When people of my age were growing up you had to have your protein (oh and your calcium).  Meat and protein were the same thing in our minds.  There was no idea that protein existed anywhere but meat, eggs, milk and cheese.   No-one said you’ve got to have your carbohydrates!  You’ve got to have your fibre!  It turns out getting your carbohydrates and particularly your fibre is much more unlikely these days and much more important.

Like  many people I went through a transition from meat, eggs and dairy eater to vegetarian(so tons of cheese and eggs as I was worreid about getting enough protein!) but with kangaroo meat.  I ate the kangaroo meat as I thought it was better for me (low in fat, compared to pigs, sheep  and cattle) and better for  the environment: no hard hooves breaking up the fragile Austrlalian soils and no overgrazing (kangaroos have lived here a long time in harmony with plants, not like  sheep and cattle, where you can  drive along native pasture and see the difference inside the fence to outside the fence where the sheep and cattle are not).  Of course, I didn’t think too much about the cruelty of kangaroo shooting.

Then when I became vegan, whole food plant based diet, I was extremely concerned about “where was I going to get my protein?”    We recently walked for 8 weeks in Nepal and on the Everest Base Camp trek I talked with young people eating lots of eggs as they were concerned about where were they going to get their protein.  The more realistic concern was where am I going to get my carbohydrate to give the energy to  walk to Everest Base Camp.

Consequently, when I first became a vegan, I used to like to eat tofu and tempeh at least a couple of  times per week.  Now I hardly eat them at all.  I really like tempeh but in the small country town where I live you can’t buy tempeh.  I have given up worrying about protein at all.  If you are getting enough food to sustain life, you are getting enough protein.  Protein is everywhere.  If something has a structure it has protein.    Think of any food from strawberries to sweet potato to beans:they have all got protein.

The other thing we knew about and many people still believe is that meat, eggs and dairy provided ‘complete’ protein, meaning they contain all of the amino acids and are therefore superior sources of protein to plant sources which don’t contain all of the amino acids and which are therefore inferior sources of proteins.  The protein we eat is broken down into amino acids as part of the digestive process in our gut and is reconstituted by our body into the proteins we need.  So, whether they come all  together or not is not important.  The irony is that we need very little protein in our diet and getting our protein from animal based sources is actually bad for us not good for us and getting our protein from plants is good for us, not bad for us.   Why?

• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating fat( a lot of fat) and the fat you eat, is the fat you wear.  People  who are overweight, have shorter lifespans than thinner people, are much more likely to be sick and have a poorer quality of life, for example in relation to mobility, joint problems, rhuematoid arthritis, just to name a few
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of saturated fat.  This what is blocking our arteries and leading to angina, heart attacks and strokes
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of cholesterol which is blocking our arteries  leading to angina, hearts and strokes
• When we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are eating a lot of protein and guess what!  Eating  a lot of protein is not good for you.  Meat, eggs and dairy are approximately 30 % protein and approx 60% fat.   Our highest period of growth and therefore our need for protein is highest is when we are a baby, so how much protein does mother’s milk, the perfect food for a baby  have?  5%.  Any adult getting enough food to live on is going to be getting more than  5%.

It turns out that the higher the intake of protein, the more increase the chance of cancer.  Intuition or common sense would tell you that.  What is cancer?  Runaway growth.  What is needed for growth?  Protein.   The body is not as simple as that.  Everything we eat and everything we do works in a complex way to produce a result.

• when we are eating meat, eggs and dairy we are not getting any fibre and fibre has many valuable assets for the body, not the least of which is to fill us up, so we are not hungry.  As we can’t digest fibre which only comes in plants, it fills us up without providing any calories, it is the toxins and rubbish collector and is essential for healthy bowel movements.
• when we are eating meat, dairy and  eggs we have different bacteria in our gut than if we are eating plants.  A recent discovery is that choline a substance in meat, dairy and eggs is changed by bacteria in gut of people for whom that is their normal diet into substance TMAO which is laid down in our arteries leading to blocked arteries.  This is another pathway where animal foods contribute to heart attacks and  strokes.

So, forget about worrying about getting enough protein-just enjoy your food.  If you reduce or cease meat(including fish and chicken by the way), eggs and dairy and increase potatoes, grains, fruits and veggies, you will enjoy your food more.  Two reasons, you will feel better, not so weighed down(if you are overweight you will lose some) and as your taste buds won’t be dominated by all that  fat you were eating you will be able to start to taste some other things and enjoy those flavours.

Happy eating and good health!

Gary