In addition to the high-protein diet fallacy there are many other protein fads and fallacies, such as:
1. ”You should eat lots of proteins every day!” The fact is that
your body can exist without any food, and, consequently, without
any protein, for weeks and months, as, for example, in the case of
complete therapeutic fasting. (See Chapter 2.) And this not only is
not harmful but has evident health benefits. It is a general observation that the protein level of the blood (serum albumin reading) of
fasting patients remains constant and normal during the whole fasting period, in spite of the fact that no protein is consumed. The reason for this is that proteins in your body are in the so-called dynamic
state: that means that they are constantly changed from one stage to
another, being decomposed and resynthesized from blood plasma
amino acids. (This phenomenon, which is so little understood as yet,
may help solve some of the protein cult mystery.) Thus, the body is
using and re-using the same proteins again and again where they are
needed.
This proves that you do not need to eat high-protein meals every day, although your body does need protein each day. You will improve your health by eating a low-protein vegetable and fruit diet several days a week. And you can do it safely and without worrying about “where do I get my proteins?”
2. ”You need meat for proteins!” The most commonly asked
question when meat-eaters talk with vegetarians or lacto-vegetarians
is a “but where do you get your proteins?”
The answer is that since proteins are such vital and important nutritive substances, our Creator in his infinite wisdom has made them a part of virtually every natural food available to man. Every plant, every vegetable, every fruit, every seed or nut contains some protein. It is practically impossible to eat a natural food without eating some protein. The fact is that it is virtually impossible to get too few proteins on any diet, unless you are on a starvation diet. But it is not only possible, but very likely that you will develop a serious deficiency of vitamins and vital substances on the one-sided diet of meat, potatoes and bread so common in the United States. A meatless diet of raw fruits and vegetables, potatoes, whole bread, milk and cheese, nuts and beans will not only supply all the proteins you need, but is also rich in all the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes essential for optimum health.
The protein quality in some of the vegetables sources is even superior to the meat protein, as in the case of protein from soybeans, some nuts (cashews, almonds), potatoes and green vegetables. You may not know it, but plain old potatoes are a good source of complete proteins. You have been made to believe that potatoes are a pure starch food, but they contain large amounts of complete proteins, biologically comparable to the protein in eggs.1 In some experiments, men lived three to six years with potatoes as the only protein source and maintained excellent health and performed hard work. In the average German diet, ten percent of the daily protein requirement is derived from potatoes.
Much recent research shows that your body’s protein requirement is lowered if the protein is obtained from raw vegetable sources. Professor Eimer in Germany showed that athletes, switched from 100 grams of animal proteins a day to 50 grams of raw vegetable proteins, grew stronger and improved their records. Also a Japanese researcher, Dr. M. Kuratsune, has demonstrated that 22-30 grams of raw vegetable protein a day were sufficient to keep him and his wife in good health.
The foremost scientific authority on nutrition today is the International Society for Research on Nutrition and Vital Substances. Their recommendation in regard to protein reads: “The conception of the classical and late-classical nutrition theory that animal proteins are more valuable than plant proteins, can no longer be accepted. Today we know that the order of rank of proteins is generally dependent on their amino-gram and not on their origin.” They also state: “Each plant protein contains all the exogenous-essential amino acids.”
3. “Only complete proteins can satisfy your protein needs.” This is another common but fallacious statement made in support of “complete” meat proteins. Such foods as soybeans, sesame seeds, many nuts, millet, potatoes, and green vegetables all contain complete proteins, as good or better than meat proteins, without meat’s undesirable side effects.
Furthermore, it is a proven physiological fact that several foods with incomplete proteins will complement one another if eaten at the same time, and thus render their total protein biologically complete. For example: although wheat protein is lacking in some of the essential amino acids, a cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread will be a complete protein meal, with the cheese complementing the wheat and supplying the missing amino acids. Beans and tortillas, eaten with some vegetables, also make a complete protein meal, although beans and corn are not complete separately. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that protein, which is derived in proportion up to two-thirds from plant origin, adequately supplies all the protein needed for normal growth and sustenance of health.
Thus the notion that only foods with all the essential amino acids can satisfy your protein-need is fallacious.
4. “You need animal proteins for strength!” This fallacy will be difficult to disprove, because steak lovers just love to think that meat gives them strength. The truth is, however, exactly the opposite. And this is proven in scientific experiments over and over again.
Professor Irving Fisher made comparative studies of meat-eating Yale athletes with non-meat-eating vegetarians, doctors and assistants from the Battle Creek Sanatorium. The following tests were given to two groups. First, the men were to hold their arms outstretched as long as possible. Only two of the meat-eaters reached 15 minutes, while 22 of the 32 vegetarians were able to achieve this. None of the meat-eaters, but 15 vegetarians, reached a half-hour. Nine of these reached one hour, four two hours, and one three hours and 20 minutes. The second test was deep knee bends. Only a few of the meat-eaters were able to make more than 300-400 knee bends. One vegetarian made 1,800, one 2,400, and one 5,000. Dr. Fisher concluded that the protein content in the diet was responsible for the difference in endurance and stamina. In his continuous experiments, he further lowered the protein intake of the persons under study and noticed that a 20 percent reduction in protein increased their endurance 33 percent.
Even studies made by Dr. R. Chittenden of Yale University have shown that endurance increases with a lower protein intake. His experiments with professors, students, soldiers and athletes proved that muscle strength and endurance reaches its peak on about one-third of the usual protein intake. His explanation of this phenomenon was that the protein metabolism results in the higher blood content of uric acid, urea, and purines, and that these have a toxic, paralyzing effect on muscles and nerves. This may explain the observation made by westerners in Hong Kong harbour, where the little Chinese coolies carry 200-pound rice bags all day long, eating nothing but rice and vegetables. Asked why don’t they eat meat, one of them said, “If I ate meat I would not be able to carry these bags all day long.” The great Australian swimming champion, Murray Rose, Olympic Gold Medal winner for several years, has never tasted meat in his life—he has been a 100 percent vegetarian since birth. Most of the Japanese endurance swimmers eat little or no meat. You may also remember Horace Braby, a young South African athlete who won over all his meat-eating competitors on a meatless diet; or the remarkable victories of New Zealander John Marshall in 1956 in the long-distance swimming contest; or Bill Pickering “who crossed the English Channel and on his arrival was able to run up the beach”— all on diets without meat but rich in raw vegetable foods.
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