10: Where Do You Get Your Protein

0:00 When you think about adopting a whole food, plant based lifestyle, do you find yourself getting a little nervous? Maybe even developing some protein anxiety? Then you want to join us today? Because we're answering the question, if you don't eat your meat, where do you get your protein? You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture, where your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired. You're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started.

0:49 Strawberries, peaches, kiwi, bananas, potatoes, greens, sweet potatoes, lima beans, barley, lentils, kale, broccoli? What do all these things have in common? I know, I know. Yes. You were there in the front row? Brodie. Yes, they all have protein. We hear this, we get this question. But we also hear this asked by many people who are looking into doing a whole food plant based diet and looking at it from the outside. And their biggest question is, where do you get your protein? Where do I get my protein? It's almost like we have this love affair of protein in our society today.

1:40 Yeah. And that's No wonder I mean, we're surrounded and bombarded by every since we've been children, even I mean, growing up years and years ago, I won't say how many years growing up years ago, you know, what was one of the big things on the plate? The food pyramid? Yeah, exactly. And so you start thinking about protein, and then all that the pictures of the things were on there. It was meat, dairy, eggs. Yeah. So that's what you think about when you think about protein. And then as we've gotten older, and we've seen that there are more and more products, and you can't walk into the grocery store, without seeing a protein bar and protein shake powders, protein powder, is just everything is promoted. So obviously, if this is the case, we must have a protein deficiency in our country.

2:30 Absolutely. Sure. I mean, there must be if all these products are out there, and you need this protein powder, and that protein drink and shake and bar and it's everywhere, then you think there was a deficiency? But if there's a deficiency and protein, then there must be a name for it. Right? Yes. And we must, there must be somebody we know in our family or friends, wherever that has this disease, this disease? Can Can you name that disease? Well, we can, it's actually called quasi your core. It's actually derived from tribal language over in Africa, I forget exactly what it means.

3:10 But it is now you need that of all kinds of interesting little acts. But that is the name. And it, you just you don't hear about it. Because it just doesn't happen, right? It doesn't exist. Really, it's pretty much unless you're not getting enough calories, you're getting enough protein. But we've been fooled. And we've been tricked to buy these certain products and things that people want to sell us because we think we're not getting enough of it. But we think we have to have meat and dairy and eggs. And the truth is that you have to think of the package that you're getting your protein in. And so when you get meat and dairy and eggs, you're not just getting protein, you're getting other things that are known to cause diseases and problems for the body. And those types of proteins are much more difficult for our body to process.

4:00 Now, I'd like to back up just one step and talk about protein because we use this term a lot, but I want to give just a little bit of background information and describe exactly what it is because we hear the term amino acids, and that there's some that we need to get from our food and there's some that our bodies create but protein is created by a chain of amino acids. amino acids are kind of like the building blocks of protein of protein. So if you have any young children think pop blocks where you have the different colors, sometimes a different shapes, and then you pop them together. Or if you don't know exactly what I'm talking about, if you had a string of beads, beads, and they're all in a line, and the different amino acids put into different combinations create different proteins. Now those combinations are controlled by our genes. But when you have the different combinations, those amino acids they'll they'll twist up on each other and then they become Unique forms, and they have different functions.

5:04 Some of them are structural. Some of them are enzymes like they had make certain chemical processes happen certain ways. And so our cells, no matter what cell it is, for us, in animals, and plants, bacteria, because they all use amino acids and create these proteins, then everything has protein. Now, there are 20 amino acids that our bodies need. And none of those are considered essential amino acids. What that means is that those nine can only come from our food, our bodies don't make them. Now, a long time ago, we were told, and actually, we are still told that we need to get those from meat products, animal products, dairy eggs, like we've talked about today. But there was a time when we would hear sometimes you can get them from plants, you just need to be very careful, because you got to make sure you get them the right way, you've got to combine your foods in this very certain way. Or else you won't get all the amino acids, you need to make the proteins.

6:13 And that's really bad for you. But we want you to know, that's just not true. And actually the woman that came out with that, that taught that years ago, and took that back a few years after she started teaching that. And so she didn't even believe it was true. After a while she realized that she had taught an error, but the damage was already done, the teaching was out there. And that's why a lot of people believe that you can't get the protein you need from plants. Well, the term that she used was incomplete protein that certain plants like rice was an incomplete protein source rains were an incomplete protein sources. Now if you put them together, like Anita just said, then that was a complete protein source, when actually that's not true. Now we'll say that some plants will have higher amounts of certain amino acids and maybe not as much as others, but they still have the amino acids they still have, you just want to be sure that you get a good variety on your plate every day. And then really, you don't have to worry of Do I have enough?

7:11 Because you just will automatically have enough? Absolutely go back to the episode number nine, where we talked about the five foundational foods, that's how you get enough protein, you know, you start thinking about, you really need to get a variety to get the protein that you need. That's the main thing. And we know that they say that point four grams per pound is about how much how you decide if you're getting enough. So you can look at what that daily amount would be free. For the average woman that's about 46 grams a day. And for the average man, it's about 56 grams a day, right? And so what we don't want to happen for you, and this is kind of your action step is not to get sucked into trying to figure out the grams of this and the grams of that, and am I getting enough, because honestly, the truth is, if you're getting enough calories to maintain a healthy weight, you are getting enough protein even if you only eat whole plant foods.

8:13 Now that guideline does actually have some buffer in it, meaning that you really you could go less than that and still be perfectly fine. But again, we just want you to know, and this is the big takeaway here, if you don't hear anything else are saying today hear this. Don't worry about numbers don't get stuck into numbers. Because the truth is, you want to develop a lifestyle that you love. You want to find a way to live with getting the foods that you enjoy getting enough of them every day so that you're not hungry, and so that you maintain the proper weight. And you can do that without worrying about calories and grams of protein and grams of this and that you just need foundational principles that you can apply. And one of those is get a variety of whole plant foods in a way that you love the way they taste in a way that makes you feel good, so that you're not tired all the time, because you're not getting enough, and then just enjoy your life. That's what it's all about. That is how you build a lifestyle that you can continue forever, that makes you healthy and that you can thrive and have the vibrant energy you're looking for.

9:30 Now, ironically enough, most people worry that they're not getting enough protein. But the shocking reality is that they're getting too much. And what they're finding is that too much this protein overload that people have is actually harming their body. But the interesting thing is that what they have found is that the animal proteins cause the problems not the plant proteins, the plant proteins don't seem to affect the body in the same way, especially looking at kidney function. They found that the end Animals sources of protein would actually cause pressure to increase in the kidneys. And over time that causes failure. But the plant proteins did not have that effect. And they actually in people that have kidney disease, it can actually have a protective effect.

10:14 Don't you find it interesting though, Jarrod, when people start healthy plant based are thinking about it, they start worrying about their protein intake. But how many times do you really think about your fiber intake, because there is no protein deficit as a whole. Most people have too much protein, like we've talked about today, they're getting too much. So what there is a deficit of is fiber. And if you didn't tune in to Episode Six, go back and hear about that. Because fiber is the thing that 97% of Americans are missing out on because of the standard American diet that we eat today, with all the fast foods and the processed foods and the chips and the crackers.

10:54 And I'm not saying we don't eat crackers and things like that, but we eat them in a different way. And that is so important for you to feel your body. Well, it's not that you can't have all these foods that you love, you're just gonna have them in a different way. You're gonna learn how to do that to create the life that will that you'll enjoy, so that you can do it for the rest of your life. And it doesn't become a diet because we don't like diets. And yeah, we've already talked about that. That was when was that chair diemer? When we talked about diets are stupid. I think it was Episode Three. Yeah, look back for that one. because it'd be easy to find. That's why it's called why diets are steep diets. The top five reasons diets are stupid.

11:34 Yeah, so really, it's just it's twisted, what we've come to believe we worry about not getting enough protein. But if you eat enough calories, you're getting enough protein, even if eat all hope food plant base. And we don't think about our fiber, but lack of fiber is causing cancers, and it's causing the contributor with diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, obesity, been linked with all those things with the cancer specifically, it's traced, or it's linked specifically to colon cancer. Mm hmm. Well, there are some others as well, but definitely calling cancer because that's the route that the food travels, it just makes sense. And if your body has this buildup of waste, and things that it can't get rid of, then that just causes problems. That makes sense. So really focus on getting your fibers and the way you do that is Oh, you count grams, right? You heard you count your grams every day, you crack every single one of those grams. Your life?

12:33 No, don't do that. Don't do that. No, we want to get you away from this focus and a fear of numbers and calories and points and can't have this and can't have that. And we want to get you to start building some healthy habits that you really can enjoy. Because you're free from all those things, you got to break free from the old ways of doing things. And one way that you do that is you say, I need my fiber, I need to make sure I get my fiber. How do you do that? You get a variety of plant foods. One of the main things that's missing usually is greens, roughage and beans are huge. But again, it's not just one category. It's the five foundational foods and you need all those. And you just mentioned greens. Interestingly, greens are up to 50% protein.

13:14 Mm, wow. Don't think about that. Oh, and beans, they range for anywhere from 25 to 40%. protein. Mm hmm. So you can get one cup of lentils, I believe it was lentils, and that that will give you about 25% of the protein that you would need on an on your daily basis. How easy is it to eat one cup of lentils, I mean, we'll easily do that. And one of our grain bowls that we make. Yeah, and that does include the sweet potatoes and the greens that are in there. So one bowl may give us all the protein we need in that day, right? It's just not hard to do with whole food plant based at all. So do not worry about protein, or anyone you know who's eating healthy plant based Don't worry about them, they're getting their protein and so will you when you get involved with this wonderful way of living that we've just found, will fuel our body body well and, and reverse all these diseases. It's amazing what it can do for you.

14:10 Now there are a couple of instances where someone might need to get some extra protein, which would be during pregnancy. And if somebody is more of an elite athlete bodybuilding, absolutely they need to to get more protein for that for that recovery and for growing that little human inside of you. So in that case, I probably need to add in protein bars and protein shakes and protein powders and powders. No, no, actually, if you just eat more food, you'll probably need to be eating more calories anyway to fuel that level of metabolism. That's issue. You need more calories just need more food, and in doing that, you'll get more protein. Exactly, exactly. That's a great point. So to wrap it all up. Don't worry about your protein. Eat a wide variety of whole plant foods fuel your body, well give your cells the nutrient They're craving that they've been missing so long that's causing you to have low energy and it's causing you to have to just barely survive your day. Trust me, I know, we've been through this shared not both went through this. We had vascular disease reverse eating this way over the course of the years, it's been amazing to see all the changes that have happened, we have more energy now almost 50 than we had than I ever remember. Yeah, that I ever remember having Honestly, I have to force myself to lay down and go to sleep at night, because I still have that much energy at the end of the day. And we want this for you. We want food freedom for you, so that you're not worrying about what foods you're eating and how to get it and you need these general principles. And if you'll just do that, you can do this. It's really just that simple. It's not hard to do, it can be very enjoyable, and you can feel your body well in a way that makes you feel great, and will work for you for the long run. Thanks for joining us today. And if this episodes helped you in some way, we'd love to hear from you.

16:04 So leave a review and Apple podcasts. And be sure to follow and subscribe before you go. And we'll look forward to seeing you again. In the next episode.