Hope's Edge_ The Next Diet for a Small Planet - Frances Moore Lappe [151]
An example will remind you of the importance of NPU. Although eggs appear to have much less protein than beans (that is, eggs are only 13 percent protein, while beans are 21 percent protein), as far as your body is concerned their protein content is nearly equal. Why? Because the high NPU of eggs means that its protein is almost fully used by the body while the low NPU of beans makes its protein only partly available.
Also, the relatively low protein content of some dairy products is made up for by the fact that they are in forms that we normally eat in large quantities. For example, two cups of milk (#5 on Table II) supplies more than one-third of your daily protein allowance. Let’s compare this with another food, noodles (#4 on Protein Table V), whose protein content is three times that of milk. To get the same proportions of your daily protein allowance from noodles as from 2 cups of milk, you would have to eat 4 cups of cooked noodles. The point is that whereas you might easily drink 2 cups of milk a day, you are not likely to eat 4 cups of noodles!
The protein cost and calorie comparisons (Appendixes F and D) show that dairy products fare quite well on these counts also. And dairy products have another virtue to recommend them: they are our major source of calcium. This nutritional strength takes on special importance in light of the fact that the majority of American women consume considerably less than the recommended allowance of calcium. But some people hesitate to increase their intake of dairy products because of their fat content. This shouldn’t be a stumbling block—not when there are so many delicious ways to enjoy low-fat dairy products.
LEGUMES: DRIED BEANS, PEAS, AND LENTILS
Legumes are one of the earliest crops cultivated by man. Even in biblical times their nutritional value was known. When Daniel and other favored children of Israel were offered the meat usually reserved only for the King of Babylon, Daniel refused. He asked only for pulses (legumes) and water. After ten days, the Bible passage relates, the faces of the children “appeared fairer and fatter than all the children that ate of the king’s meat.” This is not too surprising, because the protein content of some legumes is actually equal to, or greater than, that of meat! But maybe you are registering surprise that anyone would choose legumes. It is true that dried beans and peas can be the dullest food in the world, but they can also be the basis of the most savory dishes in your menu. Lentils, peas, black beans, and soybeans make delicious and satisfying soups. Kidney beans and garbanzos (chickpeas) make a great cold salad, or they can top off a fresh green salad. Pea beans with maple syrup is the old favorite: Boston baked beans.
Since legumes are all at least 20 percent protein, why don’t they contribute even more to meeting our daily protein allowance than the typical 10–20 percent indicated on the table? The answer is twofold: first, their NPU scores are on the average lower than any other food group recommended as a protein source. Lentils (#11 in Protein Table III) have the lowest NPU score, 30, of any food included in these tables. But legumes also include some of the highest-quality plant protein. Soybeans and mung beans (#1 and #2) have NPU scores of 61 and 57 respectively—reflecting protein usability approaching that of meat. Note that tofu (soybean curd) has an even higher NPU, 65, than the untreated soybean. Second, we tend to eat legumes in small quantities. A serving of ¾ cup of legumes actually weighs only 50 grams before cooking. We usually eat other high-protein food, like meat, in quantities at least twice this amount. But remember