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Pet Peeve: Being a vegetarian or vegan and getting asked the question: “But where do you get your protein?” OK, so it’s not really a pet peeve because it doesn’t bothers us, it’s more of an eye-opening experience to hear, time and again, how little people know about the food they are eating.

Vegetables have protein.  So do fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, sea vegetables and legumes.  People tend to be concerned about protein because, thanks to various ad campaigns, we have been brought up to believe that meats are the place to get protein.  Not the case.  Also not the case is the idea that without meat there is no muscle.  And to prove that, here are a few renown athletes who swear by veggies – bodybuilders included – and who obviously have plenty of muscle.

Talk about world-class athletes. Carl Lewis is a renown long jumper and sprinter, the winner of 10 Olympic medals – nine gold and one silver – as well as 10 World Championships medals.  He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame  at only 19 years of age and credits his vegan diet for the best year in his career. He has said that athletes tend to have the worst diets, and, initially, he was not the exception. “I was starving myself to keep my weight down,” he said in an interview. “Then I started doing some research.”  He looked for ways to improve his eating habits, keep his weight under control and enhance his performance.  “I started cutting out a lot of the meat, adding the juices and getting out of the dairy products,” he said.  Lewis became a vegan in 1990 and it was with this diet that he defeated the two number one sprinters at the 1991 World Championships, reclaiming the world record in what he calls the best race of his life.  “My best performances were when I was 30 and I was a vegan.  People say where’s your protein? Well, I ate tons of lentils, love beans, had the juices, did everything you need to replace.”

Athlete and author Tim Van Orden is a clear example of the power of veggies.  A former self-proclaimed couch potato who suffered from depression, Tim decided to make a change in his life and is now one of the world’s most fit 40-year-old athletes, winning the US Bank Tower Stair Climb competition (and setting the course record) in September of 2008.  And if you think that cutting out meat or dairy is a stretch, try this: Van Orden is not only vegan, he is a raw vegan, only eating meals consisting of raw plant foods.  He says that he doesn’t ever worry about protein and is on a mission to tell the world about the benefits of raw foods through his documentary The Running Raw Project.
“Why is it that I am able to out-power 20 year olds at the age of 39 in Sears Tower if I’m not getting enough protein? How is it that I am 15 lbs. overweight for a runner – not fat, I have no body fat, can’t get body fat if I try – but why am I 15 lbs overweight? Because I have too much muscle. I build muscle without doing anything,” says Van Orden.
“Where am I getting my protein from? I’m not. What I’m getting are amino acids in the form of enzymes…You don’t need protein, you need amino acids.”
The body needs to break down the protein you eat into amino acids in order to use it – it doesn’t use the protein molecule, it uses the amino acids.  So, like Van Orden says, “Why eat the middle man?”  Van Orden gets his amino acids straight from the source: uncooked vegetables that have enzymes composed of amino acids.  And so can you.

Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier is a best-selling author on performance nutrition and the creator of Vega, a whole foods nutritional product line. He explains the benefits of a 100% plant-based diet in his book “Thrive”, and in upcoming book “Thrive Fitness: Mental and Physical Strength for Life”, to be published in the US in January, 2010.  In “Thrive”, Brazier explains that the foods you eat can help reduce inflammation after each workout, something that will allow you to schedule your next workout much sooner than if you went through the regular ‘stress the muscle, break it down, allow it time to repair properly’ routine.  The ability to work out more often will help build more muscle.  Brazier also discuses the benefits of an alkaline diet, one that maintains the body’s pH levels more neutral than acidic (meat, dairy and sugar foods turn into acid in the body.) He swears by plant proteins from sources like hemp, yellow pea, brown rice, which he says are better quality because they are in the amino acid form already and have added benefits like fiber and minerals from greens.

Walter “Killer” Kowalski became a vegetarian in 1953, when it wasn’t so common – especially for a wrestler.  But Kowalski began to research the effects of food on the body and then heard about Roger Bannister and John Landy, the first two men to break the four minute mile barrier, who both attributed their feats to being vegetarian – and he thought he’d give it a shot.  When asked about protein in an interview with vegetarianusa.com Kowalski explained that big animals like elephants and horses get their protein from vegetarian sources – and so does he.  Kowalski said he relied on plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables – mostly raw and in salads – and he made his own salad dressing, didn’t drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.  He never said he was vegan but in interviews he has said that he does not eat eggs and that milk makes him gag.

To bodybuilder Robert Cheeke, vegan bodybuilding is not an oxymoron.  He is the first to say that any concern about the relationship between veganism and athletics is unwarranted, and that he has never heard of anyone with a protein deficiency, as protein is found in nearly all foods. He is quick to point out that plenty of studies show that plant protein is easier for humans to digest and absorb, and that plants also make for a more alkaline environment, which helps maintain overall health. In his website, Cheeke says, “As a vegan bodybuilder, I compete in a sport dominated by meat eaters, most of whom scoff at the idea that one could get sufficient protein from plants to be competitive.  I do not consume any animal products whatsoever, not even dairy or eggs. Instead, I focus on eating a wide variety of plant-based whole foods. My protein comes primarily from hemp, tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts, seeds, grains, rice, fruits and vegetables. By getting my protein from a wide variety of soruces, I am ensuring my body receives a balance of essential amino acids.”

There you have it.  Do these guys look to you like they’re lacking protein?  Didn’t think so.

Be on the lookout for Part 2 of The Protein Myth, where we’ll go into what protein is and where to get it.