where do you get your protein?

[amychelle]

Hi,

We are meat-eaters but I do think it would be healthier if we greatly decreased our meat intake. However, I seem to be sugar-sensitive and need a good source of protein at each meal and snack. I use soy milk and nut butter as sources of protein, but sometimes these don't seem as effective in keeping my blood sugar level. Any ideas?

[kokonutmama]

I don't know off the top of my head how protein and sugar interact in the body, so I might get a little off base...
Soymilk often has a lot of sugar in it, you might compare some lables.
Nuts have some protein, but it's "incomplete," which means that they contain some of the essential (Necessary) amino acids, but not all of them.  To complete those proteins, you should add some kind of grain.  Whole grain.  Something like almond butter on whole wheat toast, for example.  Or beans and rice.  Soy has all the essential aminos, so tofu's OK protein-wise all by itself.  Trouble is, who wants to just eat tofu, right?
It might just be that there's not as much protein in the veggie sources as you're used to getting from whatever other snack you eat.  You kind of have to eat a lot of volume to get the same caloric punch from vegetables.
Hmm, I'll be curious what your research drags up or what kind of results you have.

[moogie]

I'm pretty clueless so i did some research.

From MedlinePlus: Examples of combined, complete plant proteins are rice and beans, milk and wheat cereal, and corn and beans.

And from http://veggietable.allinfo-about.com/articles/protein.html

First of all, the Recommended Daily Allowance of protein is not as high as one might think, and many people - vegetarian or not - eat more protein than their bodies actually need. The approximate RDA of protein is only 47 grams for women and 54 grams for men.

Secondly, there are many protein-rich vegetarian and vegan foods. The only problem is that vegetable sources of protein, with the exception of soybeans, are not complete proteins, so you need to eat more than one in order to get the complete protein.

Vegan sources of protein

Cereals and grains - wheat, rye, corn, rice, pasta...
Leafy green vegetables, including spinach
Legumes - beans, lentils, peas, peanuts
Nuts - almonds, walnuts, cashews...
Seaweed - kelp, spirulina...
Seeds - sesame, sunflower...
Soy products -  tofu, tempeh, soy milk...
Vegetables - Brussel sprouts, potatoes, yuca
Ovo-lacto sources of protein

Eggs
Cheese
Milk
Yogurt
As long as vegetarians (and everyone else, for that matter) eat a wide variety of foods, they will easily manage to eat enough protein - not to mention other nutrients.

If you want to be absolutely certain that you are getting enough protein, you should eat food combinations which form a complete protein, such as:

Legumes + seeds
Legumes + nuts
Legumes + dairy
Grains + legumes
Grains + dairy

Chances are you already eat complete proteins without even trying. Here are some tasty and healthy complete protein combinations:

Beans on toast
Cereal/muesli with milk
Corn and beans
Granola with yogurt
Hummus and pita bread
Nut butter with milk or whole grain bread
Pasta with beans
Pasta with cheese (e.g., lasagne, macaroni and cheese)
Rice and beans, peas, or lentils
Rice with milk (rice pudding)
Split pea soup with whole grain or seeded crackers or bread
Tortillas with refried beans
Veggie burgers on bread

Note that these combinations don't necessarily have to be eaten at the same time; you can eat one several hours after the other and still benefit from the complete protein.

I pretty much stole their whole page on protein. 

[tristan]

I'll start by saying that I am not a expert on this, so feel free to correct me on some of the details.

Our bodies are made up of protein. In fact more than 50,000 different proteins. Our bodies do not use any protein that we eat (whether from plant or animal), we first break them down into their building blocks - amino acids - and recreate them into human proteins. There are only 22 different amino acids, and from these our bodies can synthesis any of the 50,000 different proteins we need to be healthy. There are 8 essential amino acids that must be supplied as part of the diet.

A common misconception about protein is that we need animal protein. Nearly every food, with the exception of fruits, sugars and fats and oils, has enough protein to supply our necessary amino acids if we eat enough of it to get our day's worth of calories. We do not need to eat meat.

Too much protein?

Meats are the most protein dense food, followed by legumes and then grains, oats and rye. Meat eaters usually consume far more protein than they require which can lead to health problems. When we consume more protein than our body needs, we cause excess nitrogen to be excreted as urea in urine. This excess nitrogen has been linked with reduced kidney function in later years.

If our diets are high in protein they are usually low in other food group representatives. Therefore there is an increased risk of inadequate vitamins and minerals (especially antioxidants), low fibre intake, high total and saturated fat intake, excess caloric intake, as well as excess protein intake. These imbalances carry with them long term negative consequences.

Really everyone (meat eaters or not) needs to eat a balanced diet with lots of fresh food.

I have been vegetarian for 23 years and I don't think about where my amino acids come from. A lot of people think that a vegetarian diet is limiting - I am regularly asked 'what do you eat'. My answer is generally 'everything except meat, and probably a lot more than you'. Vegetarians tend to eat a much wider variety of food and love the diversity. Did you know that the average person in a developed country eats only 20 species of plant or animal in their diet on a regular basis.

It seems the biggest problem with a transition to a vegetarian diet is not replacing the protein, but increasing the variety of food that one eats, and really starting to enjoy the diversity. If have a typical 'meat and three veg' diet now, then you cannot expect to cut out meat and be healthy.

While I think of it, check out this great site: http://www.themeatrix.com

amychelle, you also mentioned sugar and blood sugar. This is controlled only by carbohydrates or saccharides (sugars). A good site that talks about nutrition, including amino acids and saccharides is: http://www.glisonline.com

Hope that helps, there is lots more in my head but had better get back to work.
Tristan

[FionaK]

Okay, so you've had a few replies with all the theory, but sometimes when it gets to practice, people find it a bit difficult - especially when changing over from a meat diet to a veg one.  Here are a few ideas:
-Make up veg burgers/balls and freeze them.  These are great to add to veg with a nice sauce for a quick meal or for taking to bbqs or the like.  The ones my kids like best are nuts, cooked brown rice (note complementary proteins) and a little onion, all put into a food processor and whizzed together.  Add an egg (or egg substitute of your choice), and your ready to shape and cook them.  I like to do a flour, egg then crumb dip and then fry them, but you could shape them into burgers as is.  Without sauce I find them a bit dry as burgers, but fried as balls my kids love them.  I freeze them in packs of 8 (precooked) for a really quick meal for the kids - one pk of 8 does them both with a cob of corn or something.  You can also make brown rice and feta and spinach balls, or any sort of beans, mashed potato and some other grated veg burgers with spices of your choice.

-If you're worried about protein but you like pasta meals, you can always add a few nuts, pine nuts, cooked lentils, etc.  If you are having dairy (such as white sauce or cheese in lasagne) this wont be an issue.  Make up a huge lasagne or two and freeze either a whole spare lasagne or individual servings.

-Stuffed zucchini or other veg - I love the mixture of brown lentils and brown rice.  You can cook them together, and they are especially good with a strip of kombu (seaweed) cut up finely into the cooking pot (it pretty much dissolves but adds flavour and nutrients, and I have read somewhere helps reduce lentil induced flatulence, but I can't guarantee that!  Could be wives' tale.)  Cook up some chopped onion, the scooped out zucchini, chopped, and add the lentil rice mix.  Stuff the zuccs or other veg.  If you eat cheese you can add a little sprinkle of this, or you could sprinkle with some sunflower and sesame seeds.  Bake.

-Add tofu or tempeh to stir fries.  Marinate and fry slices of tofu for burgers or wraps. 

-Don't forget dessert!  I sometimes make delicious semolina almond puddings, served with berries or other fruit.  Semolina and almond would be complementary proteins!

Basically I don't worry much about protein but eat a variety of food.  Seems to work fine for me, but it can be nice to have a few ideas that you know will work.

Fiona

[kokonutmama]

OK, it's been forever but I have to correct somthing in my post. (I"m not just editing it, because I want everyone to see the change)

Peanuts are legumes (right?) so my peanutbutter toast in the morning is a complete protein.  Almonds are nuts ( I think, I know there's some arugument allowed about the definition) so combined with a grain they're still imcomplete. 
The thing is, though, you don't need to complete your protiens at every sitting like I think it's starting to sound here.  Your body stores the aminos for days, so there's no reason to stress about it unless you never eat anything but grains and oils and sugars, which I'm sure applies to no one here.   
I think originally I was thinking that maybe the reason veg protiens didn't have the effect you were after with your blood sugar was because there were some aminos missing in your digestive system at that moment.  But I'm totally out of my legue there, I was just firing off an idea.

[FionaK]

OK, it's been forever but I have to correct somthing in my post. (I"m not just editing it, because I want everyone to see the change)

Peanuts are legumes (right?) so my peanutbutter toast in the morning is a complete protein.  Almonds are nuts ( I think, I know there's some arugument allowed about the definition) so combined with a grain they're still imcomplete. 
The thing is, though, you don't need to complete your protiens at every sitting like I think it's starting to sound here.  Your body stores the aminos for days, so there's no reason to stress about it unless you never eat anything but grains and oils and sugars, which I'm sure applies to no one here.   
 I think originally I was thinking that maybe the reason veg protiens didn't have the effect you were after with your blood sugar was because there were some aminos missing in your digestive system at that moment.  But I'm totally out of my legue there, I was just firing off an idea.

Agree with you re not needing to complete proteins in every sitting, just eat lots of variety.

I did just want to comment though, yrs ago I taught nutrition, and (if my memory serves me correctly, so please set me straight if anyone knows better) nuts and grains are a complete protein too.  Basically, if you combine any two of legume, nut and grain, you're right.