Eating protein to get protein is as ridiculous as eating hair to grow hair. Protein is made up of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids in the food we eat. 9 of them cannot be produced by the body and must come from a food source. The best food source for these essential amino acids are grains, legumes, and vegetables. Meat is a very poor source for amino acids. The amino acids in grains, legumes, and vegetables are instantly available to start building into proteins. When you eat meat, the body must first break down the protien into amino acids to make them available for re-assumption as protein. You end up with more saturated fats and other non usable garbage than you do with protein. By going via the garden variety to get your protein, you not only get more protein per pound of food eaten, you also get more of the minerals your body needs and less of the fats.
Although I believe whole heartedly in a vegetarian diet, I have never been one to preach it. I learned a long time ago that people can be very sensitive about the idea of giving up their cadaver based diets. You can challenge their religion, their politics, their bad habits, anything except their meat consumption! So if eating meat is so right for most people, then why do we have to practice so much denial about what we are really doing! That's right, denial. Most of us could never kill what we eat. We don't even want to know what animals go thru from birth to their final moments of life at the slaughter house. Why do you think that slaughter houses are as hard to get into as a top secret military base? I'm not going to go into graphic details about this stuff, the information is out there.
Denial is an amazing thing. We so readily buy into the protein lie because it's what we want to hear, and why let a little thing like facts get in the way of our beliefs? I saw a fellow with a sign the other day that showed an aborted baby along with some anti abortion message. That's great! Lets get real about all of our denials. We should know what abortion looks like. We should also know what a terrified pig looks like that is getting his throat pierced as he is hoisted by his hind legs, screaming on his way to the carving room (sorry, I went into a graphic detail). We should know the sight of 40 caskets being unloaded from a military plane. Teenagers in drivers ed should be taken at least once to an automobile accident scene before they clean up the gory after mess caused by a drunk driver. Maybe if we were more honest with ourselves about the reality of things, we would make better choices.
About Me: I am a baby boomer and a true product of the sixties. Although a lot of great ideals came out of that era, my generation made a lot of mistakes as well. I have tried to take the best of those ideals, as well as the lessons learned from my life experiences along the way, and hone them into a philosophy that gives me direction and purpose. This philosophy of mine is a witless blend of one part liberal, two parts practical, and three parts spiritual, mixed with just enough dry humor....to make you want to puke. This wouldn't be such a terrible thing if it weren't for the fact that I like to write. But I do. I hope you enjoy.
"...cadaver based diets" - YUM
"Most of us could never kill what we eat." - Does fish count? I would probobly kill a deer if I liked venison. If I shoot a cow I'll probably go to jail. Unless it is my own cow.
"So if eating meat is so right for most people, then why do we have to practice so much denial about what we are really doing!" - No denial here. Love beans too.
Informational, well written. Can you cook my vegetarian meals, Joe? Gosh. I just like meat, not for the protein, of course.
Joe's reply....Mike, since I have personally witnessed you eat a worm, I have no doubt you could eat anything. However, I would have not guessed that you could shoot a deer or a cow. Your still a great guy in my book!
As an Ag scientist, I have been there for both the birth and death of my food. I don't eat meat for the protein, I eat it cuz I like it--I won't deny it. I was gnoshing on a hotdog as I read this. (Do hot dogs count as meat?) I get maybe 2-3 servings of vegetables in a week.
My triglycerides are an astonishing 82 though. My girlfriend nagged me into a physical because of my poor dietary habits. When the numbers came back, she quit bugging me about my lack of greens consumption.
You're correct about the protein of course, but isn't it true that some aminos must be eaten in combination so that one gets the full benefits? Corn and beans, eg.
Might you give us a little more information?
Joe's reply....The truth is that most plant foods do contain all the essential amino acids, but furthermore, your body will store amino acids in a pool between meals — it doesn’t even need to get all the essentials in a single meal. So the theory of combining plant foods to form complete proteins isn’t even remotely correct.
Then why do those folks in front of CNF look like scarecrows? ;)
Joe's reply....Crank
Seriously, Joe.
Found this!
Explains why so many people are misinformed.
Written by Jeff Novick, M.S., R. D. for the May 2003 edition of Healthy Times:
Recently, I was teaching a nutrition class and describing the adequacy of plant-based diets to meet human nutritional needs. A woman raised her hand and stated, “I’ve read that because plant foods don’t contain all the essential amino acids that humans need, to be healthy we must either eat animal protein or combine certain plant foods with others in order to ensure that we get complete proteins.”
I was a little surprised to hear this, since this is one of the oldest myths related to vegetarianism and was disproved long ago. When I pointed this out, the woman identified herself as a medical resident and stated that her current textbook in human physiology states this and that in her classes, her professors have emphasized this point.
I was shocked. If myths like this not only abound in the general population, but also in the medical community, how can anyone ever learn how to eat healthfully? It is important to correct this misinformation because many people are afraid to follow healthful, plant-based, and/or total vegetarian (vegan) diets because they worry about “incomplete proteins” from plant sources.
How did this “incomplete protein” myth become so widespread?
No small misconception
The “incomplete protein” myth was inadvertently promoted in the 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe. In it, the author stated that plant foods do not contain all the essential amino acids, so in order to be a healthy vegetarian, you needed to eat a combination of certain plant foods in order to get all of the essential amino acids. It was called the theory of “protein complementing.”
Frances Moore Lappe certainly meant no harm, and her mistake was somewhat understandable. She was not a nutritionist, physiologist, or medical doctor. She was a sociologist trying to end world hunger. She realized that there was a lot of waste in converting vegetable protein into animal protein, and she calculated that if people just ate the plant protein, many more people could be fed. In a later edition of her book (1991), she retracted her statement and basically said that in trying to end one myth—the unsolvable inevitability of world hunger, she created a second one—the myth of the need for “protein complementing.”
In these later editions, she corrects her earlier mistake and clearly states that all plant foods typically consumed as sources of protein contain all the essential amino acids, and that humans are virtually certain of getting enough protein from plant sources if they consume sufficient calories.
Amino acid requirements
Where did the concept of “essential amino acids” come from? In 1952, William Rose and his colleagues completed research that determined the human requirements for the eight essential amino acids. They set the “minimum amino acid requirement” by making it equal to the greatest amount required by any single person in their study. To set the “recommended amino acid requirement,” they simply doubled the minimum requirements. This “recommended amino acid requirement” was considered a “definitely safe intake.”
Today, if you calculate the amount of each essential amino acid provided by unprocessed plant foods and compare these values with those determined by Rose, you will find that any single one, or combination, of these whole natural plant foods provides all of the essential amino acids. Furthermore, these whole natural plant foods provide not just the “minimum requirements” but provide amounts far greater than the “recommended requirements.”
Modern researchers know that it is virtually impossible to design a calorie-sufficient diet based on unprocessed whole natural plant foods that is deficient in any of the amino acids. (The only possible exception could be a diet based solely on fruit.)
Pride and prejudice
Unfortunately, the “incomplete protein” myth seems unwilling to die. In an October 2001 article in the medical journal Circulation on the hazards of high-protein diets, the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association wrote, “Although plant proteins form a large part of the human diet, most are deficient in one or more essential amino acids and are therefore regarded as incomplete proteins.”1 Oops!
Medical doctor and writer John McDougall wrote to the editor pointing out the mistake. But in a stunning example of avoiding science for convenience, instead of acknowledging their mistake, Barbara Howard, Ph.D., head of the Nutrition Committee, replied on June 25, 2002 to Dr. McDougall’s letter and stated (without a single scientific reference) that the committee was right and “most (plant foods) are deficient in one or more essential amino acids.” Clearly, the committee did not want to be confused by the facts.
Maybe you are not surprised by this misconception in the medical community. But what about the vegetarian community?
Behind the times
Believe it or not, an article in the September 2002 issue of Vegetarian Times made the same mistake. In a story titled “Amazing Aminos,” author Susan Belsinger incorrectly stated, “Incomplete proteins, which contain some but not all of the EAAs [essential amino acids], can be found in beans, legumes, grains, nuts and green leafy vegetables.... But because these foods do not contain all of the EAAs, vegetarians have to be smart about what they eat, consuming a combination of foods from the different food groups. This is called food combining.”
That's what I get for believing those textbooks!
Thanks, Joe.
Joe's reply....Thanks for sharing that Quentin. I can tell you that I have been a vegetarian for about 35 years now (except for some fish) and I am a healthy 270 pounds. Resting heart rate about 75, blood pressure excellent, and bad coleserol measures about 120.