If gym bros were philosophically opposed to hyper processed foods, whey protein (and all sorts of other animal-derived protein supplements) wouldn’t be as popular as they are. Whey used to be a nearly free byproduct of the dairy industry, and now is instead a key ingredient in supplement powders and bars and also processed food manufacturing for high protein versions of things like waffles and coffee drinks and even candy.
I’m a pretty serious lifter and I get most of my protein from a combination of legumes (probably 3-6 servings per day), processed dairy like cheeses and yogurts (probably 4-6 servings per day), and grains (probably 5-10 servings per day). I eat meat almost every day, but the actual macronutrient profile of my daily intake shows that most of my protein is coming from non-meat sources.
Hell, a typical hot dog on a bun has half of its protein in the bun (about 5g) and half the protein in the hot dog (about 5g).
It’s not hard to get enough protein from plant sources. Almost every civilization in history was build around a staple grain and a staple legume, which generally provides sufficient protein to cover people’s needs. If you’re trying to do more, like lift heavy weights, meat makes it somewhat easier to satisfy the higher protein requirements, but industrial processing is really the cheat code, whether we’re talking dairy or isolated protein from crops.
Right I conceded this point elsewhere. That being said I did have a period where I was a whole foods zealot and it was very hard to reach protein goals even eating meat. I was on a bulk so I was basically eating every 2 hours, but the worst thing was how much cooking was involved.
I now supplement because of that but I can still reach 130gs or so of protein some days on whole foods only. But I don’t know that I could do that with a vegan only diet without supplements. Which why I highlighted how difficult it is.
I was playing around with the numbers in another comment, and concluded that someone like me, with a target consumption or 165 g of protein and 2800 calories, simply needed to average out to 5.9g of protein per 100 calories. Several whole plant foods are above this:
Peas: 6.4 g protein per 100 calories
Beans: 6.7 g per 100
Lentils: 7.8 g per 100
Mushrooms: 7.7 g per 100
Broccoli: 6.8 g per 100
And while looking at fermented cabbage in particular, that’s actually got some really good numbers, presumably because the microbes preferentially metabolize the sugars and carbs:
Kimchi: 7.4 g per 100
Sauerkraut: 4.8 g per 100
The more active one is, and the higher the calorie needs, the easier it is to hit the target of .78g protein per pound of bodyweight while still hitting overall caloric needs. It’s the restricted cutting diets that make it hardest.
Then again, easy for me to talk because I’m always hungry and have never had trouble eating enough. Even still, though, I rely heavily on dairy for my protein goals. It’s the easiest way to plan out macros.
Iirc the hard part is that not all protein is the same, and your body needs a variety to actually be able to use it which is near impossible to get solely from unprocessed plant based foods. So, modern chemistry to the rescue.
(This is what I remember from like an hour of research a few months back so correct me if I’m wrong)
which is near impossible to get solely from unprocessed plant based foods.
You’re remembering wrong. Your body needs the essential amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine), and most plants don’t have all of them, but pretty much any combination of a grain (wheat, rice, oats, corn/maize) and a legume (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, green beans, peanuts) will have all of them.
So yeah, you won’t get all of them from bread, and you won’t get all of them from peanut butter, but you will get all of them from a peanut butter sandwich. Or a bean burrito. Or rice and beans. Or rice and peas.
If gym bros were philosophically opposed to hyper processed foods, whey protein (and all sorts of other animal-derived protein supplements) wouldn’t be as popular as they are. Whey used to be a nearly free byproduct of the dairy industry, and now is instead a key ingredient in supplement powders and bars and also processed food manufacturing for high protein versions of things like waffles and coffee drinks and even candy.
I’m a pretty serious lifter and I get most of my protein from a combination of legumes (probably 3-6 servings per day), processed dairy like cheeses and yogurts (probably 4-6 servings per day), and grains (probably 5-10 servings per day). I eat meat almost every day, but the actual macronutrient profile of my daily intake shows that most of my protein is coming from non-meat sources.
Hell, a typical hot dog on a bun has half of its protein in the bun (about 5g) and half the protein in the hot dog (about 5g).
It’s not hard to get enough protein from plant sources. Almost every civilization in history was build around a staple grain and a staple legume, which generally provides sufficient protein to cover people’s needs. If you’re trying to do more, like lift heavy weights, meat makes it somewhat easier to satisfy the higher protein requirements, but industrial processing is really the cheat code, whether we’re talking dairy or isolated protein from crops.
RIP your toilet.
Right I conceded this point elsewhere. That being said I did have a period where I was a whole foods zealot and it was very hard to reach protein goals even eating meat. I was on a bulk so I was basically eating every 2 hours, but the worst thing was how much cooking was involved.
I now supplement because of that but I can still reach 130gs or so of protein some days on whole foods only. But I don’t know that I could do that with a vegan only diet without supplements. Which why I highlighted how difficult it is.
I was playing around with the numbers in another comment, and concluded that someone like me, with a target consumption or 165 g of protein and 2800 calories, simply needed to average out to 5.9g of protein per 100 calories. Several whole plant foods are above this:
And while looking at fermented cabbage in particular, that’s actually got some really good numbers, presumably because the microbes preferentially metabolize the sugars and carbs:
The more active one is, and the higher the calorie needs, the easier it is to hit the target of .78g protein per pound of bodyweight while still hitting overall caloric needs. It’s the restricted cutting diets that make it hardest.
Then again, easy for me to talk because I’m always hungry and have never had trouble eating enough. Even still, though, I rely heavily on dairy for my protein goals. It’s the easiest way to plan out macros.
I managed to get 3245 calories and only use 4 eggs and some autism-tier Vegan food, such as Quinoa.
You were this close to writing a perfectly readable and useful post and then you dunked it with the “.78g per POUND of body weight”.
I’m still proud of you for using metric almost the entire way, but come on! Can’t we just get rid of the rest of the useless system as well?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Iirc the hard part is that not all protein is the same, and your body needs a variety to actually be able to use it which is near impossible to get solely from unprocessed plant based foods. So, modern chemistry to the rescue.
(This is what I remember from like an hour of research a few months back so correct me if I’m wrong)
You’re remembering wrong. Your body needs the essential amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine), and most plants don’t have all of them, but pretty much any combination of a grain (wheat, rice, oats, corn/maize) and a legume (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, green beans, peanuts) will have all of them.
So yeah, you won’t get all of them from bread, and you won’t get all of them from peanut butter, but you will get all of them from a peanut butter sandwich. Or a bean burrito. Or rice and beans. Or rice and peas.
That’s a lot easier to do than what I remember reading about, so thanks for the clarification!