Go Vegan 5: Protein Enriched

[Guest guest]

Here it is- section 5 of my Go Vegan series. You can find the other

sections on previous posts. Hope you enjoy it

Hugs,

Tek

 

Go Vegan 5: Protein Enriched

 

" Hey!!!! Where do you get your protein from????? "

The question that all veggies get asked over and over

again. Will it ever end? If I ate a gram of protein every time I got

asked that question, I would have cancer by now. Since the protein

issue seems to be one that every veggie can relate to, I decided to

make it the topic of the 5th section of my Go Vegan series. How much

protein do we need? Do we get enough eating a vegan diet? I, like

all veggies, hear these questions constantly. I hope this essay will

address them adequately. This paper gets off track a little from my

other Go Vegan essays since this topic is not about my personal

upgrade to veganism. However, my goal was to write essays that other

vegans can relate to, and to offer encouragement to those

considering going vegan. I think this paper falls into that category.

First, let me say that I am not a doctor, and I have no

formal training in the field of medicine, nutrition, or health. (I

almost took a nutrition class once, but I thought I would disagree

with a lot of what the teacher said, and blow my grade). I consider

lack of any formal training to be of no consequence; doctors do not

agree with each other. It seems that no matter what your opinion is

on health, nutrition, or diet, you can always find an army of

doctors who have the same viewpoint as you do, and you can find just

as many with the opposite view. However, it does not take an expert

to understand proper nutrition; it only takes one to cipher through

all of the misleading information and marketing. Proper nutrition,

for the most part, follows general common sense. I will do my best

in this paper to show that protein is no exception to that rule.

Hopefully, I can accomplish that in just a few pages. Whole books

have been written on this subject, so this will for the most part

just touch the surface of discussing protein. Perhaps down the road

I will write another Go Vegan on protein that will go more in depth.

But for now, off we go into a brief discussion about what is

probably the most widely misunderstood aspect of going vegan-

 

Protein. The Big P! Critics of vegans usually claim that one

will have a shortage of protein in a diet that does not contain

meat. However, the truth is that we get plenty of protein from

eating plants. A vegan diet provides more than the required daily

amount of protein, despite common misconceptions. The myth that, to

be healthy, meat is required is proven wrong by millions of healthy

vegans everyday.

We are mammals, and like all mammals, we require protein to

live. In general, it would probably be safe to assume that the

larger the mammal, the more protein that it needs. A cow needs more

protein than we do, but all of the protein that it eats comes from

plants. An elephant needs more protein than a human as well, yet all

that it eats is leaves. If plants did not provide enough protein,

would not these animals have protein deficiencies as well?

There is no more of a shortage of protein in a vegan's diet

than there is in an elephant's. Have you ever seen anyone with a

protein shortage? Think about it. Have you even seen even one person

with some sort of disease or ailment caused by a deficiency of

protein? They simply do not exist. (I am not talking about people

who are starving, drug addicts, or anyone who does not eat enough

food in general). Here is one conversation you are NEVER going to

hear-

" Hey Joe, how ya doing? "

" Ahh great now Frank, but I wasn't so good a few weeks ago. "

" Yeah Joe? What happened? "

" Well Frank, I was feeling run down and kind of sick, so I

went to see my doctor. He said I had a protein shortage, so I went

home and ate a couple of steaks. Now I feel super. "

If a vegan diet does not provide enough protein, wouldn't hospitals

be overflowing with vegans suffering from protein deficiency related

illnesses? Where are all of these protein-starved vegans hiding? The

fact is that, on average, vegans live a much more healthy, and

longer life than that of meat eaters. There is no shortage of

protein in a vegan diet; it provides exactly the right amount.

How much protein is the proper amount? According to the

Vegetarian Resource Group website, the U.S. RDA (United States

Recommended Daily Allowance) is 0.36 grams of protein for each pound

of weight (4/5s of a gram of protein daily for every kilogram of

weight). This means a 180 pound man would need a daily protein

intake of about 65 grams, and a 130 pound woman would need a daily

protein intake of about 47 grams. However, the RDA always includes a

generous safety factor, meaning that the amount of protein really

needed is actually a little less than that amount.

It is very easy to get the recommend daily amount of protein

eating a vegan diet. Dr. Reed Mangels illustrates this in an article

about protein on the Vegetarian Resource Group website. Dr. Mangels

uses the following example to show that eating a simple vegan diet

consisting of way less food that I eat provides more than an

adequate supply of protein-

Breakfast: Grams of protein

1 cup oatmeal 6

1 cup soy milk 9

1 bagel 9

 

Lunch:

2 slices whole wheat bread 5

1 cup vegan baked beans 12

 

Dinner:

5 oz firm tofu 16

1 cup cooked broccoli 5

1 cup brown rice 5

2 Tbsp Almonds 3

 

Snack:

2 Tbsp Peanut Butter 8

6 crackers 2

Total: 80 Grams

Although this is not the diet that I would recommend for

people to eat, it clearly shows that even very simple and basic

vegan foods provide more protein than needed. My weight is in the

low 180s, so this example shows that I would get plenty of protein

eating this menu. The problem with this example is that when I am

really hungry, I probably eat this much food in a meal, not in a

day, which makes me a little bit nervous.

This example also shows that a meat eating diet contains way

too much protein. Adding a couple of servings of meat to the above

menu would raise the total protein consumption for that day to a

quantity close to 3 times the daily amount for an average woman, and

twice the daily amount for an average man. Studies confirm this by

showing that people who live on the typical American meat eating

diet, on average, consume 2-3 times the amount of needed protein

each day. People do not realize that there is protein in almost

everything that they eat, and it all adds up. This is a widely

misunderstood concept, so I will state it again- there is protein in

almost everything that you eat, and it all adds up.

The problem is not that vegans do not get enough protein;

the problem is that meat eaters are getting way too much. Too much

protein causes kidney problems, and leeches calcium from the body.

In addition, animal protein comes from meat, which has no fiber, no

complex carbohydrates, and is high in fat and Cholesterol. No fiber

makes animal protein harder to digest, and really damages the system

over the long term. A high meat/high protein diet has been related

to a number of illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, stroke,

and high blood pressure. Among the elderly who spent their lives

following a typical American diet, these diseases are a literal

plague.

How much protein is misunderstood was recently demonstrated

to me at a street fair. I volunteered to talk to people, and pass

out literature about vegetarianism/veganism and animal rights at a

local street fair for the group Last Chance for Animals. They have a

nice booth they put up here in San Diego at local events. I was only

there a couple of hours, but in that short amount of time, I

received the " Big P Inquiry " several times. Most of the time it came

from some protein flooded weight lifter type guy. What Testosterone

Tom doesn't realize though is that having muscles is not necessarily

a sign of being healthy. Intense weight lifting is very stressful

and straining on the muscles, and on the rest of the body. Toss in a

diet high in protein, and the heart, liver, digestive system, and

colon will be stressed as well. Eating a high protein diet and power

lifting may make one muscular, but it also makes one a good

candidate for an early death.

The best choice to live a long healthy life is to go vegan.

A vegan diet provides the correct amount of protein- not too much,

causing health problems, and certainly not too little. For over 20

years, I have seen attitudes toward a veggie diet slowly change. I

can remember, years ago, if you told people you were a veggie, they

looked at you like you were destined to die soon. Now it seems like

most of the meat eating population will at least acknowledge that a

veggie diet is a healthy one. Many are just having trouble letting

go of the perception that protein must come from meat. Although it

will be a slow process, I believe we are ushering in a new era. Some

day, years from now, all or most people will eat a vegan diet.

People will embrace compassion for animals, and will live in harmony

with them. People then will look back on the vegans from today, and

they will consider us pioneers. They will think of us as elitists.

Go vegan- join the elite.