The protein myth

For most of my time as a vegetarian, I have been hyper-conscious about getting enough protein. Heeding all the warnings about protein-starved vegetarians, I dutifully sculpted meals around beans, eggs, and tofu. I would especially worry when I wasn’t able to cook for myself – say while traveling – since plenty of restaurants don’t center their vegetarian options on protein-rich foods.

Over the past couple months, I have been putting a lot of effort into fine-tuning my diet. For insight, I tracked everything I ate for a while at SparkPeople.com. I learned several things about my diet from this process, but one of the more surprising ones was how much protein I got. While the site recommended a minimum of 30 grams a day for me, I easily consumed more than double that, even on days when I completely excluded eggs and milk products from my diet.

So why is it commonly believed that vegetarians don’t get enough protein? Given how much protein there is in vegetable, fruits, and grains, I can’t imagine a day’s worth of food that I would consume that wouldn’t contain enough protein. I started doing some research to see what others were saying on the subject. Various sites, such as this article on Savvy Vegetarian and this article on Veg Cooking (a PETA-run site), seemed to confirm my growing suspicion that the meat-eating mainstream has just been feeding us stories all this time. Even the American Heart Association agrees that too much protein is not good for you.

So if you’ve been using protein as a reason to keep meat, eggs, or dairy in your diet, it might be time to take a closer look at your protein intake. Chances are, you get more than enough.