Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [34]
Why Vegan Protein Is Better Than Animal Protein
The standard American diet, or SAD (it is pretty sad, isn’t it?), relies heavily on animal foods as the main source of protein. At the same time, health experts and doctors have been warning that the current avalanche of diseases and the growing obesity problem are direct results of our diet. These same experts plead with us to eat more fiber and fresh fruits and vegetables as a way to avoid and heal these illnesses. And it’s true; one of the easiest ways to recover from a lifetime of the SAD state of affairs is to rely on plant-based proteins.
Plant sources of protein are a wise choice, especially because so many Americans aren’t getting enough fiber in their diets. Beans, nuts, whole grains, and seeds are rich in fiber and plant-based phytochemicals, which are plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties that help lower the risk of cancers and heart disease. The positive effect of plant sources of protein is twofold:
While ensuring your body has enough plant-based protein, you’re also taking the burden of digesting a diet full of cholesterol-filled meat and difficult-to-assimilate fats off your liver and digestive system.
You also get the powerful protection of the natural health benefits found in these whole foods.
A diet high in plant proteins can extend more benefits than just protecting your heart and bones. The Nurses’ Health Study, a long-term study involving 18,000 women, showed that infertility in women can be greatly affected by the type of protein they consume. Women who ate more plant sources of protein were much less likely to have infertility issues than women with few plant protein sources in their diet. Amazingly, infertility was 39 percent more likely in women who ate the most animal protein.
In T. Collin Campbell’s incredible book The China Study, the link between cancer growth and protein is drawn out. Several studies cited in this book show that a diet including animal proteins can lead to cancer cell proliferation. The vegetable sources of protein have not shown the same link with cancer growth, so a vegan diet can be considered much safer for overall cancer avoidance.
Animal-based foods provide certain other important nutrients besides protein, but perfectly wonderful plant sources can provide these minerals and vitamins as well. Zinc, iron, vitamin B12, and calcium can be found in the plant kingdom (the sources and considerations are covered in Chapter 4).
One sign that the human body is designed to absorb protein and other nutrients from plant foods is the length of our digestive tracts. A carnivore’s digestive tract is several times shorter than a purely vegetarian animal’s. So when the meat eater eats its dinner, probably a freshly caught wildebeest, it’s finished digesting the meat within a few hours. A plant-eating animal has a much longer set of intestines, so the body can spend more time absorbing the nutrients available in plant foods. The human body has intestines that are ten times the length of the body. How’s that for a pretty clear indication that we were meant to be plant eaters?
Finding Protein in Vegan Foods
After you’ve done the math and understand how many grams of protein you need per day (see the earlier section “Protein needs for all ages and stages”), you need to plan to eat foods that will give you that amount every day. In this section, you find a helpful list of healthy vegan protein-rich foods to help you plan a delicious diet full of variety.
The best way to ensure that your body can use the vegetable-based protein that’s abundant in a vegan diet is to chew your food properly. Human saliva is the first step of the digestive process. Saliva, which contains salivary amylase, and chewing help your body