Plant-based eating is on the rise in the United States as more consumers are concerned about the environment, animal welfare, and overall well-being. In particular, the plant-based market increased 17% in dollar sales this last year, according to The Good Food Institute. This shift extends into the world of sports – an arena where what you consume can be the difference between winning and losing – with high-profile sportsmen and women like Venus Williams, Chris Paul, and Tom Brady now getting all or most of their nutrition from plants.

This shift counters the traditional thinking that animal protein is necessary for muscle growth. In fact, scientific evidence and the growing consensus in the nutrition community support that plant-based sources are just as, if not more, effective in building muscle mass and promoting recovery in athletes. Furthermore, the ways of evaluating the efficacy of plant proteins – in particular, related to the essential amino acids – are evolving away from a method designed originally for infants and are becoming more advanced.

• protein digestibility equivalent to that of whey protein (Vrasidas, 2022)
• amino acid availability for muscle build, growth and recovery (Esser, 2022)

This, in addition to EverPro’s having the highest amount of the amino acid Glutamine and optimal levels of all three Branched-chain Amino Acids (BCAAS), puts barley protein on the map as an excellent source of protein for athletes, as well as for health-conscious consumers looking for cleaner sources of protein than whey can provide.

Evergrain wishes to thank their partners at Wageningen University & Research and UC Davis for their collaboration thus far and dedication to science.

Find out more about the promise of barley protein here or contact Evergrain using the green "Request Information" button below.