More on protein

The higher emphasis on protein in the new USDA food recommendations brings to mind some thoughts I've had about how one can get enough protein.  My daughter--formerly an aspiring dietician--brought home a pamphlet that claims that any athlete needs to use protein powders/supplements to get enough.  It was, of course, from a company making protein supplements.

Now if one gets a lot of calories from sugars (including juices) and fats, that is perhaps true, but with ordinary foods, one will quickly find that one gets reasonable levels of protein without trying.  Fruits and vegetables have 10-20% protein as a portion of calories, dairy products (excluding cream and half & half) are 20% protein and higher (skim milk is about 40% protein as a portion of calories), legumes and beans are about 30% protein, and meats 20% and up--and the 20% is hamburger with a lot of added fat.

Average things together, and reasonable whole food diets will tend to be about 20% protein or more as a portion of calories, which gets a reasonable 2000 calorie diet to about 400 calories from protein, or about 100 grams.  With just a little "nudge" in favor of legumes, meats, and dairy, you're in the range recommended by the USDA.

Why is this so?  Again, it's a simple matter of chemistry and biology; plants have cell walls of fiber bound together with a protein called lignin.  Proteins form a necessary part of all living creatures, so unless you refine them to get just the sugars or fats, you're going to get proteins.

And to get protein powders, what you do is eliminate starches, fiber, vitamins, and minerals from ordinary foods...in short, they are depleted foods, just like sugar or corn oil.  The plea to build one's diet off real, whole foods is well taken.