Vegans: how do you get enough protein?!
Vegans: how do you get enough protein?
im interested in becoming a vegetarian, but am also into staying fit and working out. i know you need a variety of beans to make complete amino acids, but beans seem to lack adequate protein, i'd feel like i'd need to eat cans to match my daily protein needs.
thanks guys
Answers:
unfortunately it's not as simple as the above answers have demonstrated it. The amount of protein food contains is not the actual amount that our body can use for it's (important!) purposes. Rather than adding the amout of protein the food contains, you need to include the so called Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS). It's a very complicated calculation, but to make a long story short: Vegetables unfortunately have a lower PDCAAS than animal products do, however, the PDCAAS of a vegetable can be improved if you combine certain things in one meal, for example wheat and milk.
ohh my, it's so complicated and such a long story. I'd suggest you to get a dietician's advice if you really plan to become a vegan. If you decide to keep milk and eggs in your diet, though (=vegetarian) you will have less problems reaching your daily amout that is necessary (15-20% of your total energy intake)
PS: you posted this question in the 'vegetarian & vegan' forum, so you need to take into consideration that you will have tons of people defending their lifestyle, even if it means denying the facts and trusting old studies that have been corrected long ago. I really suggest you talk to your doctor or nutritionist about it, they should have research based knowledge and not the knowledge 'some' website posted, because those are mostly one-sided.
Source(s):
I study nutrition science
Vegans and vegetarians are 2 different things. Some vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products. I eat tofu, and rice and beans combined provide a near perfect protein. Soy products are high in protein.
cans? make your own beans from dry beans without the sugar/salt etc they have plenty of protein so don't broccoli , Romain lettuce avoid white things :flour-rice-potato
brown rice is great takes longer to cook
vegetarian! YOU! for what! YOUR BEAUTIFUL
Vegetarian is an old Indian word for TERRIBLE HUNTER
Well to start off, beans are definitely a good source of protein, which you already know
There are however products that are even higher in protein than beans.
There is a food called Lentils. One boiled cup of this gives you roughly 18 grams of protein. Roughly 3 grams mnore than beans. More wise choices of food high in protein are chickpeas (14.5 grams), Quinoa (11 grams), Tempeh (31.4 grams), Seitan (96 grams), and also Tofu (40 grams)*
*Note* All foods listed above are 1 Cup, some of these foods don't come in 1 cup packages.
Anything else you need to know i'm sure you could ask a dietician.
I hope i helped you out
If you wan't to have enough protein, wheat bread and peanut butter together makes the same amount of protein as a piece of chicken.
MYTH: "Humans were designed to eat meat."
FACT: Although humans are capable of digesting meat, human anatomy clearly favors a diet of plant foods. Our digestive systems are similar to those of the other plant-eaters and totally unlike those of carnivores. The argument that humans are carnivores because we possess "canine" teeth ignores the fact that other plant-eaters have "canine" teeth, and that ONLY plant-eaters have molar teeth. Finally, if humans were designed to eat meat, we wouldn't suffer from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis from doing so. [more on this topic]
MYTH: "Vegetarians get little protein."
FACT: Plant foods offer abundant protein. Vegetables are around 23% protein on average, beans 28%, grains 13%, and even fruit has 5.5%. For comparison, human breast milk is only 5% (designed for the time in our lives when our protein needs are as high as they'll ever be). The US Recommended Daily Allowance is 8%, and the World Health Organization recommends 4.5%. [more on this topic, inc. chart]
MYTH: "Beans are a good source of protein."
FACT: There is no such thing as a special "source of protein" because all foods -- even plants -- have plentiful protein. You might as well say "Food is a good source of protein". In any event, beans (28%) don't average much more protein per calorie than common vegetables (23%). [more on this topic, inc. chart]
MYTH: "Meat protein is better than plant protein. You have to combine plant foods to make the protein just as good."
FACT: This myth was popularized in the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet and has no basis in fact. The author of the book admitted nearly twenty years ago that she made a mistake (in the 1982 edition of the same book). [more on this topic]
I lift weights and work out also,and on top of that I skateboard at least an hour a day,and I haven't had any problems,except i felt sick and tired,I actually found out I wasn't consuming enough calories for my activity levels,i never knew how little calories fruit and veggies contained.i'm perfectly fine now.
Eat foods that have protein in them. Soy has a lot of protein in it. So do nuts and fruits and vegetables.
Period, flat out, no ifs ands or buts about it! Even working out you are almost certainly getting 2-3 times the protein your body is actually capable of utilizing. Even a serving of iceberg lettuce has surprisingly complete balanced protein in it(look it up). Search "vegan body builder" also if you'd like.
If you're worried about Amino acid balance Yellow Corn is a very good complement to most beans. Just keep in mind that your body will store excess Amino's for up to a week. V&P, where'd you get that 'cut n paste'? The mistake in the book was that you need to complement proteins in one meal, not that it doesn't matter.
Marina, if you're studying science right now I'd strongly urge you to look up where PDCAAS came from and who paid for it
An often overlooked but very important fact about the whole protein 'deal' is that almost all data on the subject is based on lab rats and *not* humans. The real, old fashioned, hard-core human based data is *almost* impossible to find anymore since the studies are now "Politically Incorrect". There were studies done in the '20s, '30s and '50s by US researchers using prisoners and (of course) germans in the '40s, these papers 'vanished' in the '70s but the particular one I recall from college was done in the '50s and looked at Amino acid levels in the blood, urine and stool. By measuring the balance and amount of the different acids in the media they were able to tell how well protein was used in the human animal. Their dataset showed that the 'ideal' human protein was red waxy potatoes and not meats, beans etc. This study was considered important because it was one of the first that showed humans 'dump' excess protein and Amino acid by conversion to calcium salt then out in the urine! Ever wonder about Kidney stones? Osteoporosis?
BTW, you do understand that Amino Acids are what protein is made of?
Nuts, seeds and whole grains
you can be lacto-vegetarian and can drink milk and yoghurt which is sufficient to supply your protein needs.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetari...
1. Beans and rice = complete protein
2. legumes of any variety
3. nuts
When you go shopping you will see 10,000 items without meat and 1,00 items with meat. Just pick from the 10,000. Also, have you ever known anyone with a protein deficiency? It is very rare. If you are worried, just use a high quality protein shake. Spirulina makes a good one. Around here, there are also many good protein mixes at Trader Joes which are easy on the pocketbook and high in quality.