For those that know me you know that I'm a big proponent of a plant based diet, there's many reasons for this, but I'll explain why in another post. In this post I'd like to clear up some of the misconceptions around proteins and proteins in the vegan diet as it is the misconception I see the most when it comes down to nutrition. Firstly, let's explain what are proteins, a protein is simply a chain of differents amino acids, the proteins we eat are broken down into amino acids during digestion. Proteins are needed to grow and repair each cells of our body, so protein is really crucial for health. The truth is it's not the protein we need but the amino acids they contain so our body can make his own proteins with these. Some misconceptions about proteins in the vegan diet is that vegans don't get enough proteins, the truth is, generally vegans take less proteins than meat eaters, but they generally meet or exceed protein requirements. Anyway let's start with the most common question for vegetarians and vegans!



Where do vegan get their proteins?

I could list all the foods that contains proteins... but it would have no ends because there's proteins in almost everythings, so more simply here's the main vegans proteins sources:

- Legumes(beans, peas, etc.)
- Grains (wheat,millet,quinoa, buckwheat, rice, oat, etc... )
- Nuts and seeds ( hazelnuts, almonds, walnut, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.)
- Soy( Tofu, soy milk, tempeh, soy based fake meat, etc.)
- Green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, etc.)
- Superfoods ( Like spirulina wich have the highest content of protein of all food(up to 70%), chlorella, hemp, goji berries, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA), bee pollen, macca, etc.)




But aren't vegetable proteins incomplete you may ask?

One myth about vegan proteins that don't seem to go away is the myth that vegan proteins aren't complete except for soy. A complete protein is one that contain all the amino acids. By this definition ALMOST ALL proteins from the vegetable kingdom are complete. For some people for a protein to be complete it needs not to only have all the essential amino acid, but to have them in a balanced proportion. By this definition most vegan proteins still are complete, but some for some legumes, grains, nuts and seeds there's one or more amino acid that is more or less lacking. That's why some people will tell you that you need to combine different source of plant proteins in the same meal to get complete proteins. That's just not true, it's better to combine different proteins in a meal, but it's not necessary as long as you eat a variety of food you should be fine. But anyway here's the combinations recommended:

- Legumes and seeds
- Legumes and nuts
- Legumes and grains
- Legumes,nuts and seeds or grains and any complete proteins source(for exemple ; soy, hemp, quinoa, etc.)

In conclusion, if you're vegan/vegetarian, want to become one or just follow a more plant based diet, there's no need to worry about protein as long as you eat a variety of protein sources in a decent amount.

Stay tuned!

Seb