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Tofu is the winner. Scientist creates new holistic scoring system to measure the impact of food (phys.org)
submitted 1 day ago* by to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
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In a paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Dr. Chris Macdonald explored the best sources of protein currently available.

To answer the question, Macdonald had to build a new holistic scoring system that combines measures of environmental impact, health, affordability and availability into a single framework.

Applying the scoring system to 20 commonly consumed protein-rich foods, the analysis found a striking pattern: every product in the highest-scoring quintile was plant-based, while every product in the lowest-scoring quintile was animal-based. Tofu ranked first overall, while cheddar cheese ranked last.

The paper argues that many existing food rating systems focus on only one aspect of a product. While useful, these single-dimension labels can obscure important trade-offs and make it difficult to compare foods comprehensively.

TOFU DOMINATION

Link to open access article https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full

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[–] 13 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

The focus on complete protein is not useful in 99.9% of cases. You do not need to eat all amino acids in the same meal. As long as you get it at some point in the day, it's fine. The main person who popularized the idea has actually said they regret doing so

"In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein ... was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining#Criticism

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  • [–] 3 points 9 hours ago

    Damn, good link. I was also about to type up a lengthy explanation about why it's not relevant, but then realized you need to explain a ton of stuff before you can argue that on a logical basis, which they wouldn't trust me on either.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 hours ago (2 children)

    I have a serious question, if someone is a person that is bulking does her quote about : "With three important exceptions, there is little danger of protein deficiency in a plant food diet. The exceptions are diets very heavily dependent on [1] fruit or on [2] some tubers, such as sweet potatoes or cassava, or on [3] junk food (refined flours, sugars, and fat). Fortunately, relatively few people in the world try to survive on diets in which these foods are virtually the sole source of calories. In all other diets, if people are getting enough calories, they are virtually certain of getting enough protein." also apply?

    Like suppose a person need 4000 calories a day to bulk I can actually just eat a diet of tofu, rutabagas, confierous vegetables, oil for frying them and a multivitamin and Ill be eating enough protein and calories per a day to bulk?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 hours ago* (1 child)

    If you are eating 4000 kcal/day, you are almost certainly getting a lot of protein. At 4000kcals, even the example of a 100% sweet potato diet is getting you to around ~80g of protein (well above average person recommendations of 50g/day). If any significant portion of that is tofu, the number is going to be even higher. Tofu has like 30-50g of protein per block (varying based on soft vs firm vs extra-firm)

    ~800 kcals of tofu (~2 blocks of firm tofu) is already putting you at like 90-100g protein assuming you ate zero other protein from anything else for the rest of your 3200 kcals (which will not be the case unless you ate like somehow ate 100% pure cornstarch)

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  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago

    I was going to rebuttal that you typed out a wrong comment since you didnt account for ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS anywhere in your comment . But then I plugged in a 4000 calorie serving of boiled sweet potatoes into a website and found out that you are correct and Im wrong. If a person is willing to eat 5.2 kilograms of boiled sweet potatoes EVERYDAY they are indeed getting in enough essential amino acids into their diet even if they are bulking cause theyll be getting WAY more than enough each of the essential amino acids for an average adult lol https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-facts/168484/gm/5269

    Thanks for that . I didnt even know that you could get essential amino from potatoes...

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