Mythbusting: Vegans & Vegetarians Don't Get Enough Protein

Little old me, flexing some veggie muscle

Everybody knows  that if you don't eat meat or fish then there is no possible way that you could get enough protein in your daily intake of food. Right? You will wither away, your grandmother should be worried and you won't possibly be able to function in life because protein is, of course, the most important part of any meal.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me about how I get my protein, I might be able to afford that Vitamix Blender I've been lusting after all these years!  But is it all old wives tales?  Is there any factual basis for this?

Protein is important for cell development and maintenance of vital bodily functions like enzyme creation and fueling neurotransmitters. In a single day the average adult human female needs about 46g of protein per day, the males require about 56g. Meat is a really easy source of protein but it's certainly not the only one. Bodybuilders are protein obsessed and two of the most popular protein supplements are whey (a vegetarian cheese derivative) and hemp (which is vegan cuz it's from from seeds).  Gram for gram there are plenty of plant based sources of protein - nuts, seeds, beans and even oats - that deliver the goods in a real and tangible way.

And while we're talking about it, there is some protein in most foods. So in practice, here's how you might get more than enough protein in an average plant based day of eating:

Breakfast

2 slices of wheat toast = 7g

2 tbsp peanut butter = 8g

1 glass of OJ = 1.7g

Snack

1 banana = 1.5g

Lunch

Lil pot of hummus 1/2 cup = 10g

10 tortilla chips = 1.4g

100g spinach = 2.9g

1 avocado = 4g

Snack

20 almonds = 4g

Dinner

1 cup white mushrooms = 2.2g

1/2 an onion = 0.6g

2 cloves garlic = 0.4g

1cup brown rice = 4.5g

1 green pepper = 1g

1 tomato =  0.8g

2 wheat tortillas = 10g

TOTAL PROTEIN = 60g

How easy was that? Meat eating folks need not worry that I will waste away or that a diet like this is bad for my health. The reality is totally to the contrary and we haven't even gotten into useful things like meat substitutes, nutritional yeast or juicing! Furthermore, vegetable sources of protein so completely out perform fleshly counterparts on overall nutrition it's almost laughable. So 100g of peanuts contains not only 26g of protein but 4 x the potassium, 5 x the iron, 9 x the calcium, and 8 x the magnesium of a 100g piece of chicken. That's right: peanuts!

Studies show that getting protein isn't an issue for vegetarians in the west, while scholars are currently debating whether a diet which is high in meat proteins might be as 'bad for you as smoking'. So really people, us veggie folks are doing fine.