Textured Vegetable Protein Soy Granules

Food · Legume · Food, Typed Supps

The packet says over half protein. That is the dry granule; soaking roughly triples its weight and thirds the number.

Stage by stage

Rehydration and intake (Soaked before eating): Dry granules absorb roughly twice their weight in liquid, which is where the dramatic per-100g figures come back to earth.
Muscle (Near-complete protein): Soy protein supplies all essential amino acids at a digestibility score close to dairy, limited only by methionine.
Bloodstream (Non-heme iron uptake): Iron is absorbed at a low percentage and is strongly affected by what else is in the meal, unlike the heme iron in meat.
Colon (Fibre fermentation): Soy oligosaccharides and cell wall fibre are fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids, with wind as the initial side effect.

Time to effect

Months: Iron status responds over months of consistent intake, not weeks; protein effects are immediate.

Allergens

Contains: Soya. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

227 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — very high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

3.2 kg CO2e and 149 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Tofu" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Protein
Fibre
Non-heme iron
Folate

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 320
Protein: 51.5g
Carbohydrate: 15.2g
of which sugars: 4.8g
Fat: 1.2g
of which saturated: 0.2g
Fibre: 17.5g
Sodium: 20mg

Food vs. supplement

Against a soy protein powder, TVP supplies comparable protein quality with the bean's fibre still attached — 17.5g per 100g dry, which an isolate has had removed. The trade-off runs the other way for iron: 9.24mg on the label is non-heme and phytate-bound, so it does not compare with a supplement dose on absorption despite looking larger.

Kitchen tip

Hydrate it in stock rather than water. The granules take on whatever they are soaked in and have almost no flavour of their own, which is the whole reason the texture works in a bolognese or chilli. Add an acidic tomato base and the vitamin C in it improves the iron absorption at the same time.

Common myth

“TVP has more protein per gram than steak.” In reality: Dry, it does. Hydrated to the weight anyone actually eats, it lands around 17g per 100g — in the same range as cooked chicken or beef rather than above it.