Protein Myth

[Guest guest]

Matthew,

 

Most people in this society would seek medical help long before they got to

a state of kwashiorkor or marasmus. (Though, sadly, there are some people

out there who would stick with their dietary dogma to the harm of themselves

or their children.)

 

Before accepting any sort of challenge, I would want to know what you mean

by " protein deficient diet. " What I mean by such a term is that the person

eating it is not eating enough protein to maintain the amount of nitrogen

(which is found in protein, but not carbs or fat) that they have in their

body. In negative nitrogen balance, you are losing more nitrogen than you

are taking in. This means you are breaking down protein in order to use it

for energy. People tend to be close to zero nitrogen balance where they take

in about what they excrete. The RDA's for protein are intended to make sure

that 97% of people stay in nitrogen balance. Though I haven't read much of

this, anyone who is interested in how the RDA for protein is formulated can

look here:

 

http://books.nap.edu/books/0309085373/html/465.html#pagetop

 

Pretty sophisticated " myth " , huh? : )

 

Because it is for 97% of the population, most people do not need to meet the

RDA in order to stay in nitrogen balance. Because vegetable protein isn't

quite as bioavailable as animal protein, many vegan health professionals

have suggested that vegans increase their protein RDA from .8 grams per

kilogram of healthy body weight to .9 grams per kilogram. In pounds, that's

..4 grams per pound of healthy body weight.

 

For most people eating a varied vegan diet, you can meet these requirements

on paper by simply meeting your caloric needs. However, there has been very

little research on vegans and nitrogen balance. This is the only study I've

been able to find (though I haven't contacted others to see if there are any

papers that pre-date PubMed or which are not abstracted on it):

 

http://tinyurl.com/fzri

 

If you read that abstract, you will see that the diet was rather odd. I

don't even know what they would mean by " raw brown rice " . I didn't think

rice can be digested when raw. But, the diet highest in calories was 32

kcal/kg which seems adequate and that person was still in negative nitrogen

balance. (If the rice was really raw, it could explain why as none of the

nutrients from it was probably available. Maybe one of the raw foodists

could enlighten me about raw rice.)

 

Other than nitrogen balance, there is the effect of protein in reducing the

rise in blood sugar compared to carbohydrates. Some people just seem to do

better eating more protein. Or so they think they do; it hasn't been studied

very thoroughly.

 

Here's a little more about what I have to say about protein:

 

http://www.veganoutreach.org/health/stayinghealthy.html#protein

 

I will be updating that protein table with more foods soon. Until then, you

can see the larger table in my column in the next issue of Veg News!

 

Jack Norris, RD, Vegan Outreach

916/375-0014

jacknorris

http://veganoutreach.org

 

 

> Thank you, Laurie. That saves me some breath.

>

> To all of you still not convinced, let me ask you this. Have you

> ever heard of any of your friends, colleagues, acquaintances, even

> friends of friends who were protein-deficient? Have you ever heard

> of kwashikor or erasmus? Chances are, unless you're anorexic or

> living in a third world country, those words are greek (or likely

> latin) to you. That's exactly my point. Those are the diseases of

> protein deficiency and Laurie was spot on when she said if you're

> eating enough calories, you're getting enough protein.

>

> Want a frustrate a dietician? Challenge him or her to create a 2000

> calorie protein deficient diet. Are you up for the challenge,

> Jack?

>

> Cheers,

> Matthew

>

> sfBAVeg , " Laurie " <lulubuns> wrote:

> > It is a myth that humans need such a large amount of protein. As

> long

> > as you are eating enough calories for your body weight, you are

> > getting enough protein. Information obtained from John Robbins'book

> > Diet For A New America:according to the World Health Organization,

> > humans need just 4 1/2 percent of our calories to come from protein.

> > Example of protein contents(Data obtained from USDA):

> > Banana 5%, Orange 8%,Peanuts 18%, Oatmeal 15%, Eggplant 21%,

> garbanzo

> > beans 23%, soybean curd (tofu) 43%

> > Basically you would have to try very hard to become protein

> deficient,

> > for example eating nothing but candy and alcohol.

>