Protein on a Vegan Diet

Protein comes from meat and dairy so you need to eat plenty of that, especially if you are an athlete, right? This is what many people think about protein, but it is not true. You're not totally off base if you think this though because animal products are an excellent source of protein. However, let's look at the rest of the story.

Protein comes from plants. Animals consume that protein and it becomes part of them, thus making them a source of protein. Therefore, plants are the real source of protein, even if you consume it as part of a cow. Animals are often considered a better source of protein, not because of quantity, but because of quality. To better understand the quality of protein, we need to understand what protein is.

From Wikipedia: "Proteins (also known as polypeptides) are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form" (read more). Plants can generally synthesize all of the standard 20 amino acids, but humans are unable to synthesize 8 of them and must therefore consume them from some source.

Think of amino acids as the ingredients in a recipe. If you have copious amounts of most of the ingredients, but are missing just one, you can't make the recipe. Amino acids work similarly in your body. You need to make sure the protein you consume contains sufficient amounts of each of these essential amino acids. Therefore, high quality protein is protein that contains all of the essential amino acids. Animals generally contain all of these amino acids because they need them too.

By this definition, plants are a "low quality" source of protein. But wait, most animals had to get their essential amino acids from plants! So how are they producing high quality output with low quality input? Because all of these animo acids are plants. Just not necessarily all together in one plant. Plants have tons of protein and if you eat a moderate variety of plants, you will get all the amino acids you need.

Is "high quality" protein better for you that "low quality" protein? No. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and you will be fine without any animal products.

PS - Most Americans get way too much protein. Even still, many athletes believe they need to consume extra protein supplements since they are building muscle. This is absurd. First of all, natural sources of protein are better than supplements anyway. Second, most people taking protein supplements already have way more protein in their diet than they need anyway. The supplements are pointless excess and a waste of money. I'm not saying protein isn't important. It is very important. But nature's got you covered on this one.

See also:

• Protein (Wikipedia)
• Essential Amino Acids (Wikipedia)
• Protein - What You Should Eat (Harvard School of Public Health)
• Learning About Proteins (KidsHealth.org)
• The Benefits of Protein (WebMD)

Supplements and Vitamin B12

This morning on my way to work I decided to finish reading the China Study. Don't worry, I was in a carpool, not driving. I have learned so much from that book and it has changed the way I eat drastically. However, I have always naievely thought that the book focused only on data and findings and not enough on summarizing everything with some simple and sound nutritional guidance. It turns out that the only reason I thought that is because I hadn't read the end of the book yet. LOL, what a dork.

The last third of the book is titled "The Good Nutrition Guide" and the portion I read this morning focused on how lame vitamin supplements are. I have long preferred to get my nutrients from food instead of a pill and people give me a hard time about it sometimes, especially now that I am not eating any animal products. Campbell supports me 100%. Basically what it comes down to is that the nutrients found in foods are vast and all of the interactions that occur between them and our bodies are impossible to fully comprehend. Our bodies have evolved to be able to use raw foods optimally. Supplements attempt to dumb this down and pick out a tiny representation of these nutrients that are the important ones, but the net result in your body is not the same. Sure you need Vitamin C, but not just that one vitamin. You need it with the myriad of other things found in an Orange or Red Pepper. Some will advise that you need a "balanced supplement" to avoid such problems, but please understand that a blanced supplement is nothing like raw foods.

With all this in mind, I had one remaining question. I had heard that Vitamin B12 was the only essential nutrient that is only found in meat and that I needed a nutrient for that at least. Campbell addresses this and I did a bit of Googling as well and here is what I found. Vitamin B12 can be derived from plant sources if the plant was grown in soil rich in vitamin B12, especially if you don't wash the food before you eat it. In Americal, nearly all of our food is grown in soil that is void of B12 and even if you grow your own veges, you'll likely wash them off pretty well and lose a lot of the B12. I'm not proposing that we don't wash our veges. I'm just saying there is a consequence to doing so that I didn't know about before now. So really what it boils down to, at least for me, is that I do need some supplement to get Vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 is literally the only essential nutrient that you can't get in a plant based whole foods diet (unless you grow your own veges and don't wash them). Everything else is plentifully available without any animal products.

A warning to vegan newbies: When I first stopped eating animal based foods, I tracked my nutrition for a few days and I was deficient in quite a few. Just because these nutrients are available in a plant based diet doesn't mean you're actually consuming them. It's worth the time to track what you eat until you have a good understanding of what you need to eat to make sure you are getting the essential nutrients for your body.