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As long as you aren't eating the same food every meal, you will get enough protein on a vegan diet. Vegetables, potatoes, rice, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and soy etc. all contain plenty of protein. Some are defficient in one or two amino acids that the others contain, so as long as you eat different things throughout the week you will get enough protein to ...
12
One difference between animal protein and plant protein is that plant protein breaks down much more quickly than animal protein (which is why that feeling of being horribly full for a long time after eating lots of animal protein doesn't usually happen with plant protein).
This is why some ultra athletes say they prefer plant protein when you need to eat as ...
12
This will not be a comprehensive answer and is intended to kick-start what might end up as part of a FAQ.
Most pulses (the seeds from legumes) e.g. lentils, are a good protein source and are also versatile meal ingredients.
Nuts have high levels of proteins.
Soy is a seed that can be made into tofu or a cow milk substitute.
Have a look at this site (no ...
10
It is very easy to get adaquate protein from whole plant based products. Below is an excerpt from an article in scientific literature.
... Protein needs are the nutritional issue for which there is
probably the least reason for concern. The fact is that all essential
and nonessential amino acids can be supplied by plant sources alone,
assuming that ...
9
Very little. According to the ESHA database, via https://cronometer.com/, 100g of aquafaba contains 1g of protein:
If you're interested in making meringues or something with aquafaba, go ahead and enjoy them. They're not meant to be a source of nutrition. You can get your protein elsewhere.
9
According to the FAO report, crickets have a live weight feed conversion ratio of 1.7. This means 1kg of live cricket requires 1.7kg of feed. Crickets are approximately 80% edible, giving a feed-to-food ratio of about 2.1. According to the report, "this means that crickets are twice as efficient in converting feed to meat as chicken, at least four times more ...
9
Actually I disagree with you that protein is a major obstacle to going vegan. It's everywhere!
Grains and pulses are probably the cheapest protein-rich foods. Protein content in beans, peas and lentils when cooked varies from around 6 to 10%. Porridge oats contain about 20% protein, wheat flour around 11%, and cooked brown rice about 6.5%
TVP ("textured ...
8
One aspect of "protein quality" refers to how close a type of protein is to being "complete", i.e. containing all the nine essential amino acids in sufficient amounts.
Most meat, fish, whey (milk protein) and eggs are complete protein sources.
As covered in other questions, there are many vegan complete protein sources as well, such as soy beans, lentils ...
8
Incomplete protein sources aren't a bad thing. You just can't live entirely on only one. Most vegetables are only deficient in 1 or 2 amino acids (the components of proteins). However other vegetables contain these and even the "incomplete" ones often contain those missing in each other.
Beans, legumes, and nuts are good protein sources if it concerns you ...
7
This article suggests that there are vegan "complete protein" sources: Forks Over Knives
In practice, you probably will get protein from a variety of food sources; but I don't know that you will have to go out of your way. Omnivores most likely get protein from multiple sources as well.
As an active vegetarian, I'v never worried about protein intake. It ...
7
Nutritional yeast is best consumed in small amounts daily.
Nutritional yeast is a very high source of niacin (Vitamin B3). The tolerable upper limit (TUL) for niacin is set at 30 mg per day because some people experience uncomfortable facial flushing after consuming anywhere from 30-1000 mg of niacin per day. One tablespoon of nutritional yeast provides 28 ...
6
As a European, my personal reason is that it is not grown anywhere near home, as opposed to many other legumes. According to this article, largest producers are China, India, Myanmar and Indonesia. Otherwise this seems to be a very good source of protein indeed.
6
Soy milk is the only common plant-based milk with a protein content comparable to dairy milk, which has a protein content of up to 3.4g per 100ml (the lowest fat cow's milk sold has the highest proportion of protein). Nic also found that pea milk has a similarly high protein content, around 3.3g per 100ml, but this may not be as widely available as other ...
5
Here is a list of foods ranked by grams protein per British pound, which may vary in the US, but not likely by that much (note its a bit of a random selection). The third column is protein per unit of money, and the second column is percent of calories that are from protein. For example, peanut butter is very cost effective for obtaining protein but it also ...
5
This answer focuses not on the proteins but on the effects of the vitamin B12 found in Spirulina.
TL;DR
You can't be sure yet whether or not Spirulina is bad. There are not enough studies with consistent results to show whether the form of vitamin B12 found in Spirulina is usable.
NTL;WR
The German Wikipedia contains some information on the effectiveness ...
5
My understanding (if I'm allowed to answer here without providing references) is that "protein combining" used to be a talked-about topic.
It's less talked-about now because now it's assumed that, while combining is necessary (what you might call balanced diet), it isn't necessary to combine them precisely at every meal: it's sufficient to have one at one ...
5
If you are having issues reaching your protein goals, you can supplement your diet with soy protein powder. It's cheap, a source of all 9 essential aminoacids, and it has a bland taste, so you can mix it into smoothies, shakes, salads, or even your lunch.
About "which quantity", we can't get the right number for you without knowing your weight, height, age,...
5
An answer has been given on the Health Stack Exchange:
A vegan diet is based only on vegetal foods. If we analyze the amino
acid content of different food protein sources (animal and plant
proteins), lysine is consistently at a much lower concentration
in all major plant-food protein groups than in animal foods (1,
2). Lysine is one of the ...
5
Below are some soy and gluten free imitation meat products made by two brands that can be found in the US. Products that are vegan are italicized.
Beyond Meat: (supposedly very similar to actual meat)
Beyond Burger
Beast Burger
Beyond Sausage Products
Beefy Crumble (claims to be "The only gluten-free AND soy-free crumble on the market.")
Quorn:
Chik'n ...
5
You need more calories
If you are loosing weight, and you don't want to be, you aren't eating enough calories. You can use the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (they work for Germans too) to estimate how many calories you need to eat in a day to maintain your weight.
You should start tracking how many calories you're eating, and steadily increase the amount ...
4
Most vegan diets are adequate for health (provide all essential amino acids) without any particular focus on protein combining. A poorly planned vegan diet may be deficient in lysine, but this can be compensated by eating foods rich in lysine such as soybean products and other legumes.
Some people with specific dietary goals like increasing muscle mass or ...
4
The good old, shelled or unshelled, salted or spiced peanut is hard to beat for price to protein ratio and wide availability. Of course, it is high in fat and sodium too. Watch out for (nowadays rare) brands using gelatin as a coating aid...
4
Yes. All you need to do is make sure you get enough protein and that you have a complete protein source with all of the necessary amino acids. Any time you combine legumes with grains, you have a complete protein source.
More on complete protein here: https://greatist.com/health/complete-vegetarian-proteins
Also search for Leon Gabbidon - a vegan ...
3
The best bean is variety
The main concerns with bean are that many are incomplete proteins: they are relatively low in Lysine and Methionine.
However, there are some exceptions. Most notably Soy is a complete protein with high levels of Methionine so Soymilk, Tofu, Edamame, and Natto are all good protein sources. Similarly, Chickpeas (garbanzo) are higher ...
3
Beanitos, Beanfields, and Boulder Canyon make relatively high protein bean chips that I buy in regular supermarkets and places like Target and Walmart.
3
Based on the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) food database (1 2), the standard reference for food comparison, there are small differences in the amount of proteins of several varieties of lentils. However, the differences are quite small, being the standard error 0,27 for the first source and 0,7 for the second, so we can consider lentils good ...
3
Yes, you can get sufficient protein from whole plant foods.
If you are an average weight male (84 kg) you'll want to aim for at least 67 grams (268 kcal) of protein per day (based on 0.80 g protein/kg body weight). Assuming you're consuming 2000 kcal per day, your goal is to get at least 13.5% of your food energy from protein.
Different food categories ...
3
A recent and oft-cited scientific literature survey concludes (from the abstract):
The adverse effects associated with long-term high protein/high meat intake in humans were (a) disorders of bone and calcium homeostasis, (b) disorders of renal function, (c) increased cancer risk, (d) disorders of liver function, and (e) precipitated progression of ...
3
For a low-activity lifestyle, foods that contain at least 10% protein (by energy) are key.
Assuming a dietary target of 55 g protein and 2200 kcal total energy per day, 10% of energy must be provided by protein to meet the target. Individual foods that contain less than 10% protein by energy are fine, as long as they are balanced with foods that contain ...
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