The Real Protein Comparison In Meat vs Plant Based – By Author Brenda Davis

Intro

but one thing that we do need to know is some plant-based diets are less healthful than others and so when we’re designing a diet like this little girl is eating 100 vegan snack coke and chips so we need to recognize that that you know all all plant-based diets are not created equal and there are a number of nutrients that people get uh concerned about uh where where plant-based diets are are when plant-based diets are consumed and so the second question is how can we ensure sufficient nutrients and we’ll talk about protein and iron and b12 omega-3 fatty acids calcium and iodine

Protein

so let’s begin with protein i love this cartoon it says no meat at all are you sure you’re getting enough protein and it’s a bizarro comic of course and this little it’s this little guy here at the bottom the little rodent is asking this big huge gorilla if if he’s sure he’s getting enough protein and the point being that if you look around the world the biggest strongest mammals on this planet build those mussels out of plants and so can we people do they can they do these guys are all 100 plant-based and in fact the guy on the right is a raw food plant-based

Scott York

well-planned 100 percent plant-based diets provide enough protein even for the fittest people on the planet this is scott york he’s an ultra marathon world champion and he set the appalachian trail record running nearly 80 kilometers a day for over 46 days he he has the u.s record in the 24-hour run 6.5 marathons in one day can you imagine that’s insane anyway he’s been 100 plant-based since 1999.

Where is protein concerned

so where protein is concerned there are two issues number one is the quantity issue can we get enough protein from plants and number two is the quality issue can we get all of these central amino acids we need from plants so let’s address question

How much protein do we need

number one how much protein do we actually need the rda is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight infants and children need more than this athletes need more than this it’s probably more also for seniors and people eating whole very whole food plant-based diets that are extremely high in fiber don’t include soy or more refined foods we have to add probably 10 percent to the rda so so here you can see the 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight and a little bit more for the pregnant and lactating women the children and the adolescents it’s only 0.85 so it’s not a lot higher for for adolescents just a tiny bit there is some suggestion that for seniors we you know right now we don’t have a separate rda for seniors they do in australia and and some other countries so and this is just because protein digestibility is reduced as we age we just can’t absorb as much and so there’s some consensus building that a consumption of 1 to 1.3 grams per kilogram body weight would help to reduce age-related muscle loss so that’s still

Why the 10

being debated so why the plus 10 percent for people eating whole food plant-based diets well it’s really just to compensate for the reduced digestibility due to the fiber and plant cell walls what it does is it takes some protein with it as it gets excreted so it’s not that the proteins any lesser it’s just that it it goes out the other end and so we could add uh 10 percent and and this is not necessary for lactose vegetarians you don’t have to add the 10 or for those eating things like tofu and soy milk regularly because the protein is is uh so highly available from those kinds of foods so if we look at the protein digestibility what you see is you know refined flour soy protein isolate peanut butter tofu whole wheat flour bread things that aren’t that high in fiber you’re absorbing about 92 to 96 percent of the protein from those foods and and that’s about the same as it is for animal products beef and fish are about 94 eggs about 97 so it’s a very similar range however for whole foods like oatmeal and lentils and most other legumes it’s lower and that’s why the plus 10 percent digestibility is increased when we soak and we sprout and we cook and we blend it makes the proteins more digestible when we do that so what are the average requirements well the average woman needs 46 grams of protein a day the average man 56 if we add that 10 it becomes 51 for women and 62 for men

Body weights

so and you can see for people of different body weights uh we’re looking at for 120 pound woman it’s 43 grams for 195 uh pound man it’s 80 grams and and so i’m sorry it’s 71 grams for for a large man now if it’s at 0.9 we’d be looking at 49 for a small 120 pound woman and about 80 for 195 pound man so that gives you some idea of of where where things are at so what are the actual intakes well in the adventist health study 2 meat eaters were close to 75 grams of protein a day vegetarians 70.6 and vegan 70.7 not a big difference at all now there was a bigger difference in epic oxford the meat eaters were higher at about 92.9 vegetarians at 74.2 and vegans had about 67.4 but you can see that all categories are well above recommended intakes so the richest plant sources of protein are things like soybeans tofu veggie meat they’re in about the same range as meat poultry and fish at around the 20 to 30 grams per serving and lentils and other legumes are very close at about 14 to 18 grams per cup of cooked legume and then we’ve got things like hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds and camus berries and spelt berries and amaranth and quinoa that range from about 8 to 13 per cup of cooked uh product and that’s about the same as a serving of milk or eggs two eggs and then we get a bit of protein in everything else that’s plant-based that’s not refined like oatmeal and nuts and spinach and other vegetables we need about 10 to 15 percent of calories from protein vegans are almost always in that range usually around 13 or 14 unless they’re eating more of the more concentrated protein foods and you can see if you look at foods fruits are the only food that consistently falls below the 10 percent nuts are generally around 10 to 15 some are at the lower end of the range that are very high in fat around 5 to 8. starchy vegetables around 8 to 12 seeds around 12 to 27 grains around 7 to 17 with a lot of grains in the range of of 13 14 15. non-starchy vegetables 20 to 40 percent of calories from protein and legumes 20 to 30 and soy about 40 percent of calories from protein

Nonstarchy Vegetables

so the one thing that people need to be aware of though is is that in plant especially non-starchy vegetables the protein is pretty dilute so ground beef is 39 of calories from protein and you get about 22 grams of protein in one three ounce patty spinach is also 39 percent of calories from protein but you would need to eat 25 cups of raw spinach to give you 22 grams of protein and this is really important because people often say oh well it’s the same percent of calories from protein so i can just eat a serving of spinach instead and get the same amount you’re not not quite you’re serving you need to be eating like a horse or a cow to get the same amount but if you compare ground beef to tofu ground beef 39 of calories from protein 22 grams in a patty tofu is 41 percent of calories from protein and about a half a cup gives you 22 grams of protein so in certain plant foods you’ve got very concentrated protein sources

Plant Based Menus

so this is really interesting i just gave a presentation to dietitians in edmonton alberta and they wanted to know more about protein in plant-based diets and so one of the things i did was calculate the protein in various menus to show them what you can get quite easily eating plants this is a menu with very few obvious protein sources so you’re having cold cereal and almond milk which is very low in protein and blueberries for breakfast you’re having a pita sandwich with a little hummus and an apple and an oatmeal cookie for lunch dinner pasta with just tomato veggie sauce a salad and balsamic dressing and your snacks are a fresh orange and a bit of trail mix so there’s not a lot of very concentrated protein sources in that in that uh menu but check this out your protein is 61 grams you remember even adding the 10 for women it was you only need about 51 and for men about 62 on average per day so even at a menu like this which doesn’t appear to have a lot of protein actually has a fair bit now here’s a whole food 100 percent plant-based menu so you’ve got camus berries and lentils as your breakfast bowl this is i have it in my breakfast bowl almost every day apples and blueberries seed mix some soy milk and then lunch is a full meal salad tofu quinoa tahini dressing an apple with some nut butter dinners a sweet potato with a bean filling and a kale salad and a fresh orange as a snack and what we’ve got is 85 grams of protein and then here’s a menu for someone that’s really focused on protein say an athlete they’ve got a green smoothie and they’ve added some frozen peas hemp seeds and soy milk they haven’t added any protein powder they’ve got pumpernickel toast with almond butter and banana lunch is a lentil soup with kale and a tofu salad sandwich on heavy whole grain bread and dinner is a veggie meatloaf with some gravy mashed carrots and potatoes broccoli and then they have an energy bar during the day and with that menu you’ve got 124 grams of protein and there’s no protein powder added or anything like that just to give you an idea of how simple it really is to meet the rda for protein

More Protein Not Better

and and one of the things i think that we need to be very aware of is more protein is not necessarily better this is a 2017 australian study that looked at protein intakes in children during the first five years of life and the children were averaging three times more protein than what was recommended and there were strong associations to early rapid growth we know how protein affects igf-1 levels insulin growth factor and and it contributed to overweight and obesity in these children and so we need to just know more protein is not necessarily better we need to get

We Need Enough Protein

enough but we don’t need to od on protein like most north americans do plant-based eaters generally get enough protein unless they get insufficient calories that is not a problem for most of us you know it’s a problem for people who maybe have anorexia nervosa or who are very ill they may not get enough calories and it can be a problem for people who eat inadequate diets that are very low in protein a high fat high sugar junk food diet so we see this sometimes in teenagers who swap out their burgers and fries for a double order of fries and a bigger coke and and they can end up with insufficient amounts of protein as can people who are on poorly planned fruitarian diets because fruits are tend to be quite low in protein

Essential Amino Acids

so what about the quality question can we actually get all of the essential amino acids we need from plants and the answer is absolutely yes animals don’t even make essential amino acids they’re actually made by plants all plants contain all nine essential amino acids and we get them from plants either directly or indirectly directly by eating plants or indirectly by eating animals that ate plants or very indirectly by eating animals that ate other animals that ate plants they’re made by plants it makes no sense to think we can’t get them from plants it’s where they come from so of course we can get them from plants but then people say well do we need to complement our proteins for example if we eat grains do we need to eat beans with the grains and the answer is no we’ve actually known for about 30 years now that we can get enough essential amino acids from plants providing that we eat a variety of foods over the course of the day including some protein-rich choices and we get enough calories it’s really that simple the practical

Practical Points

pointers where protein is concerned is we want to eat a variety of whole plant foods we want to limit intake of foods rich in added fat and sugar and we want to select protein foods at each meal ideally three or more servings of legumes and there are lots of legume choices we can sprout legumes we can put them in soups we can you know make them into a loaf like a lentil loaf we can make hummus there are all kinds of choices