Vegetarian Times Spreads Protein Misinformation

September 20, 2002

This appeared in the latest edition of the McDougall Newsletter. I

find it strange that Vegetarian Times would endorse the view that

vegetarians have to worry about protein combining. Dr. McDougall has

been fighting that issue with the AHA, and now Veg Times has come out

with the same misinformation.

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An Update on " Plants are Complete Protein "

Thank you for sharing my concern that influential people are

spreading misinformation about the nutritional value of plant foods.

In summary, the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association

has taken the scientifically unsupportable position that plant foods

are deficient in amino acids and therefore must be classified as

incomplete proteins. I have tried to correct their error. You can

read all about this in the August 2002 McDougall Newsletter at

www.drmcdougall.com. So far, even after my letters and yours, they

have failed to make any correction or further comment.

By coincidence, the September 2002 issue of the magazine Vegetarian

Times has taken a similar position with an article from the monthly

feature " goingveg, " called " Amazing Aminos, " by Susan Belsinger. She

says, " Incomplete proteins, which contain some but not all of the

EAAs (essential amino acids), can be found in beans, legumes, grains,

nuts and green leafy vegetables—from the good stuff vegetarians

love. But because these foods do not contain all of the EAAs,

vegetarians have to be smart about what they eat, consuming a

combination of foods from the different food groups. This is

called `food combining. "

I have contacted the editor, Laurel Lund, and asked her to review the

scientific issues around their incorrect statements and get back to

me. So far I have not heard of any plans from the people of

Vegetarian Times to correct this very serious error in basic science

that undermines the vegetarian movement – surprising!

September 20, 2002

Although it is true that we can get almost complete proteins (minus B12) from

combining the right veg foods, I also believe in the theory that combining

proteins and starches is hard on our digestive systems, which have difficulty

processing the two together, taking a great deal of energy. Proteins are

digested by acid digestive juices, starches by alkaline, so when the two get

together they tend to cancel each other out. So our bodies keep producing more

and more of both to get the job done, taking a great deal of energy and often

leading to gas and indigestion anyway.

There is a lot to be said about careful food combining in general. There are

reasons why folks get gas from eating beans (including tofu) even alone, which

in and of themselves ARE a combination of a protein and starch. There are ways

to get around this if you soak and cook your own, but in my experience it

doesn't always work. It's mainly Westerners who have this problem, whose systems

generally haven't evolved to the point that, say, Asians have who have been

eating tofu forever and digest it more easily.

Same goes for fruit combined with other foods - any other foods. If someone says

they can't eat fruit because they get gas, etc., it's most likely because they

combine it with other foods, when it is best to eat it alone on an empty

stomach, like in the morning.

Basically, if you're a veg and want your proteins, you will probably just have

to put up with the gas and possible indigestion. But better that than kills

animals for food and help destroy our environment!

My two cents - wow, twice this week!

Sue

kmeldrum wrote:This appeared in the latest edition of the McDougall Newsletter.

I