HLife | Healthy Living Redefined

Various Protein Structures courtesy of Protein Data Bank

Everyone is always concerned with how much protein we eat daily. Through knowledge, understanding, and love we will end this ignorance which has lead to useless fear and unnecessary disease.  The frequent question vegans get is: “Are you sure you are getting enough protein?” When we know and understand what protein really is (molecules, not animals), and that quality protein will always reign over quantity protein, then we can then start asking the right questions.  After all, what good does it do you to take in a lot of protein if you can’t digest and absorb it or eliminate its waste products?

First and foremost, let’s clarify: The body does not need much protein. About 60% to 70% of amino acids (protein building blocks) are available and recycled from old tissue proteins already in the body, called endogenous amino acids. The 25% that we are in charge of providing the body from our diets are called exogenous. As we talked about in the Protein Myth Part 2, quality protein is defined by how efficiently it can be digested, absorbed and eliminated. The point of eating is NOURISHMENT, to ingest nutrients to be turned into ENERGY or be used for repair. This vital energy keeps us living with balance and vigor. The most sustainable and efficient way to create energy in our bodies is by having easily broken down, enzyme-containing, non-toxic, high-fiber, nutrient-dense whole foods, and these will all come from a plant-based diet. The amount of energy that the body needs in order to break down a dense piece of animal flesh to get to the actual amino acids that it uses (the body doesn’t use protein, it uses the amino acids that make up the protein macromolecule) is literally a waste of energy.

The process from ingestion to elimination goes something like this:

The first attempt to break down the dense carcass mass takes place in the stomach, through hydrochloric acid – that is, if your body is healthy enough to still make any of it. In the U.S., lack of stomach acid is a common problem and it is linked to chronic stress, poor diet with excessive food intake, and aging. Further, high-protein diets are linked with premature aging, cell tissue and organ degeneration. When the carcass gets to the low-pH, second part of the stomach called the lumen, pepsin (a chief digestive enzyme that breaks down proteins) will be activated by the hydrochloric acid. What? Yes, pepsin needs to be ACTIVATED. Here’s where the problem is: Pepsin is inactive until our friend hydrochloric acid activates it, so if you have the common problem of lack of stomach acid…Its’ not looking so good for you. Pepsin is in charge of breaking the protein down into polypeptides, when it is activated. But that’s just the beginning, because  the bulk of protein digestion occurs through a pancreatic enzyme called protease. The two major pancreatic proteases are trypsin and chymotrypsin, which are inactive (again) until, reaching the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine) where trypsinogen and chymotrypsinogen are released to convert trypsin and chymotrypsin into their active forms, the forms that allow them to digest polypeptides. But wait, there’s more: The trypsinogen that activates trypsin needs to first be activated too by an enzyme, which is embedded in the intestinal mucosa, which, hopefully, is not blocked by the mucous of dairy products, which coats the intestinal walls and blocks the access to the enzyme and the tiny hairs that absorb nutrients in to the liver in liquid molecule form. You see how complex a process this is.

OK, I’m obviously in love with this information, but aren’t you? Let’s pick back up at the duodenum. Here, the breakdown of polypeptides takes place, from poly (many) to 3 amino acids (tripeptides), to 2 amino acids (dipeptides), and further to single amino acids. At this point, assuming that you actually succeeded in the breakdown of protein, we finally have single amino acid molecules ready for absorption through the intestinal wall, to be carried to the liver. The liver is the principal site of protein metabolism. But all the energy that went into breaking down animal protein in order to get liquid molecules (which is the state in which they are absorbed) is a waste., when we have another option (the vegetable kingdom) that does not require this much energy or as many steps to be broken down and utilized.  In plant protein not only does digestion start at the mouth because saliva comes with enzymes to break carbohydrates down, but also because all living plants come prepared  with their own enzymes to help digestion by breaking down almost everything that needs to be broken down.

It can’t be more simple and logical: Plant protein is more easily broken down, more efficiently absorbed and, because it comes with fiber, its byproducts are more easily eliminated. Let’s compare the two protein sources:

• ☀ Plant source: Lighter in mass, easier to break down/digest, comes with own enzymes, tons of fiber, which makes it perfect for elimination, richer in nutrient content, filled with nothing but the goods (antioxidants, photon energy from sunlight, high vibrational frequency, minerals…etc), is easy to digest and therefore creates more available amino acid molecules ready for absorption (quality), saves and promotes more lasting energy both for the self and for the planet. It is green to be healthy and healthy = green.

• ☢ Animal source: Dense mass, harder to break down (energy exhauster), demands more enzymes to breakdown (if you can even make them, depending on your health state and diet) contains lots of bad fat, bad cholesterol, loaded with toxins (ammonia, nitrogen), rots in your intestines and this creates more bacteria and disease, stimulates bad bacteria growth in the colon, gives off toxins that are absorbed into the blood through the colon, creates an overly acidic system from toxic metabolic waste such as uric acid, purines, and ammonia byproducts, acidifies the blood causing bone loss, most contain hormones and antibiotics, and too much protein for human consumption, creating amyloid build-up that contributes to the aging process. And the worse thing, when you cook it, the protein availability diminishes, that’s if you can even breakdown properly to access those molecules.  It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

Any way you put it, and under our definition of quality, protein from the vegetable kingdom is a far more quality protein than animal protein, which means:  You don’t need as much to begin with.

Each protein has a specific sequence of amino acid used in the genetic code of our DNA. DNA controls and guides protein formation with the assistance of RNA. And guess who controls DNA and RNA?  Antioxidants, phytonutrients, phytochemicals, which can only be found in (drumroll): The vegetable kingdom. Minerals are major key players too and although animals might have some, the vegetable kingdom is a much richer source of various quality minerals and vitamins.

Sources of plant protein:

• ☀ All vegetables have some protein (especially green leafs like spinach) but in order to get all of the essential eight amino acids, you must eat a variety of them.
• ☀ Legume/grain combos. Rice/bean combos are all very rich in protein and together form a complete protein (one source has the amino acids that the other lacks.) They need not be eaten together (though this is best – and yummiest!) but as long as you eat them within 24 hours of each other, this will work.

• ☀ Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, pecans, macadamia, hazels, peanuts, pine nuts, and coconuts.

• ☀ Seeds: Pumpkin, sesame, sunflower.

• ☀ Sea algae: Kombu, laver, wakame, nori, dunaniella salina, spirulina and chlorella.

Superfoods that contain all essential amino acids in one source:

• ☀ Quinoa (grain)

• ☀ Bee Pollen

• ☀ Chlorella (green algae)

• ☀ Spirulina (blue-green algae)

Sources: The New Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford, Concious Eating by Gabriel Cousens M.D., Staying Healthy with Nutrition by Elson Hass M.D., www.vivo.colostate.edu