What is biological value and how does this differ from the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score?
Both biological value (BV) and the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) are methods that scientists use to measure a protein’s quality. Put another way, these measurements give a general idea of how available (digestibility) and useful (amino acid content) a protein is to the body. In both cases the higher the number, or score, the better. For BV the highest recognized score is 100; for PDCAAS it’s 1.00. Whey and egg proteins rank higher than whole milk, casein, and soy proteins on the BV scale. But, when compared using the newer, more-accurate PDCAAS technique, all of these proteins receive a perfect score. Is eating too much protein harmful? Not likely – provided you’re in good health and have no history of liver or kidney problems. Protein is broken down into amino acids in the gastrointestinal tract and subsequently absorbed into the bloodstream. Any extras that aren’t used for new protein synthesis are stripped of their amine groups, rearranged and in the live
