Re-Thinking Protein

parkscs

Where do cows get their protein? From the plants they eat. It stands to reason the same can be true for humans. It is a matter of preference, imho. As I stated, I lived as a raw vegan for over a year. It wasn't the protein I missed so much, it was the cooked foods. The meat just slipped back in but I'm thinking seriously of going back to vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian. I felt better physically and emotionally when I did not eat meat.

My boss has several beautiful Arabian horses that predominantly eat grass and yet they're incredibly muscular and lean, and I'd generally consider them pretty shredded. However, if I go out and eat nothing but grass, I would simply die. Just because animals eat a certain way doesn't mean that you can eat that way and expect the same results, and if that's your reason for going vegan, you really should rethink your plan.

ROFL umm no, that isn't my reason for thinking of returning to the vegan lifestyle. Like I said, I felt better when I did not eat meat. And yes, you CAN get all the protein you need from a plant based diet. I didn't say I was going to go out and eat grass lol. I said that it stands to reason that if animals can get their protein from a plant based diet then so could humans.

There are so many people on these forums who are simply looking to nit pick. It is so sad to me that someone can't post an article without opening a whole can of stinky worms. Can't we all just get along??? lol

Of course we can get along. And I would agree you can get sufficient protein from a vegan lifestyle; it's just more difficult and I don't see any benefit unless you have a moral objection to eating animals/animal products. But to be fair, you said:

Where do cows get their protein? From the plants they eat. It stands to reason the same can be true for humans. It is a matter of preference, imho.

My comments were intended to be a bit tongue in cheek, but you did raise the question why can't we get by eating grass since cow's can. I don't know a lot of cows that eat lots of beans and tofu and chug hemp protein shakes in order to hit their daily protein macro.

stevencloser

Where do cows get their protein? From the plants they eat. It stands to reason the same can be true for humans. It is a matter of preference, imho. As I stated, I lived as a raw vegan for over a year. It wasn't the protein I missed so much, it was the cooked foods. The meat just slipped back in but I'm thinking seriously of going back to vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian. I felt better physically and emotionally when I did not eat meat.

My boss has several beautiful Arabian horses that predominantly eat grass and yet they're incredibly muscular and lean, and I'd generally consider them pretty shredded. However, if I go out and eat nothing but grass, I would simply die. Just because animals eat a certain way doesn't mean that you can eat that way and expect the same results, and if that's your reason for going vegan, you really should rethink your plan.

ROFL umm no, that isn't my reason for thinking of returning to the vegan lifestyle. Like I said, I felt better when I did not eat meat. And yes, you CAN get all the protein you need from a plant based diet. I didn't say I was going to go out and eat grass lol. I said that it stands to reason that if animals can get their protein from a plant based diet then so could humans.

There are so many people on these forums who are simply looking to nit pick. It is so sad to me that someone can't post an article without opening a whole can of stinky worms. Can't we all just get along??? lol

A cow gets their nutrients from having 4 stomach parts and being able to literally vomit up half digested food to chew it some more.
I hope you don't have either of these.

LoneWolfRunner

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

SunofaBeach14

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

Meh, I think spit roasted vegetarian is much more tasty

Muzica1959

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

Lol, it's all the growth hormones and steroids they are giving to the animals these days to make them grow faster and larger. Roid-Rage!!! lol

chrisdavey

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

Lol, it's all the growth hormones and steroids they are giving to the animals these days to make them grow faster and larger. Roid-Rage!!! lol

cows are after gainz too you know.

ana3067

No, it's not unfair to dismiss an article without reading it when it is trying to provide facts without utilizing academic sources to back up the facts/ideas. If I were to write a paper for one of my psychology courses based simply on my opinion and beliefs, I would get a very low mark. Now use academic sources to back up and explain my reasoning and opinions, and do a good job of explaining how these sources are backing up my opinion, then I will get a good grade.

same thing applies to this article. It's very obvious that this is a biased article. So of course the author will write something up that says "eating a low-protein diet is totally fine! eat vegan and don't worry about your protein intake and you'll be fine!" If he had looked for articles that both support and dismiss his claims, and shared both equally without bias in order to let the reader make his or her own informed decision, then I would have read the article. But it did none of this, and by just skimming it it was clear to see that this is a highly biased, and if you will, propaganda-laden piece.

You are clearly taking what I am saying, and what others say, too personally. I am not saying don't eat vegan, I am saying don't eat low protein. If you get a truly adequate amount of protein in by supplementing while on a vegan diet, then more power to you.

I agree his article is opinion. I only meant to suggest that some of the info was good. I did misunderstand your point of view and see that you're more open minded than I interpreted from your first comment. My mistake. I wasn't trying to be argumentative.

It's no problem, and apologies if I came off argumentative as well - I don't think I had eaten anything yet

ana3067

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

Lol, it's all the growth hormones and steroids they are giving to the animals these days to make them grow faster and larger. Roid-Rage!!! lol

cows are after gainz too you know.

ana3067

The point I wanted to make is that you can lead a strong healthy life-style without meat and without the excessively high amounts of protein that the meat producers want you to believe you need. His article was anecdotal...it never professed to be scholarly. It was based upon his own personal experience... and if you clicked on the links you would see success stories by all types of people and athletes, not just ultra-runners. His approach was not inflammatory or aggressive. In fact, I liked the fact that he recognized this issue between meat-eaters and plant-eaters has taken on the same incendiary characteristics as politics and religion. Although, I find this topic to actually be worthwhile as opposed to the other two,

I was not interested in stirring up arguments, but to me, the ability and willingness to explore alternatives to what is passed off as "gospel truth" by the food industry can be a healthy, wealthy and wise exercise.

Edited for grammar and skipped words.

Just want to point out that most of us who lift weights (strength and/or hypertrophy, I guess endurance lifters too?) eat even more than the RDA value. We all have our own preference - some do twice their body weight, others go by lean body mass, others 1g/lb or something near that. Protein is needed to maintain muscle mass, along with a caloric surplus if muscle growth is wanted. So a vegan diet for most of us would just not work, plain and simple, unless we supplemented quite a bit.

LoneWolfRunner

Well... one thing I have learned today: Meat-eaters are a testy lot.... :-)

You watch 1 propaganda movie and now you're excited, we get it.

Well... if that is what you gleaned, then you missed the point of everything....I'm not vegan...not even vegetarian... just wanted to look at some different aspects of nutrition, but it turned into a religious war... lol...
Just proves that people are primarily interested in one thing... themselves.

_Terrapin_

Interesting.

PRMinx

In...for Roid rage and science.

Cortelli

Vegan, vegetarian, meat-eater - eh, whatever floats your boat. But there's an awful lot of studies and anecdotal evidence that RDA protein requirements are significantly lower than optimal for at least a significant chunk of that subset of folks who at least comment in the various forums -- i.e., people regularly engaged in resistance training, especially those seeking to cut body fat and preserve lean mass.

An older thread with the abstract for some of Eric Helm's research (link to study in first post). Glossing over a lot of the details, my personal takeaway was and is that I am more likely to come closer to my goals during a cut if I focus on getting at least 1.1g and sometimes more of protein per lb of LBM on a daily basis.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1167386-review-of-dietary-protein-during-caloric-restriction?hl=protein+study

amberscarfaceglembin

Good for you! Sometimes doing what is right is hard because everyone around you doesn't agree. Change and unconventional lifestyles can be scary for some people so they respond with negativity. However you know a vegan lifestyle is peaceful and harms no. You will have great health and benefit our environment. Any negative comments are just insecurities from people that feel threatened or guilty, afraid of change.

Cheers to pioneers!

Sam_I_Am77

Vegan propaganda, nothing more.

Pretty much. All I'll have to say about this is that there is more than enough research out there about the benefits to protein for strength training and athletes. You can be Vegan but you better be sucking down some Soy protein or something to get adequate proteins. Do some non-Vegan based research on Protein consumption and you'll see what I'm talking about. There is research out there comparing Soy and When and the differences were marginal, so a Vegan can be successful as an athlete or strength training but they must still get the appropriate protein from somewhere. The research is there, talk to any Performance Nutritionist, etc.

Meat is not killing us. The combination of high-fat foods, with high sugar foods is what's killing us. All of the high-sugar sodas, snacks foods, fast-foods, and lack of exercise are the problem. People that eat lean animal meats, fruits, vegetables are plenty healthy. There are a couple Vegans that I work with and my last Biometric screening results were better, by a long-shot, than theirs. Take it for what it's worth.

persistentsoul

I went vegetarian in my late teens for moral reasons. I felt very virtuous but can't say I felt any health benefits, it was cheap though. Then after 4 years being vegetarian I went vegan because I felt guilty about eating any animal product. Again I felt no health benefits but did enjoy the challenge of making my own vegan yummy things. It got me in to cooking which was a good thing. Then I tried being a raw food vegan, that made me very ill. In total I was vegetarian for 6 years then I met my ex husband who was a big meat eater, also I had become jaded and disillusioned in my old age of mid twenties :laugh: The world through my young eyes was cruel, dark , mean and nothing I did seemed important anymore. My years of idealism and striving to be virtuous seemed rather lacking in reward :grumble: . I lost my temper with life, so I decided to abandon my morals somewhat and go with the flow a bit. My halo fell off I guess and has gone a bit rusty since then :laugh: :ohwell:

I still conceptually believe in being vegan as in I don't like the thought of a creature losing it's life so I can eat it, but I have been unable to resolve my inner conflicts around living in a world/universe that still to me seems cruel and unreasonable. I disagree with how it is all set up ( Life the universe and everything that is ). I do not seem to be all powerful and able to make the corrections I want so I am still sulking I suppose :indifferent:
Can't beat the cruel world so join it , also I like the taste of cooked meat :blushing: I am a total hypocrite in that area though and if had to kill my own food I suspect I would soon be vegan again or die of starvation. I am eating more meat now than ever in my life and have to say I feel better on it. Also while I was being vegetarian I was hungry most of the time and gained 50lb. High carb does not suit me, eating lots of meat and less carbs does suit me even if I do feel bad for creatures I eat.
Life is just set up wrong, will definitely be putting in a complaint if I get the opportunity.