RE: Vegetarians/Vegans DO Get Enough Protein, but Meat Eaters Usually DON'T Get Enough Dietary Fiber! PLUS a Recipe for a Protein/Fiber packed Salad!
Here here!!!! Been Vegetarian for 5 years now, slowly heading into Veganism, being mindful not to turn into a junk food or carb based vegan though so I'm taking my time and learning how to do it correctly. But yes all the time, how do you get enough protein? Using the chronometer app I can see that most days I'm over my daily protein needs by about 10g easily. It would not be difficult at all to increase my protein amounts significantly with some effort, there are countless Vegan body builders all over you tube. And also your body can utilise plant proteins more efficiently than it can meat proteins. Your body does not use protein, it uses amino acids- the single celled units that make up a protein molecule. So when you eat meat, your body has to break all that protein down into its single unit components, and then utilise those to rebuild the kind of protein molecule it needs. Plant sources of protein are already in amino acid form, so your body does not need to break the protein down from plants first per say. Once the chains links holding all the amino acids together are broken down the amino acids are immediately available to be utilised. Much easier job on your digestive system and less pathogens as a side dish. Very informative post :)
Very good, yes - the plant proteins are in a more usable form vs. the animal form which requires energy for us to break it down for use. The meat and dairy industry's propaganda couldn't be more backwards. Chronometer is a useful app, yes - I sometimes use it as a rough guide, but generally it is wise to go by listening to the body's voice internally.
Oh it's unreal the diss information they dish out into the public. Yes I don't use the app religiously, it's helpful to keep a check, more helpful when like my self I'm transitioning it gives me a rough idea as to what my meals are, some days I was really low on somethings like vitamin E, or coming under on the protein. Simple additions like some chia seeds with my breakfast and a small handful of almonds in the afternoon filled the gap. I think that's what puts people off, they don't know where to start and are so fearful of being deficient, and also think they will need to munch on plants all day long to get all their nutrients and it's just not true. SO many plant foods are so nutrient dense, it's actually really really easy.
Yes listening to the body is always the wisest way. It is always communicating things to us if you just take the time to listen :)
Ok yes, I pretty much switched from being on the carnivore end of omnivore about 10 years ago straight into being vegan. I found that a thorough detoxification was necessary to clear out the old dietary wastes and allow my pallet to reset. From there I was still pretty clueless about how to eat well as a vegan, but I found some good teachers online and ultimately it's not really that hard anyway - there's just a few things to learn about plants and nutrition in general. A high speed blender goes a long way to making the transition simple because our jaws just aren't generally strong enough to chew up all the greens we would really need to be fully fed - we aren't gorillas after all (well, most of us aren't) ;)