People who are vegetarian often get asked if they eat a lot of soy products. The assumption is that because vegetarians don’t eat animal tissues they need to have soy protein in their diet. But what many people don’t seem to understand is that you don’t need to eat protein-dominant plants to get protein into your system.

 

Some vegetarians and vegans also get caught up in the belief that they need soy in their diet as a sort of replacement for meat. They do this by eating all sorts of soy bean products – soy milk, soy ice cream, soy yogurt, tofu everything, soy burgers, soy powders, soy cheese, and soy custards and puddings.

 

The structure and fluids of the human body are made up of proteins, so people tend to think that we need to eat protein in the form of flesh to build our tissues. This is a misconception that drives people to focus on eating diets that are chiefly protein, which is rough on the system. This misconception also has helped to fuel the animal farming industry, slaughterhouses, deforestation, animal cruelty, heart attacks, colon cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, kidney disease, and the hospital and pharmaceutical drug industries on a massive global scale.

 

You do not need to eat animal flesh to get protein.

 

If you don’t eat animal flesh, you don't need to eat soy products to get protein.

 

Your body needs amino acids to build protein. Proteins are made out of chains of amino acids. There is an abundance of amino acids in live fruits, vegetables, and other edible plant substances. The body makes the protein it needs out of the amino acids obtained through the foods you eat.

 

There are amino acids in all plants.

 

Even when a person eats animal protein, the body does not simply transfer that protein into the tissues of the body. The body takes the amino acids from the protein to form the type of amino acid chains it needs.

 

A balanced live vegan diet provides an abundance of amino acids from a variety of live plant substances.

 

I use animals as examples of natural vegans. The natural diet of cows, horses, gorillas, giraffes, deer, moose, goats, hippopotamuses, and elephants consists of plants. Their bodies make protein out of the substances within the plants, and their diets chiefly consist of green leaves.

 

I don’t depend on soy, or any one particular plant, for protein in my diet. The only soy I consume consists of raw soy beans, and usually tossed into a salad. I eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, seeds, and sea vegetables. My body gets more than enough protein-building properties in the form of amino acids from the variety of foods that I eat.

 

 “Perhaps the biggest misconception in the field of nutrition is the confusion between fat and protein. When someone says, ‘I need protein,’ what they really need and want is fat. Most people and nutritionists cannot distinguish between the desire for fat and the desire for protein. Many raw-food advocates have recommended nuts for protein, when in reality the value of nuts is in their fat. People can give up steak much easier than cheese, because steak is mostly protein, whereas cheese is mostly fat.”

– David Wolfe

 

Mushrooms are a protein-dominant food. But they aren’t a plant, they are a fungus. They are okay to eat in moderation. They contain the mineral potassium as well as nutritional compounds, including some glyconutrients, that improve the immune system, and that may help prevent cancer.

 

I have reservations about picking my own mushrooms from the wild, as I know that certain types of mushrooms can make you very ill, and others can kill you. Of course there are also mushrooms that can open your mind. Mushrooms that fall under the poisonous category make up only a small fraction of the variety of mushroom species. I prefer to purchase mushrooms from people who are educated about mushrooms – such as the family who have a stand at the local farmers’ market.

 

Dietary protein can also be obtained from legumes, which are protein-dominant seeds. These include chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), kidney beans, lentils, mung beans, and soybeans. Protein-dominant foods can be harsh on the system. To increase the presence of amino acids and enzymes in legumes, soak them for several hours in water, or sprout them over three to six days by keeping them moist in a clean place (being sure to thoroughly rinse them at least once a day, and preferably two or three times). Soaking or sprouting legumes increases their nutritional value, making them less heavy and harsh on the digestive system.

 

Don’t believe the nonsense put out by the meat and dairy industries that advise people to consume meat, milk, and eggs to get protein into their diet. Even the United States government programs that supposedly establish nutrition “requirements” – such as the food triangle – are flawed.

 

The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (USRDA) standards, and the government’s food triangle, were largely created using money from trade groups supported by the meat, dairy, and egg industries.

 

It is no secret that many of the people who work for the FDA and USDA are people who have worked or eventually work for some branch of the meat, dairy, and egg trade groups – often through employment with lobbying groups that work to get laws passed to increase government welfare for the meat, dairy, and egg industries – and usually for large, corporate farming interests.

 

In addition, much of the nutritional information presented to children in their classrooms is flawed, and is most often provided free to school systems from organizations supported by the meat and dairy industries. Included in this biased and flawed information is the advice that humans should eat a large amount of animal protein. Again, this information is propaganda financed by the meat, dairy, and egg industries.

 

What you won’t hear in the advertising of meat, dairy, and eggs is that people who consume the largest amounts of animal protein also experience degenerative diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancers, etc., in conjunction with the amount of animal flesh, milk, and eggs they consume.

 

To obtain the high-grade protein your body needs to build healthy tissues, stick to eating a variety of edible plants, and especially green vegetables, sprouts, and sea vegetables.

 

© 2009 John McCabe