PROTEIN

PROTEIN: If you think you need to eat animals, drink their milk, or eat their eggs in order to get enough protein, and the 'right kind' of protein, then by the time you finish reading these extensive entries, you will find it difficult and even foolish to continue thinking that way.

I've gathered this protein information in two ways. The first section comes from numerous websites, while the second section is composed of many passages from several books.

I) From Internet Sites:

Basically proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids. There are 22 different types of amino acid and the body needs all of them to function properly. Amino acids are chemical compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which combine together into different structures to form the various types of protein that the body requires.

There are many forms of protein, which all play an important role in the function of the body. For example, collagen is a protein and is vital for the strength, elasticity and composition of our hair and skin. When the proteins that we consume in our food are broken down through digestion into individual amino acids, these amino acids are then absorbed and reform in order to create new proteins that are then used by the body.

The 22 types of amino acid are divided into two groups: essential and non-essential amino acids. There are 14 non-essential amino acids. They are termed non-essential as they can be manufactured by the body and do not have to be derived from food.

The body, on the other hand, cannot produce the remaining 8 essential amino acids itself, and therefore they must be derived from the food that we eat.

Non-essential amino acids are just as important as essential amino acids, as without the other, new proteins that are needed by the body cannot be properly formed. It is therefore vital that a variety of foods are eaten in order to provide the body with all of the amino acids required.

Complete and incomplete proteins:
There are some foods that contain all of the 8 essential amino acids required to form the new proteins together with the non-essential amino acids. These foods are called "complete" proteins and tend to come from animal sources of protein such as meat, dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish and poultry.


The proteins that are termed "incomplete" proteins are usually lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids. They are generally found in vegetable products like fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains and nuts.


However, by combining two or more of the "incomplete" proteins, a complete supply of essential amino acids is available. For example, baked beans on toast or rice and beans will form a complete protein and give the body all the essential amino acids.


What is the exact role of protein in our body?
Protein is required by the body for the growth, maintenance and repair of all cells.

(II) From Books (just getting started on this; July 29, '11)

The China Study: T. Colin Campbell (2006)

This is a valuable and informative book, and I will only be focusing on protein extracts. If you don't already have your own copy, you will appreciate it when you do. The first 100 and some pages heavily reference animal studies (rats). So as you might imagine, I vehemently oppose this kind of research, irrespective of how much good, useful, significant, etc., information can be obtained by experimenting on and studying animals--IT'S NOT RIGHT, IT'S VERY WRONG TO TORTURE AND KILL SOMETHING ELSE BECAUSE WE AS  HUMANS MIGHT BENEFIT FROM THAT!

For ten years our primary goal in the Philippines was to improve childhood malnutrition among the poor. The aim of these efforts was to make sure children were getting as much protein as possible.

It was widely thought that much of the childhood malnutrition in the world was caused by a lack of protein, especially from animal-based foods.


Universities and governments around the world were working to alleviate the perceived "protein gap"  in the developing world.

In this project, however, I uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest-protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer!  They were the children of the wealthiest families.

I then noticed a research report from India, that had some very provocative, relevant findings. Indian researchers had studied two groups of rats. In one group they administered the cancer-causing aflatoxin, then fed a diet that was composed of 20% protein, a level near what many of us consume in the West. In the other group they administered the same amount of aflatoxin, but then fed a diet that was composed of only 5% protein. Incredibly, every single animal that consumed the 20% protein diet, had evidence of liver cancer, and every single animal that consumed a 5% protein diet avoided liver cancer. It was a 100 to 0 score, leaving no doubt that nutrition trumped chemical carcinogens, even very potent carcinogens, in controlling cancer.

This information countered everything I had been taught. It was heretical to say that protein wasn't healthy, let alone say it promoted cancer.I decided to start an in-depth laboratory program that would investigate the role of nutrition, especially protein, in the development of cancer.

Eventually this research became handsomley funded for 27 years by the best reviewed and most competitive funding sources.

What we found was shocking. Low protein diets inhibited the initiation of cancer by afflatoxin, regardless of how much of this carcinogen was administered to these animals.

In fact dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.

But that's not all. We found that not all protein had this effect. What protein consistently and strongly promoted cancer? Casein, which makes up 87% of cow's milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process.What kind of protein did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake? The safe proteins were from plants, including wheat and soy. These experimental animal studies didn't end there.

The scientific basis for my views is largely empirical, obtained through observation and measurement. It comes from legitimate research findings.

Much of my evidence comes from human studies done by myself and by my students and colleagues in my research group. They included a study of dietary factors affecting bone density and osteoporosis in 800 women in China, a study of biomarkers that characterize the emergence of breast cancer, and a nationwide, comprehensive study of dietary and lifestyle factors associated with disease mortality in 170 villages in mainland China and Taiwan (widely known as the China Study).

This China Study, of which I was director, began in 1983 and is still ongoing. In addition to these human studies, I maintained a twenty-seven year laboratory research program in experimental animal studies.

Eating the right way not only prevents disease but also generates health and a sense of well-being, both physically and mentally. Some world -class athletes....have discovered that eating a plant-based diet gives them a significant edge in performance.

In the laboratory, we fed rats a diet rich in animal-based protein and compared them with other rats fed a diet low in animal-based protein.
Given the opportunity to voluntarily use exercise wheels, those fed the low animal-protein diet exercised substantially more, with less fatigue than the rats fed the high animal protein diet.

A century ago, a famous, well-established nutrition researcher at Yale University Medical School, Professor Russell Chittendon, investigated whether a plant-based diet affected students' physical capacities. He fed some students, fellow faculty, and himself a plant-based diet and measured their physical performance tests. He got the same results as our rats a century later--and they were equally spectacular.

My entire professional career in biomedical research has centered on protein. Protein, often regarded with unsurpassed awe, is the common thread tying together past and present knowledge about nutrition.

The dogma surrounding protein, censures, reproaches, and guides almost every thought we have in biomedical research. Ever since the discovery of this nitrogen-containing chemical in 1839 by the Dutch chemist Gerhard Mulder, protein has loomed as the most sacred of all nutrients. The word protein comes from the Greek word proteios, which means "of prime importance."

In the 19th century, protein was synonymous with meat, and this connection has stayed with us for well over a hundred years. Many people today still equate protein with animal-based food.

Confusion reigns on many of the most basic questions about protein:

• What is a good source of protein?
• How much protein should one consume?
• Is plant protein as good as animal protein?
• Is it necessary to combine certain plant foods in a meal to get complete proteins?
• Is it advisable to take protein powders or amino acid supplements, especially for someone who does vigorous exercise or plays sport?
• Should one take protein supplements to build muscle?
• Some protein is considered high quality, some low quality; what does this mean?
• Where do vegetarians get protein?
• Can vegetarian children grow properly without animal protein?

Fundamental to many of these common questions and concerns is the belief that meat is protein and protein is meat.

Protein, the most sacred of all nutrients, is a vital component of our bodies and there are hundreds of thousands of different kinds. They function as enzymes, hormones, structural tissue, and transport molecules, all of which make life possible.

Proteins are constructed as long chains of hundreds or thousands of amino acids of which there are 15 or twenty different kinds, depending on how they are counted. About 8 of the 22 amino acids
our body needs for making tissue protein must be provided by the food we eat. They are called essential because our bodies cannot make them.

Proteins wear out on a regular basis and must be replaced. Various food proteins are said to be of different quality, depending on how well they provide the needed amino acids used to replace our body proteins.

Food proteins of the highest quality are, very simply, those that provide, upon digestion, the right kinds and amounts of amino acids needed to efficiently synthesize our new tissue proteins.

This is what the word "quality" really means: it is the ability of food proteins to provide the right kinds and amounts of amino acids to make our new proteins.

The proteins of other animals are very similar to ours because they mostly have the right amounts of each of the needed amino acids. These proteins can be used very efficiently and therefore are called "high quality." Among animal foods the proteins of milk and eggs represent the best amino acid matches for our new proteins, and thus are considered the highest quality. While the "lower quality" plant proteins may be lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids, as a group they do contain all of them.

The concept of quality really means the efficiency with which food proteins are used to promote growth. The greatest efficiency, however, doesn't equal the greatest health, and that's why the terms efficiency and quality are misleading. In fact to give you a taste of what's to come, there is a mountain of compelling research showing that "low quality" plant protein, which allows for slow but steady synthesis of new proteins, is the healthiest type of protein.

The quality of protein found in a specific food is determined by seeing how fast animals would grow while consuming it. Some foods, namely those from animals, emerge with a very high protein efficiency and value. This focus on efficiency of body growth, as if it were good health, encourages the consumption of protein with the highest "quality."

As any marketer will tell you, a product that is defined as being high quality instantly earns the trust of consumers. For well over 100 years we have been captive to this misleading language, and have oftentimes made the unfortunate leap to thinking that more quality equals more health.

We now know that through enormously complex metabolic systems, the human body can derive all the essential amino acids from the natural variety of plant proteins that we encounter every day. It doesn't require eating higher quantities of plant protein or meticulously planning every meal. Unfortunately, the enduring concept of protein quality has greatly obscured this information.

Lengthy article on the differences between humans and herbivores on the one hand, and carnivores on the other:
http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm?mid=54726

Video: Where do you get your protein if you don't eat meat? John McDougall talks about the small amount of protein needed for good health. (3 min.)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPD
7Wvi1OM&feature=player_embedded   

Video: Animal Protein -- Meat and Dairy -- Cause Cancer: Colin Campbell (45 min.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsT-qYeqGM&feature=relmfu