Because they don’t actually have that much protein. Cooked black beans are about 9% protein and 25% carbohydrates, whereas chicken breast is about 30% protein and has virtually no carbohydrates.
A cup of beans has about 15g protein. And usually you need 1g/kg of body weight per day. A normal sized adult would then need to eat anywhere from 6-8 cups of beans per day, which if you haven't had beans, is a very tough thing to do. As compared to that, 1-1.5 chicken breast could provide the same amount of protein, which is much easier to consume.
> And usually you need 1g/kg of body weight per day.
This is too much unless you're bulking. Not everyone is a tech gym bro.
> This is too much unless you're bulking. Not everyone is a tech gym bro.
Body builders actually eat up to 2.5/kg. The bare minimum for normal people is 0.65/kg, however that triggers intensive autophagy and comes at a severe cost in energy levels and performance in general (although some people might tolerate it better).
“Chatgpt says” is the 2020 version of “I don't beloeve or consult doctors, i get my medical information from the twitter/tiktok”
Maybe if you're a bodybuilder. For almost everyone that's way more than necessary.
Not to mention most people aren't protein-maxing, so even a medium protein food is very good.
It's baffling that you claim that "The right metric is protein per calorie", but you fail to mention the fact that meat has 3x the protein per calorie compared to beans[1]. The fact that beans rank "very high up" is irrelevant.
[1] https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173735/n...
[2] https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171534/n...
Plus it’s impossible to stop eating them once you gain momentum.
When people talk about their program for Massive Big Gainz(tm), nobody mentions "beans" for good reason.