“Are You Getting Enough Protein?”

If you’re a vegetarian, vegan, flexitarian, or have been one of the above in the past, then you’re probably familiar with the question, “Are you getting enough protein?” Similarly, “Where do you get your protein?” is another query frequently repeated by family members, friends, acquaintances, and even complete strangers. No matter how well meaning these people are, their belief can’t be further from the truth, which means that if you’re interested in reducing or completely eliminating meat protein from your diet, you can do so safely.

Before we get into some of the best vegan protein sources or what constitutes a complete protein, I thought it would be worth asking how many of you have heard of kwashiorkor before? In case you don’t know, the US National Library of Medicine calls it “a form of malnutrition that occurs where there is not enough protein in the diet.” Were we to accept the idea propagated by the question, “Are you getting enough protein?” then we’d expect to find vegetarians, vegans and even flexitarians who subsist mostly on plant-based meals would be suffering from this condition. However, medical data suggests that this condition occurs most commonly in poor countries when natural disasters or political conditions are responsible for a lack of food with only very rare, isolated occurrences in US children.

Still, an understanding of good nutrition is vital for everyone — vegetarian, vegan, flexitarian, and omnivore alike. It’s true that some types of plant-based proteins are incomplete proteins, meaning that they don’t contain all eight essential amino acids. (Psst…they’re essential because you’re body can’t produce them, and therefore, you need to get them from the food you eat.) However, there are others, like those found in whole soy — tofu, tempeh, soymilk, edamame, and Soyummi puddings — and some grains, like amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat, which are complete proteins and completely vegan.

For other incomplete proteins, you only need to ensure that you have a varied diet including legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds at some point during the day to ensure that you’re getting all the necessary amino acids. But if you take a look at the partial list below of some great vegan protein sources, then you can probably imagine that it’s pretty easy to get the necessary amount of protein:

• Chickpeas
• Pinto Beans
• Refried Beans
• Soybeans
• Cashews
• Peanuts
• Sesame Seeds
• Pistachios
• Tofu
• Lentils
• Avocado
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Peas
• Artichoke
• Asparagus
• Beet Greens

So load up on these vegan protein sources (and the others we’ll share with you later this month), so that the next time someone says there’s not enough protein in your vegetarian, vegan, or flexitarian diet, you can say, “Really? You think so…?”

Posted in: Food Talks
Tags: getting enough protein vegan protein sources not enough protein

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