Animal Protein vs Plant Protein

There are many who believe that eating a plant-based diet will leave them protein deficient.

It is easy to understand why many would believe this is the case. Below is a list of food ranked by the PDCAAS (protein digestibility corrected amino acid score), which is the measure of protein quality used by the World Health Organization. The list comes from Wikipedia.

1-1.21 cow's milk
1-1.18 eggs
1 casein (milk protein)
1 soy protein
1 whey (milk protein)
0.99 mycoprotein
0.92 beef
0.91 soy
0.87 Sacha Inchi Powder
0.82 pea protein isolate
0.78 chickpeas and soybeans
0.75 black beans
0.74 tubercles
0.73 vegetables

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Digestibility_Corrected_Amino_Acid_Score

Any food with a PDCAAS of 1.0 is a "perfect protein." In 1990, the FAO/WHO decided that "proteins having values higher than 1.0 would be rounded or 'leveled down' to 1.0 as scores above 1.0 are considered to indicate the protein contains essential amino acids in excess of the human requirements."

As you can see on the list, there are plenty of vegan options on that list that are equivalent to animal products. For example, rather than eat beef (0.92) you can eat soy (0.91). Rather than drink whey protein (1.0), you can drink soy protein (1.0).

However, someone eating, say, black beans, may believe that he would become protein deficient because black beans have a PDCAAS of 0.75.

However, people generally don't eat the same food all the time. A key limitation of the PDCAAS is that it doesn't take into consideration the fact that if you eat two or more foods with low PDCAAS, the combination of these foods can create a perfect PDCAAS of 1.0.

This concept is explained in the article: "[G]rain protein has a PDCAAS of about 0.4 to 0.5, limited by lysine. On the other hand, it contains more than enough methionine. White bean protein (and that of many other pulses) has a PDCAAS of 0.6 to 0.7, limited by methionine, and contains more than enough lysine. When both are eaten in roughly equal quantities in a diet, the PDCAAS of the combined constituent is 1.0, because each constituent's protein is complemented by the other."

Should we worry about protein deficiency? Is anyone protein deficient?

The video below by Dr Michael Gregor shows that statistically speaking, 97% of Americans are deficient in fiber whereas only 3% of Americans are deficient in protein. For the average person, getting enough fiber is far more of a concern than getting enough protein. Just about everyone gets more than enough protein.

Forget About Incomplete Protein

There are many myths flying around that plant proteins are missing essential amino acids. This is not true. Just about all protein from food (with the exception of gelatin) contain all essential amino acids.

However, even though all plant protein has all essential amino acids, some plant protein has low amounts of some amino acids.

The number one rule I recommend to those experimenting with veganism is not to spend the whole day eating salads. Rather, replace meat with high-protein plant food.

The plant I rely on for protein is beans.

However, there is an important fact to remember about the amino acid profile of beans. Although protein in beans have all essential amino acids, beans tend to contain low amounts of the amino acid methionine.

However, for me, this is nothing to worry about since, like most people, beans do not comprise 100 percent of my diet. If you eat other food, there will be protein in other food, and protein from other plant food, e.g. tofu, seitan, and even bread, contain higher levels of methionine.

Furthermore, there is a significant amount of scientific evidence that shows that a low-methionine diet will reduce your risk of cancer and make you live longer. The problem most people have is that they eat too much methionine (due to high consumption of animal protein), which causes oxidative stress, which causes rapid ageing. Methionine may also feed some cancers.

The bottom line is to eat beans for protein. Beans are not only high in protein but are also extremely cheap (see Meat Eater Won't Turn Vegan? Give them Beans). Where I live, you can buy 500 grams of beans (containing 100 grams of protein) for only A$1.80 (US$1.30). Don't be afraid to get protein from other vegan sources as well, such as tofu, seitan, and even vegan meat and vegan protein powder.

Meat Eater Won't Turn Vegan? Give Them Beans

In my earlier post What to Do When Someone Gives you a Non-Vegan Gift, I suggested that you should accept non-vegan gifts (e.g. non-vegan toothpaste) and then give it to a non-vegan as a gift.

The idea is that if I gave a non-vegan toothpaste to someone, because they are using your gift, they will delay purchase of non-vegan products, which means fewer non-vegan products are purchased.

The same idea applies for food. For example, suppose someone gave you chocolate as a gift. This often happens during, say, Easter. The chocolate is not dark chocolate and contains dairy milk, which means it is not vegan. What I do instead is I give this chocolate to someone I know is not vegan and is unlikely to convert to veganism. Tell them something like, "I got these for Easter. I am vegan, so I can't eat it. Do you want it?"

There are many benefits of giving away food. Firstly, the non-vegans will be grateful for the gift. They will have a positive reaction. If you are kind to someone, they are more likely to be kind back to you, which means they may research veganism and give it a try.

Furthermore, by giving them chocolate, this family will delay and therefore buy less animal product. If you give chocolate, this means they don't need to purchase as much food, which means they will be less likely to purchase animal food, which helps the vegan movement. For example, if I were a meat eater and someone gave me a whole day's worth of chocolate, I wouldn't need to buy meat for the day because I'd want to eat the chocolate before it goes off.

Of course, there are some problems with this technique. Firstly, the family receiving the gift may not delay or reduce purchase of animal products at all but instead will eat your gift in addition to the food they already eat and as a result they will get fatter.

This is a major problem. However, there is a way to fix it. I personally have now gotten into the habit of buying beans from the supermarket and giving it to meat eaters as gifts. Suppose I received a box of chocolate as a gift. If will then purchase about two kilograms of dry beans from the supermarket and give not only the beans to the meat eating family but I will also give the chocolate as well.

The reason why I like to buy beans is because beans are extremely cheap and healthy.

I personally purchase various McKenzie's beans and soup mixes from Coles supermarkets. The cheapest beans cost $1.70 per 500 gram bag. Each bag contains about 100 grams of protein. Given that the average person needs about 50 grams of protein per day, one bag (which is approximately one bowl) gives you double your protein requirements.

Another reason why beans are great is because they fill you up fast. If I gave chocolate to someone, they may eat the chocolate and still be hungry, so they will head off to buy junk animal food like KFC or McDonald's. However, after one bowl of beans, I am really full. Studies find that food high in fiber and protein tends to make people feel full and satisfied. Because beans will fill you up as well as beef will, I feel that eating beans will quickly end a meat eater's meat cravings. Both beans and beef are high in protein, but unlike beef, beans contain fiber.