What I’m about to share with you is going to BLOW YOUR MIND. So, get ready for some serious paradigm shifts. Keep an open mind, because I’m seriously going to make you question a lot of what you’ve been told. In fact, I was talking to a rancher the other day in my clinic, and he seriously warned me that I may not make it out of the clinic alive. (I think he was joking…)
This is probably the single greatest myth that has caused the most problems for us in the last 100 years to do detriment to our health. That protein is the greatest of all the macronutrients. We have been told most of our lives that sufficient, high quality protein is necessary for good health. And, that the best source of protein is from animal products: low-fat milk, chicken, fish, lean beef. If you had nutrition education, you may have even learned that plants do have protein, but it is incomplete protein, and needs to be combined with other incomplete proteins to be effective. That animal based proteins are complete and therefore the highest quality available.
(Macronutrient: fat, carbohydrate, protein)
(Micronutrients: vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc.)
To be frank, this is some truth mixed with very effective advertising. Here is a little background to help you understand where we began with this myth(s). This is a very brief explanation of what happened when we first started with the government and nutrition, so, I know that there is more detail and explanation, but I’m just hitting some highlights. When the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) was started in 1914, it had (and still maintains) strong ties to meat, dairy and farming.
In the 1940’s, in an effort to educate the public, the USDA started teaching the public how they understood (at the time) good nutrition was achieved. They produced a guide, A Guide to Good Eating, with emphasis on what they defined the 7 food groups to be.
There were 7 food groups back in those days, they were:
- Leafy, green, and yellow vegetables (1 or more servings/day)
- Citrus, tomatoes, raw cabbage (1 or more servings/day)
- Potatoes and other vegetables and fruits (2 or more servings/day)
- Milk, cheese, ice cream (Children: 3-4c. milk; Adults: 2 or more cups)
- Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dried peas, beans (1-2 servings/day)
- Bread, flour, cereals whole grains, enriched, restored (every day)
- Butter and fortified margarine (some daily)
As you can see, at the time, more than half of what we were supposed to be eating was either animal-based or processed foods. We are getting better at what we should and shouldn’t be eating. Today, in 2016, the USDA recommends the Choose My Plate. It is still recommended to drink milk (that will be a post for another day), but they have replaced “meat, poultry, fish, eggs, etc.” simply with “Protein.” This is a subtle way to support current research that says animal protein is not healthy and still not offend the animal industry. In looking at the Choose My Plate, there is only one category that is animal based and none that recommend processed foods. I think that is progress. I wonder if the lone fork may also be a subtle nod to “Forks over Knives.” I hope so.
Alright, back to the protein myth: Back in the day, somewhere, we were told that we should have 20% or more of our diet devoted to protein intake. That this was a healthy thing to do. As time has progressed, and we have been studying diet, we have discovered that diets that have greater than 10% protein (especially animal-based proteins) cause illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and high cholesterol, and many, many more. If we are eating more protein than we need, they excess protein is stored as fat or it is excreted with along with vital nutrients such as calcium, and it is hard for the kidneys to process and excrete excess calcium. (Plantrician Project Quick Start Guide) Eventually, you end up with a kidney problem like kidney failure.
The job of protein is to build cells, organs and muscles. Once we are adults, we need to maintain our bodies, not build them! If we keep building, then we end up with more fat, clogging our arteries and taxing our organs to process the extra protein that we are consuming.
Did you know that all vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds contain protein? And, it is not true that we have to combine incomplete proteins for our body to use them well. If you are eating a variety of plants, vegetables, grains, seeds, you will be consuming enough protein for your body to replace what you need. The latest research says that we need 0.8grams per kilogram of protein a day to meet our needs. Even looking at vegan’s diets, they are meeting that goal and usually exceeding it. So, a 150lb. person will need about 55grams of protein a day. A sample menu for a vegan is shown below to illustrate how easy it is meet this daily goal:
Meal | Protein |
Breakfast: 1c. oatmeal with blueberries, walnuts, and 1c. soymilk | 17g |
Lunch: Split pea soup, whole grain bread, with hummus and garden salad | 21g |
Snack: apple and nut butter | 4g |
Dinner: Black beans and brown rice in corn tortillas with avocado and salsa | 18g |
Total | 60g |
(Sample menu taken from Plantrician Project Quick Start Guide)
Plenty of protein in that day’s menu! And it looks good.
One of my favorite websites, Nutrition Facts has over 130 videos explaining protein and how it contributes to specific diseases, causes disease, and how we can mitigate the risks. A great video that concisely reviews some of this history I described above is, The Great Protein Fiasco. Go give it a listen, it is only 5 ½ minutes. And then, type in “protein” to the search bar and investigate what we now know and are still learning about protein.