Protein for vegetarians

[Guest guest]

Please understand that I'm not trying to be rude. I just want to clarify

something that is often misunderstood, misinterpreted, or just plain wrong.

There is no such thing as a " complete " protein. All proteins are

complete. The need to combine proteins is a myth, long ago explained. We

need all the amino acids (proteins) for good health, certainly, but in a

decent and varied diet, we get them all.

 

Here's what happened. Over 60 years ago (the 20s or 30s, I think), there

was an observation by a researcher regarding mice. This was an

_observation_ , not anything close to real or complete research. It

applied to baby _mice_, not humans. That bit of information was picked up

by someone else, and then by Frances Moore Lappe'. Lappe' wrote _Diet for

a Small Planet_ in the late 60s and it became the vegetarian bible.

Somehow she, too, had misinterpreted this silly notion about " complete " or

" complementary " proteins. The egg, for example, was considered a perfect

protein, because it has all the amino acids already in it.

 

So for vegans, the idea was that they had to combine, say, rice and beans

in order to have this " complete " protein. And many people claimed that a

vegan (or strict vegetarian) diet was dangerous and that only an ovo-lacto

vegetarian diet was healthy.

 

Well, it didn't take long. In the early 70s, Lappe' issued a new edition

of her book, apologizing for her grave error regarding the protein thing.

And there was a flurry of back-pedaling by a lot of people. Seems those

so-called " complete " proteins are useless. The human body breaks them all

down into separate proteins (amino acids) and then uses them individually,

not as one . . . not as anything close to one " complete " protein. There's

more, but I'm trying to make this brief.

 

Unfortunately, the complete or complementary protein myth just won't die.

Despite her retraction in her later book, people still cite Lappe's first

book. No research has ever shown that we need complete proteins, or that

there is such a thing.

 

When we first went veg, I checked into this and for the first time in

years, my college classes in research methods came into good use. I

tracked down sources and citations for 7 articles and books. Every last

one of them led back to Lappe's first book, and the incorrect assumptions

made about those darn mice and how it relates to humans. Backtracking

citations and sources is a pain, but it confirmed what I'd read: that it's

just not necessary to combine foods, it's only necessary to eat a varied

diet.

 

I still see this theory in all kinds of places and it just drives me nuts.

(Hey, we all have our quirks.) It still scares people away from

vegetarianism because it sounds like too much work to worry about combining

proteins (and, imo, it is!).

 

John Robbins has a better description of this mess in his book, _Diet for

a New America_. I'd've done better to quote him, but we're still not

unpacked from our move last fall. :-/ I highly recommend checking it

out at a local bookstore or library....even if you don't buy it, just read

the part about the protein myth for a clearer picture than I can give.

(Although it changed our lives, and I do recommend it for everyone.)

 

Being vegetarian or vegan is easy, and there's no need to worry or fret

over anything in our diets in terms of combining foods. I hope this

clarifies an old myth that just won't die.

 

And one last thing.... We really don't need much protein to begin with.

It's amazing how little we actually need. Too much is very harmful.

 

Debby, the protein cop ;-D