogen that act as estrogen in mammals, and research on rats have shown that it has impacted their hormone levels. However, let us see what study in humans has shown. Clinical studies with men consuming upto 150 gms of Isoflavones in a day have proven to be absolutely harmless. Let's look at some numbers now. 100 gm soya contains about 10 gm Isoflavones. So to exceed 150 gm, one has to eat more than 1.5 kg of soya in a day, which is almost impossible. 

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In other words, consuming soya is absolutely safe for men, and it does NOT lower testosterone or increase Estrogen under normal circumstances. To sum it up, Soya is a boon for vegetarians, and deserves the top spot as the best vegetarian protein source.

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