Friday, April 12, 2013

How does a Vegetarian get Protein?!

The running joke I have with people is in regards to protein.  Whenever I tell someone that Ashley and I have been going with a Vegan diet, the first thing everyone asks is "but how do you get your protein." I'm sure the is no vegetarian or vegan out there who has never heard this question before.  Today I will attempt to demystify the situation and explain that a normal veg diet can and will give you all the protein you need without needing to eat 'a pound of broccoli.'



Protein?

So what is protein? Protein is one of the essential building blocks of all organic material.  You may have heard commercials or people talk about amino acids and proteins.  Essentially they are the same thing.  Proteins are made of amino acids.  To give a very quick and simple overview of the situation...

1. Our DNA has coding for protein structures.

2. When a specific type of protein is needed, our DNA encodes RNA to tell the body what to do.

3. The RNA message is used to code a specific Amino Acid sequence.

4. The Amino Acid sequence is your protein.

So when we are talk about eating proteins, we are actually concerned about the types of amino acids that we are eating.  In total, there are 22 standard amino acids that make up the proteins structures in our bodies. There are two categories of amino acids, essential and non-essential.  The essential amino acids are those that cannot be synthesized by our body, the other 13 non-essential amino acids can be synthesized within our body.

There is a useful chart off of wikipedia that lists the essential amino acids and the quantity that we need.


For those of you that don't want to do the math, 70Kg is around 154lbs and 100Kg is 220lbs.  So where do we get these sorts of proteins?

Vegetable Sources of Essential Amino Acids

Broccoli - In 1 cup of raw (91g)

Histidine - 53.7 mg
Isoleucine - 71.9 mg
Leucine - 117 mg
Lysine - 123 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 60 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 151 mg
Threonine - 80.1 mg
Tryptophan - 30 mg
Valine - 114 mg

Kale - In 1 cup of raw (67g)

Histidine - 46 mg
Isoleucine - 132 mg
Leucine - 155 mg
Lysine - 132 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 51 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 191 mg
Threonine - 98.5 mg
Tryptophan - 26.8 mg
Valine - 121 mg

Spinach - In 1 cup of raw (30g)

Histidine - 19.2 mg
Isoleucine - 44.1 mg
Leucine - 67 mg
Lysine - 52.2 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 26 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 71 mg
Threonine - 37 mg
Tryptophan - 12 mg
Valine - 48 mg

Green Peppers - In 1 cup raw (149g)

Histidine - 15 mg
Isoleucine - 36 mg
Leucine - 54 mg
Lysine - 58 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 28 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 155 mg
Threonine - 54 mg
Tryptophan - 18 mg
Valine - 54 mg

Cauliflower - In 1 cup raw (100g)

Histidine - 40 mg
Isoleucine - 75 mg
Leucine - 116 mg
Lysine - 106 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 51 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 114 mg
Threonine - 72 mg
Tryptophan - 26 mg
Valine - 99 mg

White Mushrooms - In 1 cup raw (70g)

Histidine - 40 mg
Isoleucine - 53 mg
Leucine - 84 mg
Lysine - 75 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 30 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 90 mg
Threonine - 75 mg
Tryptophan - 24 mg
Valine - 162 mg

What we have here is about what I would put into my average stirfry for lunch.  It's not a lot, the kale, spinach and mushrooms essentially wilt into nothing when cooked.  Overall it's enough for my lunch.  I am of course forgetting the nutrients that come from ginger, garlic, carrots, celery...etc, but lets keep it simple and add it up!

In total, we're looking at about 507g food, so a little over 1 lb.

Histidine - 213.9/886 = 24%
Isoleucine - 412/1772 = 23%
Leucine - 593/3457 = 17%
Lysine - 546.2/2659 = 21%
Methionine + Cysteine - 246/1329 = 19%
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 772/2216 = 35%
Threonine - 416.6/1329 = 31%
Tryptophan - 136.8/355 = 39%
Valine - 598/2305 = 26%

Lets say that you also want to eat this with a cup of cooked white rice (158), you are now adding:

Histidine - 99.5 mg
Isoleucine - 183 mg
Leucine - 351 mg
Lysine - 153 mg
Methionine + Cysteine - 186 mg
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 370 mg
Threonine - 152 mg
Tryptophan - 49 mg
Valine - 259 mg

This combination will bring your total to:

Histidine - 313.4/886 = 35%
Isoleucine - 595/1772 = 34%
Leucine - 944/3457 = 27%
Lysine - 699.2/2659 = 26%
Methionine + Cysteine - 432/1329 = 33%
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 1142/2216 = 52%
Threonine - 568.6/1329 = 43%
Tryptophan - 185.8355 = 52%
Valine - 857/2305 = 37%

There you have it, it's a pretty large meal (665g, 1.45lbs), but something that I would probably eat on average.  I know it is a simple list, and doesn't look at other things we eat such as potatoes, quinoa, amaranth...etc, but it does paint a good picture.  After one normal lunch time meal I've hit almost a third  of all the essential amino acids I need. The values I posted are relative to my body weight needs.  If you are smaller than me, and eat this you will be reaching a higher percentage of what you need.

It's not about eating a ton of one type of vegetable.  As you see above each one has different values for each type.  It's about getting a variety of vegetables to balance everything out.  If you are into juicing, this makes the task much easier since you can compress massive amounts of vegetables into a single glass of juice.