Health Justice
Magical, Mythical Protein?
By Joel Fuhrman, MD, author of Eat to Live
Reprinted with permission
www.drfuhrman.com
My patients tell me that the
question most frequently
asked by their friends or
family members about the Eat to
Live diet is "How do you get enough
protein, without eating lots of animal products.
"
Many people are still tied to the myth that a diet needs to include animal products in order to be nutritionally sound. Adding to this confusion are the many diet books and magazine articles that promulgate the myth that increasing the percentage of protein in your diet helps lead to weight loss, while increasing the percentage of carbohydrates leads to weight gain.
Macronutrient juggling
Regarding weight loss, some dietbook
gurus argue that to lose weight
you need to balance the precise ratio
of fat, carbohydrate, and protein
with a calculator, with the exact
ratio to be determined by your heritage
or blood type. Clearly, these
trendy viewpoints are not scientifically
valid and might just as well base
the ratios on your eye color or shoe
size. A sound perspective on human
nutrition must include an understanding
of the difference between
macronutrients and micronutrients.
Protein, fat, and carbohydrate are macronutrients. In fact, they are the only macronutrients that exist. Macronutrients are the nutrients that contain calories; calories supply us with energy. Vitamins, minerals, and fiber are a few of the many micronutrients. Micronutrients do not contain calories; they have other essential roles to play. When it comes to designing a healthful, weight-loss diet, micronutrients should be the focus of your attention, not macronutrients. Here's why.
If you are overweight, you have consumed more calories than you have utilized. Tinkering with the percentages of fat, protein, or carbohydrate in your diet isn't going to change the caloric density very much. What you need to do is consume fewer calories, which means fewer macronutrients-less protein, less fat, and less carbohydrate. And for goodness sake, don't worry about not consuming enough of any one of the macronutrients.With the exception of individuals who are anorexic, it is almost impossible to find an American who is deficient in fat, protein or carbohydrate intake. If anything, most Americans (along with most people living in modern Western societies) consume more
Impossible deficiency
Protein deficiency is not a concern
for anyone in the developed world.It
is almost impossible to consume too
little protein,no matter what you eat,
unless your diet is significantly deficient
in calories.Part of the reason is
that protein is contained in all foods,
not just animal products. If there is a
valid concern about protein consum-
ption in America, it is that too many
Americans are trying to eat more of
it when they are already eating too
much of it.
Study after study has shown that as protein consumption goes up, so does the incidence of chronic diseases. Similar studies show that the incidence of chronic diseases also goes up when carbohydrate and fat consumption go up.This is because if the consumption of any of the macronutrients exceeds our basic requirements, the excess hurts us. Americans already get too much protein (and fat and carbohydrates), and this is reflected in soaring increases in the diseases of excess- heart disease, high-blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, arthritis,
Micronutrient deficiencies
Most Americans eat diets that are
deficient in micronutrients, not in
macronutrients. Rather than worrying
about macronutrient percentages
in your diet, focus your
attention on meeting all of your
micronutrient needs. For example,
fat intake on a healthful diet could
vary from 10 to 25 percent depending
on the percentage of higher-fat
fare such as avocados and raw nuts
and seeds as a percent of total calories.
Eating more of these higher calorie,
fattier foods may be necessary
in an active thin athlete or a
growing child. Any concern you
might have about not eating excess
fat should be focused on the fact
that fatty foods are more caloricallydense
foods, and generally lower in
micronutrients than vegetables and
other less calorically-dense foods.
The focus of my book, Eat To Live, is on micronutrients. Simply put, the goal of a healthful diet is to get the highest amounts of micronutrients- both in quantity and
Micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, fibers, bioflavonoids, antioxidants and other phytochemicals, are the key to superior health and ideal weight.
When you eat to maximize micronutrients in relation to calories, your body function will normalize, chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol will resolve, and you should be able to maintain your youthful vigor into old age.
Heart disease and cancer-the major killers in modern societies- would fade away and become exceedingly rare occurrences if the population adopted an Eat To Live lifestyle. The current epidemic of obesity also would fade away because when your diet is high enough in micronutrients, excess weight drops off at a relatively fast rate. When your diet is high in micronutrients, it's as if you had your stomach stapled; you simply don't crave to overeat anymore. It is actually very difficult to overeat when you eat your fill of highmicronutrient
Incomplete protein myth
The commercially-promoted myth
that high animal protein consumption
is necessary for good health is
something we urgently need to dispel
if we want to halt the heart disease
and cancer epidemic. One
aspect of the animal protein
mythology is the notion that plant
proteins are "incomplete" and need
to be "complemented" for adequate
protein.1 In fact, fruits, vegetables,
grains, beans, nuts, and seeds are all
rich sources of protein.
All vegetables and grains contain all eight of the essential amino acids, as well as the twelve other "non-essential" ones. While some vegetables have higher or lower proportions of certain amino acids than others, when eaten in amounts necessary to satisfy your caloric needs, a sufficient amount
Because digestive secretions and sloughed off mucosal cells are constantly recycled and reabsorbed, the amino acid composition of post-prandial (after meal) blood is remarkably complete in spite of any short-term irregularities in the dietary supply of amino acids.
Inessential nutrients
In North America, about 70 percent
of dietary protein comes from animal
foods. Worldwide, plant foods
provide 84 percent of calories. The
first scientific studies to determine
human protein requirements were
conducted in the 1950s. These studies
demonstrated that adults require
20-35 grams of protein per day.2
Today, the average American consumes
100-120 grams of protein per
day, mostly in the form of animal
products. People who eat a vegetable-
based diet (vegan) have been
found to consume 60-80 grams of
protein per day,well above the minimum
requirement.3 More importantly,
eating more plant protein
is the key to increasing our micronutrient
intake.
It is interesting to note that foods such as peas, green vegetables, and beans have more protein per calorie than meat. But what is not generally considered is that the foods richest in plant protein also are the foods richest in micronutrients-vitamins, minerals, fibers, bioflavonoids, antioxidants,
By eating more of these high-nutrient, low-calorie foods, you get plenty of protein and your body gets flooded with protective micronutrients at the same time. Animal protein does not contain antioxidants or phytochemicals and is filled with saturated fat - the most dangerous type of fat. Even a professional bodybuilder desiring to build half a pound of extra muscle per week only needs about seven extra grams of protein per day over normal intake.No complicated formulas or protein supplements are needed to get sufficient protein for growth, even in the serious athlete. Since exercise results in increased hunger, athletes consume more food (calories), which provides
Benefits of plant proteins
There are many benefits to meeting
your protein needs with plant foods.
For example,when you reduce body
fat, your cholesterol levels tend to
lower somewhat. But when you
reduce or eliminate animal protein
intake and increase vegetable protein
intake along the lines I recommend
in Eat To Live, you will lower
your cholesterol dramatically. Why?
Because vegetables are rich in protein,
but also have no saturated fat or
cholesterol, and they are higher in
micronutrients than any other food.
When study subjects are fed a vegetable-
based diet, cholesterol levels
drop radically, much more than
when using the most powerful cholesterol-
lowering drugs.4
In addition to the cholesterol-lowering effects of vegetables and beans (high-protein) foods, these plant foods contain an assortment of heart-disease-fighting nutrients. They fight cancer, too. The food plan described in Eat To Live serves the most powerful anticancer, disease-fighting foods on the planet, tastes great, and also provides tremendous potential health benefits. If more people ate this way, the health results would be astounding. Most people are simply not aware that a new approach to food and eating can be our biggest success in fighting obesity and the major illnesses that plague Americans.
References:
1. Am J Clin Nutr 1994;59(suppl):1203S-1212S.
2. Rose W. The amino acid requirements of adult
man.
Nutritional Abstracts and Reviews 1957;27:631.
3. Hardage M. Nutritional studies of vegetarians.
Journal of the American Dietetic
Association 1966;48:25.
4. Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Popovich, et al.
Effects of a very-high-fiber vegetable, fruit, and nut
diet on serum lipids and colonic function.
Metabolism 2001:50(4);494-503.
Protein Content in Selected Plant Foods |
|
| Food | Grams of Protein |
| almonds 3 oz. | 10 |
| banana | 1.2 |
| broccoli (two cups) | 4.8 |
| chick peas (one cup) | 15 |
| corn (one cup) | 4.2 |
| lentils (one cup) | 16 |
| peas - frozen (one cup) | 9 |
| spinach - frozen (one cup) | 5.4 |
| tofu (4 ounces) | 11 |
| whole wheat bread (2 slices) | 7 |
