Is the Protein Talk Overhyped?

Takeaways:

• A 100% varied plant diet provides adequate protein intake.
• The claim that certain plant foods lack specific amino acids is false.
• Overeating protein in a meal = increase your fat storage.
• Legumes like beans, peas, and lentils are high in protein.

🗺️ Human societies have thrived on a plant-centered diet for centuries, but we still hear the predatory trait of Homo sapiens louder. What if we were more gathers than hunters after all?

⚒️🔎 Archeologists have pointed out the ubiquitous presence of high-protein plants in our early days’ diets. A neat example was the discovery of a settlement chamber in Iraqi Kurdistan stocked up with lentils dating back to around 10 thousand years ago.² What amazes me the most? Different cultures worldwide were fueled - and still thrive - by eating cereals and legumes. Legumes were a significant source of protein before meat's higher accessibility around the globe. Indeed, the staple food in my home country is 🍚 rice and 🫘 black beans (Brazil). In other countries, it would be 🍚 rice and 🫛soybeans (China) or 🌽 corn and 🫘 beans (Mexico). At this point, I was unsurprised to discover that the best athletes from ancient times, like Roman gladiators and the famed Roman army troopers, ate predominantly plant-based diets. In their case, it was 🌾 barley and 🫘 beans (ancient Rome).³

🍽️ Yes, you got it. The commonplace question, “Where do you get your protein from?” is seriously old-fashioned.😯

👩‍🎓Experts agree today that a more important question is, “What about the quality of the protein you are ingesting?” Personally, I believe this question applies to all diet types, and it is a topic of its own. I’ll cover it next week. Stay tuned!

Switching to a plant-based diet provides the number one benefit of increased recovery time. According to Brendan Brazier, an ultramarathon champion, this translates into training more and improving quicker (the plant-based athlete).

 Daily protein requirements

🫵 The next step to feeling confident when eating a plant-centered diet is understanding your daily protein needs.

Rule of thumb:

💡 0.8 g of protein per body kg is what adults (> 18 years old) engaged in modest physical activity require to keep their tissue repair, protein turnover, and metabolic adaptation in check. This means 48 g of protein per day for a 60 kg female or male, which is frankly easy to get. This number can increase to 2 g per body kg for athletes (sport- and goal-dependent).

Amino acids and their distribution in plants

Professors Gardner (Stanford University) and Mariotti (Université Paris-Saclay) have published a comparison table to help us visualize the distribution of amino acids in common foods (find it here). The bottom line? Your protein requirements will be fine as long as food variety is on your plate and your caloric intake is met. 🙃

Protein assimilation by the body

🤯The last but not least point to remember is the body's assimilation of proteins. You may see scientific studies discussing plant proteins' lower digestibility than animals'. But what if you have been already eating way too much protein? For instance, American men exceed the daily recommendation by 31 % and women by 12 %.⁵ Perhaps the worry here should be, “What if you have been overeating protein in a single meal, thinking you will build muscles but have been gaining fat instead?” Yup! It's totally possible. Why?

💥 One reason athletes eat many times a day, by the way, is to assimilate the whole protein content of each meal. Otherwise, if not eliminated from the body, the surplus protein of a given meal will be stored as fat! Who wants to store fat? 😬

🎯 By now, you should ask, “What would a 30 g protein plant-based meal look like?” Here you go:

31.5 g of pure plant-based protein. Credits: nomeatathlete

Protein breakdown:

• ¼ recipe sunflower seed sour cream – 7 g (see recipe here)
• ½ cup (cooked) kasha (toasted buckwheat) – 9.5 g
• ½ cup (cooked) black beans – 7.5 g
• ½ cup corn – 2.5 g
• ½ cup red peppers – 3 g
• ½ small avocado – 1 g
• ½ cup sweet potato – 1 g

🌈 To help you relate to the protein content of common plant foods, see the table below. Want to check a specific food yourself? Rendez-vouson the USDA website (here).

*Based on the USDA database

A shift towards a plant-based protein diet can be viewed as virtually risk-free for insufficient protein intake by substituting animal protein with a combination of legumes, nuts, and seeds.

⚡Any thoughts? Don’t shy away; leave a comment.

Original post profiled here: Blog

Citation:

1 Mariotti F. and Gardner C.D., Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets-A Review, 2019 (link)

2 How the lentil was tamed - and helped human societies thrive. A BBC article, 2024 (link)

3 Prof. Michael Greger press article: what is the gladiator diet and how do vegetarian athletes stack up, 2023 (link)

4 Gardner C.D. et al., Maximizing the intersection of human health and the health of the environment with regard to the amount and type of protein produced and consumed in the United States, 2019 (link)

5 You are probably eating way too much protein. A Vox article, 2024 (link)

6 ‘The plant-based athlete’ from Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke (link)