What is a complete protein?

Also known as a whole protein, complete protein is a source that contains all the different kinds of amino acids. Animal foods, such as cheese, eggs, meat, poultry and milk, are considered sources of high-quality proteins.

There are 20 different types of amino acids that combine to form the different types of proteins. Nearly all foods contain proteins, but only animal foods contain complete proteins. Some of these proteins, or essential proteins, cannot be provided by the human body. Therefore, a person only gets them through eating a healthy diet. There are also foods with incomplete proteins, such as maize, rice and beans.