Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [11]
To put it more simply, your average daily protein intake should be about 15 to 20 percent of your total daily calories (other sources say it can be even less—more like 10.7 percent)—a number easy to get to on a plant-based diet. There is protein in just about everything. So as long as you are eating a varied diet of whole grains, beans, and legumes, vegetables, fruits, and meat and dairy alternatives, you will be just fine.
No, there is absolutely no need to consume animal foods to get enough protein. In fact the American Dietetic Association holds that vegan diets provide more than enough protein, even without any special food combinations. Nutritionists used to think you needed to eat “complementary proteins”—beans and rice, for example—in one sitting to get all the nutrients we needed. We now know that’s not true. As long as you are eating a bit of everything throughout the day, all is well.
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Protein should account for about 15%–20% of your total daily calories—a number easy to get to on a plant-based diet.
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When looking at the protein picture, it’s important to consider what the Harvard School of Public Health calls the “protein package”—the saturated fats that come along with all meats, even so-called lean meat. You might find it surprising that skinless roasted chicken breast—the leanest chicken that could be, and way leaner than other meats—has 20 percent of its calories in fat, and 29 percent of which is saturated. That same 3-ounce piece of chicken also has 73 milligrams of cholesterol. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, only 7 percent or less of our daily fat intake should be from saturated fats. Eating animal protein makes consuming a low-fat, especially low-saturated fat, diet very difficult and a cholesterol-free diet impossible.
The best way to progress toward your ideal weight is to increase your intake of thermogenic foods without also increasing your intake of fats. Just follow this basic rule of thumb: If it’s a whole grain, bean, fruit, or vegetable, you can eat as much of it as you want—and as long as you are not also piling on fat-rich animal foods, you will watch the pounds melt off and stay off.
But don’t just take it from me. Listen to what the renowned nutritional scientist and vegetarian advocate Dr. Dean Ornish has to say.
Straight from the Source: Dean Ornish, MD, on Losing Weight
No one has done more peer-reviewed research on the subject of weight loss and overall health than Dr. Ornish. He sparked a revolution in cardiology by proving that heart disease could be reversed with lifestyle (diet) changes, and his current research is showing that those very changes also affect gene expression: in other words, it seems we can turn on or turn off genes that affect cancer, heart disease, and longevity. He is the founder and the president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. I interviewed Dr. Ornish on weight loss and diet.
KF: It’s widely believed that people lose weight fastest on a high protein diet. But is it true?
DO: Initially, they may lose more weight because they are losing water weight. But by the end of a year, the weight usually returns. In general, slower weight loss by eating more healthfully is more sustainable. Slow but steady wins the race.
Most Americans also eat too many refined carbohydrates. When they go on a typical high-protein diet, they reduce their intake of all carbohydrates, which for most Americans means they primarily reduce their intake of refined carbohydrates. This [in itself] helps them to lose weight.
Whenever I debated Dr. [Robert] Atkins before