Archive for the ‘plant protein’ tag
Good Sources of Protein
Plant based foods are great sources of protein, or amino acids, that help our bodies build and repair tissue. These foods help us synthesize the 8 or 9 essential amino acids that we can’t produce.
This list is not complete and is conservative in the percentage of calories from protein.
31% Spinach
27% Hemp Seeds
20% Broccoli
23% Peas
20% Cauliflower
14% Cabbage
16% Kale
17% Romaine
18% Chickpeas
15% Wild Rice
14% Flax Seeds
14% Sunflower Seeds
12% Celery
11% Blackberries
08% Peaches
07% Oranges
Some of the strongest animals on the earth including elephants and gorillas eat raw plant based diets, building massive muscle and strength on just fruits and vegetables.
The best sources of protein are the amino acids in fresh living plant foods. Bypassing the steps of breaking down the protein into usable amino acids, your body creates the protein more efficiently since the body spends a great deal of energy taking protein (found in animal and cooked foods) and breaking it down to usable form by the body as amino acids.
Other good sources are nuts (higher fat), seeds (higher fat), sea vegetables, and bee pollen.
And in comparison, cooked foods have lowered amounts of usable protein (up to 50% less) since the heat ‘bonds’ most of the proteins together. This makes them harder to synthesize and lowers the actual amount our bodies can use. It also takes longer (and more energy) for our bodies to process ‘cooked’ proteins into amino acids.
By avoiding animal and cooked foods in particular, you not only avoid the antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals and junk that are fed to cattle today to increase yield and control diseases, but you also allow your body to get the essential amino acids that it synthesizes into protein most efficiently, avoiding the ‘middle man’, protein. Animal protein also starts decaying the minute the animal is killed, further destroying the proteins and amino acids every minute in the cleaning, preparation, storage, transportation and again preparation until it gets to your plate.
The other problem with high protein foods is that they are normally rich in fat as well. It’s hard to find a high protein food that isn’t also naturally high in fat content. There are a few, but not many.
Fresh plant based foods are without comparison the best source of protein for your body.
Where Does Protein Come From?
So where do the building blocks, or amino acids, that make proteins come from?
Not many realize that the protein found in animal foods comes from the foods they eat, they are synthesized after breaking down the foods they eat. So when eating animal foods, you’re getting your protein essentially ’second hand’. Not complete and not from the source.
What Is The Protein Myth?
If you regularly hear how important getting your protein is, you know you’re listening to a myth.
You see, the human body requires a moderate amount of protein. If you eat the standard American diet (S.A.D.) you are more likely getting too much protein, along with excess fat and complex carbohydrates that is evidenced in our quite high and rising obesity rates.
Mother’s milk, the essential food for babies during their fastest growth spurts, averages just 7% of its calories from protein. This complete food allows an infant to amazingly grow by as much as 12 pounds in just 6 months.
Yes, healthy and complete protein is an important part of your diet. It was the first nutrient to be discovered and named and is vital to building, repairing and maintaining tissues in your body. Amino acids and are the building blocks of protein and 9 of the 20 amino acids that the body itself can’t produce is synthesized through the food we eat.
These amino acids can abundantly be found in plant based foods, where the animals get them, like cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, kale and many more plant foods.
The myth can be traced to two incidents in history.
The first was a statement made by Frances Moore Lappe in her best selling book ‘Diet For A Small Planet’ where she indicated that plant proteins were ‘incomplete’. 20 years later she recanted her theory saying she was badly mistaken (and other research has disproved her original theory as well), but far fewer people read those less popular writings and believe the flawed theory to this day. We do need all of the essential amino acids and plant foods do have them. However we don’t need them at every meal, every day since our body stores and recycles them. You can easily meet your daily protein (amino acid) requirements on a plant based diet.
The second is the meat, fish and poultry industries.
In order to sustain growth and profits in the meat industry, their trade associations promote meat as the only good source of protein. You hear everything from cowboy commercials on Radio Disney brainwashing elementary school children that ‘real cowboys’ eat beef and steak that make them strong and build healthy bones, to magazine and radio commercials touting the virtues of lean beef as healthy and complete sources of protein. The poultry and fish industries also promote, although not as obvious. The virtues of chicken and fish protein as healthy is often promoted through so called mainstream articles written in health related magazines and publications. These articles are written by dietitians, doctors, researchers and reporters often funded indirectly by associations promoting these industries to make sure consumers continue to buy.
So knowing all this, how much protein is needed?