If you’re a vegan or know one, chances are you’ve asked or been asked the question ‘’Where do you get your protein from?’’
Let me start by saying this: all nutrients come from the sun or the soil. Not burgers. Vitamin D is created when your skin’s exposed to sunlight. Minerals come from the earth and vitamins from the plants that grow from it. That means all essential amino acids originate from, you guessed it, plants.
One might refute this with ‘’But surely you can’t get enough by eating just plants?’’ Oh, how wrong you are. The largest study in history comparing vegans, meat eaters and other diets looked at how much protein each group would have a day on average. Based on a recommendation of 42g a day, every single group consumed way more than needed, with vegans and vegetarians having an average of 70 per cent more than necessary. In fact, only three per cent of people don’t meet the daily requirement, most likely because they aren’t eating enough in general.
Even the American Heart Association says we don’t need animal protein. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (only the largest organisation of nutritional professionals in the world) says that a vegan or vegetarian diet, when planned right (aka not just junk food), is not only nutritionally adequate but that its healthy and can help treat and prevent certain diseases.
For those who feel like they would need supplements to be healthy, know that it is impossible – not hard, not unlikely – impossible to design a diet of whole plant foods that’s sufficient in calories and deficient in protein. You can put the whey scooper down now.
At this point, your carnivorous friends are probably fuming and grasping for what might be the last rebuttal they have: ‘’But protein gave us our big brains!’’ Using this logic, you’d think breast milk which we consume during our infancy, the time of our most rapid growth, would have lots of it. Nope. It has the lowest concentration of protein out of every animal, of less than one per cent by weight. We just don’t need excessive protein.
In conclusion, unless someone is starving or living off cotton candy, sincerely do not ask them about their protein consumption.
