Where Do Vegans Get Their Protein? by Brenda Davis

protein of course that is the first question everyone gets asked is where do you get your protein because in our culture we put animal protein on this kind of pedestal and it’s the protein source if you’re not eating meat and eggs and poultry and fish how can you get enough protein and that’s what most people really believe the reality of course is different it is absolutely possible to get enough protein on a plant-based diet

there are really two issues where protein is concerned one is the issue of quantity can we get any you know enough grams of protein the other is the issue of quality is the quality of plant protein sufficient to support sort of the growth of a child or is it enough to support you know muscle building and all of these things so looking at issue number one can we get enough protein from a plant-based diet well we can get at the again the answer is absolutely not a problem we need about 10 to 15% of calories from protein us you know and that sort of World Health Organization recommendation which allows some you know there’s a little bit of padding there so so 10 to 15% well if you look at the percent of calories from protein and plant foods what you see is the we’re right in there so for example we get about 15 to 40 percent of calories from protein from beans and from non starchy vegetables so green leafy vegetables about 15 to 40 percent of the calories in these foods is coming from protein and and so look at those and then you look at grains it’s about 7 to maybe 17 or 18 percent of calories from protein nuts and seeds well nuts a you know 5 to 15 seeds probably 12 to 20 percent of calories from protein

the only categories of plant foods that are under 10 percent our starchy vegetables at about 8 to 12 so a few starchy vegetables that come in a little bit low and and fruits which are probably one to ten percent of calories from protein so if you eat a mix of whole plant foods and you get enough calories it’s almost impossible not to get enough protein the only ways that you can really blow it aren’t number one by eating a lot of junk so you eat a lot of oil which has no protein a lot of sugar which has no protein you get 50 percent of your calories from oil and sugar you don’t get enough protein but if you’re eating whole plant foods it’s just not a problem

the second way of blowing it would be to eat mostly fruit if all your eating is fruit for completely fruitarian diet protein could be an issue and I’ve seen people on fruitarian diets where they start to lose their hair their skin kind of gets you know just thinner or something like that and so we see some protein deficiencies but generally if people are eating a variety of food and getting enough calories which isn’t an issue for most North Americans a protein is not not a big deal and and then the second part of the equation is quality and so one of the things that people often say is well plant protein is deficient in or limited in essential amino acids or what we also call indispensable amino acids and the reality there is that plant type foods or plants are actually the sources of essential amino acids it makes zero sense to think we can’t get them from plants it’s where they come from they all come from plants animals have lots of essential amino acids in you know a really good amount but they got them at some point along the food chain from the planets so we can get them from plants to it and and it’s true that some plants have a little less you know grains have less lysine and-and-and-and beans may have a little bit less methionine but the reality is if we eat a variety of foods over the course of the day we actually store amino acids and protein pools in our bodies and and so let’s say all you eat is lentils at one meal and all you eat is you know bread at another meal you would actually be drawing on when you eat the bread you would be drawing on the pools of amino acid to get the extra lysine you need to build the proteins that you need to build so it’s it’s really not not a huge issue

now the other part of that question is is it ever a concern can people you know eating plant-based diets fall short and it’s a concern for a few groups number one small children they need more protein we need adults need about 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight if you’re eating purely plants you digest a little less protein it more goes out in your stools so we would up at 10 percent and say probably 0.9 grams per kilogram body weight a children need more they’ll need you know 1 1.2 1.4 depending on how young they are and and so we need to be more conscious because children quite often they like to eat their pasta they like to eat their bread they like to eat their crackers and they may not like to eat their beans as much and so we need to be a little more you know conscious about giving them good sources of protein the other groups are athletes and seniors believe it or not

so athletes require us if they’re competitive athletes somewhere usually between 1.2 or 1.3 and 1.7 or up to one point nine grams of protein per kilogram body weighted if they’re competitive and it’s not an usually much of an issue because a lot of these athletes are eating four or five thousand calories a day so it’s easy to get that amount of protein but it they do if specially if they’re you know really conscious of weight and and restricting calories a bit then they do need to be somewhat more conscious now for these seniors what’s happening with seniors is they are less able to break protein down into amino acids and absorb the protein into the bloodstream so there are actually some countries saying that if they actually they’re their national recommendations are for 25 percent your protein intake for seniors than for other adults and and why is this a problem this is a problem because you take a man who’s 40 years old and he’s eating 2800 calories and he’s getting 20% of his calories from protein he’s eating 140 grams of calories from protein you eat a man are you you look at a man who’s and this is a lot of protein 20% this is not 10 or 15 but you take a man who’s 80 and he’s eating 20% of calories from protein but he’s only eating 60 cat 1600 calories his protein intake could be 80 grams which is right what is recommended for seniors by a lot of countries now so but it means that if they’re eating a you know a smaller number of calories they need to be including more of those legumes and protein rich foods in their diet the seeds and so forth