Ask Dr Nerenberg | Health and Fitness

What is the story with ”complete proteins”?

I’ve read numerous sources both book & internet related.
Nutrition for dummies goes with the whole idea of ”complimenting protein sources” to meet your body needs.
Various internet sources say as long as its consumed within a good 8 hours or so of one another the body will convert certain foods into necessary proteins.
Some sources both book & internet related say its utter bulls*it from studies that didn’t produce proper controls/factors therefore bad science.

No one knows exactly how the body works, so all they can offer is theories. Unfortunately, nutritional science has the most opposing theories. You have a lot of people twisting info to fit agendas.

Animal protein has over 4.26 calories per protein gram. Vegetable protein can have as little as 2.63 calories per protein gram. In my mind, that alone is a huge difference but I don’t believe that eating twice as much vegetable protein would even be enough.

It is quite possible that there is something “more” needed than just amino acids. I highly recommend eggs as the perfect food & would recommend egg yolks over any protein source.

Excess protein is converted to glucose, the body does not store amino acids – for me the theory of noncomplementary proteins doesn’t work. For me, the theory of complementary proteins, barely works. I haven’t done a lot of research on this subject but I’ve heard from many ex-vegetarians whose bodies crumble. I personally don’t think it’s the protein issue as much as the high carb levels in the vegetarian equivalents.

*IF* I thought being a vegan or a vegetarian was best for my health, trust me I would be one, but I don’t believe it is. I am hugely concerned with this issue because I eat very little meat & for the most part get most of my protein from complete vegetarian sources (chlorella, spirulina & chia seeds) I try to supplement my diet as often as possible with whey, eggs, sardines & oysters though (but very little quantity of animal protein).

You have a lot of non meat eaters that have beliefs that have more to do with fervor than facts. For example, “The China Study” which has been discounted by scientists because it was an epidemiological study – an observational study – which may be great for the basis of broaching hypothesis but can NOT be used to draw conclusions as factual. The China Study drew many conclusions that “eating meat was bad” Recently Denise Minger (who’s health was destroyed by being a vegan) tried to recreate this theory using the same data & found that many inconvenient facts were left out of the equations.

Angelina Jolie discussed her bad experiences with a vegan diet.

“I joke that a big juicy steak is my beauty secret,” said Jolie. “But seriously, I love red meat. I was a vegan for a long time, and it nearly killed me. I found I was not getting enough nutrition.”

This is not an uncommon complaint among former vegans; the limitations of the diet require extra diligence to make sure you get proper nutrients.

Dr. Mercola writes –
I experimented with following a mostly vegetarian diet after reading the book Fit for Life back in 1985. The book made some very compelling arguments.

However, after a few weeks of eating fruit for breakfast I was stunned to discover my fasting triglycerides had skyrocketed from below 100 to nearly 3,000 (yes that is not a typo)! Clearly this diet was NOT right for me and was rapidly doing some serious damage to my body.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/17/angelina-jolie-says-vegan-diet-nearly-killed-her.aspx

Ms. Keith was a practicing vegetarian (vegan) for twenty years, driven by her passion for kindness and justice for all creatures. …. Her years of compassionate avoidance of any foods of animal origin cost her her health.

http://lierrekeith.com/vegmyth.htm

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/lipid-hypothesis/the-vegetarian-myth/

How to Determine a Serving Size For Dummies