Myths About Protein

We do not need to eat meat in order to get adequate protein.   Vegetables and grains contain lots of protein. 

Protein is made up of various amino acids.   There are 20 amino acids needed by the human body to maintain itself. Our bodies can make 11 of these, but the others, the "essential amino acids" must come from our diet. Different categories of food contains various types and amounts of the essential amino acids.  Whether you eat meat or vegetables, the aminio acids, the building blocks of protein are the same.

Not all foods contain all of the essential amino acids in the same amounts. Most vegetable sources of protein contain smaller amounts of one or more of the essential amino acids.

What this means is that in order to get all the essential amino acids one needs from vegetable sources, one must eat a variety of foods.  For example, the protein in beans may lack one essential amino acid, but that missing amino acid will be found in rice, corn or wheat. As long as you eat a variety of foods, there should be no worries about adequate protein intake. The different foods do not even need to be eaten together, our bodies store amino acids, as well as vitamins for later use.

Soy protein is a complete protein and buckwheat also has a full complement of amino acids. Soy products contain lots of protein and even the FDA recommends that everyone eat some soy protein each day. One of the easiest ways to do this is with soy milk.  Silk is perhaps the best tasting and most milk-like product. Visit their website for lots of good information on the benefits of soy: www.silkissoy.com

There are some excellent alternatives to Dairy products availble even in small town grocery stores these days. Soy alternatives to sour cream, cream cheese and milk can be used in cooking and baking. The recipes on these pages use soy products instead of dairy.

Here are a few protein factoids:

• Human protein requirements are much lower than once assumed....Peanuts, soy and other legumes, the alga spirulina and certain grains are some of the richest sources of plant protein.
• Popular meat and milk-replacement products contain soy, which is a "complete" protein as well. Soy is also very rich in protein. Soy milk without added sugar contains almost twice as much protein per calorie as cow's milk, and about five times as much as human milk.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein#Protein_nutrition_in_humans

Think about the history of humankind. Most subsitance farmers throughout the world and throughout history have lived on vegetables and grains, not large quantities of meat. Meat was a rarity for most of humankind thoughout much of its history.

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