So, Where do YOU Get Your Protein?

Last evening, I got a very lovely email from a gal named Amanda. (I just love when people take the time to email me directly…I love to find out more about the folks who drop by the blog for a visit….)
Amanda has a tough row to hoe, as her stepson has been diagnosed with PKU. For those of you not in the know, PKU is a genetic disorder causing the person to lack an enzyme necessary to process the amino acid phenylalanine. (Which seems to be in an awful lot of different foods, BTW…)

In part, Amanda’s email said the following:

I found your blog today because the Harlot linked to it. I found it to be fascinating and great at the same time. I have a few questions, however, and I was wondering if you could address them, or if they have been addressed elsewhere, let me know where.

I am wondering how you ensure that you get enough protein. How do you know how much you are getting, and how do you know if it's enough? How much protein does a person need?

Well, Amanda, I certainly am not qualified to address any of the specific protein needs of PKU patients, nor am I any kind of expert on anything except perhaps bathroom humour and bad language, but I can fill you in, (for what it’s worth) on protein in vegan diets as I see it.
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“SO, where do you get your protein?”(Other than all the sexy ways, of course….!) Good Lord, how weary I am of that question! And not because of the people who are doing the asking, because as long as they are asking it’s usually because they have a honest-to-goodness interest in the answer. (Like you, Amanda…:0) I think what gets me is that society as a whole has been so brainwashed into thinking that we need to eat animal products or we’re all going to disintegrate in the first puff of wind.

It’s a misconception that’s been years in the making, helped along by the meat, egg, and dairy industries. (Who only have your best interests at heart, truly they do…heh heh…)

The fact of the matter is, protein deficiency is pretty damn rare in the western world, where getting too much to eat is far more of an issue than not having enough. Simply stated, protein deficiency is not an issue for a well-fed vegan. Note that I say well fed.

You see, vegans can end up being deficient in protein, or minerals, or vitamins, or just about any essential nutrient. But then again, so can a vegetarian and so can an omnivore. No matter what philosophy or way of life floats your boat, you can choose to eat a shitty diet, or you can choose foods that nourish your body and your mind.

As a near-vegan, I can get up in the morning and have meself a couple of unfrosted Pop-tarts and a diet Pepsi, then have a veggie dog and French fries for lunch, followed by a bag of pretzels and a root beer in the afternoon. Then I can go home and have a jelly sandwich on white bread with a side of corn chips. Maybe some beer and deep-fried veggie pepperoni later on with my buds. I know it’s all vegan, but it certainly doesn’t qualify as good for me.

I think that’s a trap that a lot of new veg*ns can fall into, (I know I did) eating foods that are pretty damn low on the nutrient scale just because they can boast that they are now a “vegan”, and isn’t it great that Oreos are vegan? Maybe that’s why I dislike labels so much. “Vegan” is not necessarily synonymous with “healthy”.

Let’s take the example of a fictional person who really has no label to assign to themselves. (Let’s call her Myrtle, just because…) Myrtle eats the occasional free-range egg, deep water oily fish three times a week from sustainable fish stocks, loads up every day on a wide variety of organic fruits and vegetables, and noshes on the occasional piece of organic, free-range chicken. Myrtle also snacks on raw nuts and seeds, drinks lots of filtered water and herbal tea, and avoids caffeine, sugar, and alcohol, (except for a few glasses a week of some organic red wine.)

This person would of course would not qualify as a vegan or even a vegetarian, but would still be doing a better job of taking care of their health that a lot of veg*ns out there. Just adopting the title is not enough. (And please remember that I know I have not exactly been a paragon of virtue the last two years.....)


OK, I know what some of you are already indignantly saying: Some people don’t choose to go vegan for health reasons, they do it for the animals. Or for the environment. OK, sure. But when their health starts to suffer because of the over processed crapola they are shoveling into their bodies, what kind of message is that going to send to the people around them, the very people that they are likely hoping to recruit for the cause? Who is going to jump on the bandwagon of a diet they see as damaging to their health? (OK, I know that doesn’t seem to stop people from signing up for Atkins, even though you would have to be gobsmacked not to see that mess THAT plan will get ya into…)

And that’s been my focus more and more as me and the clan has been Livin’ la Vida Veggie. Not just to eat as vegan as possible, but to eat as vegan and as healthfully as possible. I want to absolutely radiate health and vitality. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? That’s a bandwagon I think folks would want to jump on. I’ve come to the realization that there simply is a large segment of the population for whom animal rights will just never resonate the same way it does for me.

Anyway, I’ve digressed a bit, but I’ll consider it background to the main question: Where do we get our protein? According to the World Health Organization, a healthy adult needs about .75 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. I currently weigh 68.2 kilograms, so that would mean I would need 51.15 grams of protein.

Let’s take as an example what I ate yesterday, before I received the email from Amanda. I made no special effort yesterday to watch my protein intake, and actually, as nutrition goes, yesterday was kinda marginal. (I can get a little lax about things as the week goes on and I get more burnt out…)

So, below is what I ate and the protein content in grams:

Tea
2 slices ww toast-6 grams
2 Tbsp peanut butter-8 grams

Large smoothie (I drank this all day) made of:
1 cup spinach- 1 gram
1/2 cup kale-1 gram
1/4 cup pineapple-0.5 grams
1.5 cups OJ-2.5 grams


Spring Vegetable Cup-a-Soup-2 grams
2 slices ww bread-6 grams
2 slices Tofurky-3.25 grams
1 slice Cheez-4 grams
1 Clementine-1 gram
1/2 chocolate bar with almonds-2 grams


2/3 cup mashed potato-3.2 grams
2/3 cup canned green beans-1 gram
3/4 cup homemade “hamburger helper” with WW rotini and soy ground round-16.5 grams
1 dealcoholized beer-1 gram

Grand total for the day: 58.95 grams of protein, and that’s without trying.

Now, another consideration for a vegan diet is that you eat a wide variety of foods, so that you take in all eight of the essential amino acids. That’s easy to do in a balanced, varied diet. Note that without trying, the above day’s menu contains whole grains, fruit, veg, legumes in the form of soy products, and nuts and seeds in the form of peanut butter and almonds. Just imagine how much better I could have done with a little forethought and a tad more motivation! Stock your house with high quality, nutrient dense food, and you can’t help but end up with a decent variety in your diet every day, (even when you don’t try too hard!)

Another reason that I don’t stress about protein is that a lot of whole foods that you wouldn’t even think of contain lots of protein, provided that you eat enough calories to maintain your body weight.

Take for example my daughter. According to the WHO, she should have 2200 calories a day and 56.8 grams of protein a day. Even if she were to find herself on a depressingly repetitive diet, as long as she was consuming her 2200 calories, she would take in the following:

-54 grams of protein on a 2200-calorie diet of baked potatoes with skin
-98 grams of protein on a 2200-calorie diet of whole-wheat English muffins
-66 grams of protein on a 2200-calorie diet of canned corn
-And 129 grams of protein from 2200 calories worth of kale. (Although God knows you’d have to do some serious chewing to make that work…)

OK, I know that such a one-item diet isn’t exactly going to supply all 8 amino acids, and I also know it would make you deficient in a whole lot of OTHER things, but you get where I’m going with this.

So I don’t waste one moment of sleep worrying about my family’s protein intake. I do make a conscious effort to generally monitor our intake of other nutrients, like B12, iron, calcium, and essential fatty acids, but not protein. As long as we try to make almost every calorie a high-quality calorie from all four vegan food groups (fruit, veg, legumes and whole grains) I don’t stress. (Notice I say almost…. there has to be a little room for fun in there too!)

So Amanda, I hope that this answers your question, at least a little bit. Good luck with that stepson of yours. Peace and happiness to you all.

PS: Could someone please print this post and mail it to my Mother in Law? Maybe then she'd stop stressing that we're all dying a slow death over here in Hootervile. Thanks.