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?

Find out.

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