Hypnosis Health Article

Dr. John & Mary McDougall

A Brief History of Protein: Passion, Social Bigotry, Rats, and Enlightenment

John McDougall M.D.

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Many investigators have measured the capacity of plant foods to meet our protein needs. Their findings show that children and adults thrive on diets based on a single starch; and they grow healthy and strong.^11,12 Furthermore, no improvement is obtained by mixing plant foods or supplementing with amino acid mixtures to make the combined amino acid pattern look more like that of flesh, dairy, or eggs.¹² (For a thorough discussion of human protein needs see The McDougall Plan, New Win Publishers.)

Diet for a Small Planet Helps and Harms
A popular book among vegetarians, Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe' published in 1971, started a revolution that has had a positive impact for the past three decades on the lives of millions of people. Unfortunately, Ms. Lappe' failed to understand the basic scientific literature on human protein needs and the sufficiency of plants foods before she wrote her influential book. She believed plants contained "incomplete proteins" with insufficient amounts of certain essential amino acids to meet the needs of people.¹³ As a result of this misunderstanding, she placed great emphasis on combining vegetable foods to create an amino acid pattern which resembles that found in animal foods. This emphasis is unnecessary and implies that it is difficult to obtain "complete" protein from vegetables without detailed nutritional knowledge. Because of her complicated and incorrect ideas people are frightened away from vegetable-based diets.

The impact of her incorrect teachings of more than 30 years ago affects nutritional policy even today. In 2001 the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association published a long overdue review warning people of the dangers of high protein diets, like the Atkins, the Zone, and Sugar Busters diets.¹⁴ Unfortunately, this one statement in an otherwise valuable report is scientifically incorrect: "Although plant proteins form a large part of the human diet, most are deficient in 1 or more essential amino acids and are therefore regarded as incomplete proteins." For a supporting scientific reference the Committee cites Frances Moore Lappe's 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet.

You may think this is a trivial matter; however, incorrect information on our protein needs can have grave consequences on your health and your family's health. With the American Heart Association teaching that plants fail to supply complete protein you are almost certain to receive incorrect, potentially damaging, medical advice. For example, say you go to your doctor after a heart attack and mention that you are now going to become a pure vegetarian to avoid future heart trouble. Your doctor may respond, "You can't do that, you will become protein deficient on an all plant food diet -- the Heart Association says so." Or your child is sick with recurrent asthma and ear infections and you want a dietary cure -- you may be warned away from a highly effective therapy because members of the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association fail to understand basic scientific research about human protein needs and plant foods. So this is no small matter.

I have confronted the Heart Association about spreading misinformation that can result in suffering as serious as death from heart disease -- so far they have shown no interest in making overdue corrections to their incorrect teaching. (See my July, August and November 2002 Newsletters for more information on this.) I recently shared my conflict with the Heart Association with the world's leading authority on human protein requirements, Dr. D. Joe Millward from the Center for Nutrition and Food Safety, School of Biological Sciences University of Surrey, UK. His response to me on July 10, 2003 was, "Contrary to general opinion, the distinction between dietary protein sources in terms of the nutritional superiority of animal over plant proteins is much more difficult to demonstrate and less relevant in human nutrition. This is quite distinct from the AHA position which in my view is wrong." ¹⁵

So How Do You Know the Truth about Your Protein Needs?
Read the scientific literature (www.nlm.nih.gov) and look at the world picture. Notice that 60 percent of people alive today and most of the people who have lived in the past have obtained their protein from plant foods. They have lived successfully; avoiding all the diseases common in our society. Even today plant sources provide 65% of the world supply of the protein we eat.

What about the starving children in Africa? The picture one often sees of "protein deficient" children in famine areas of Asia or Africa is actually one of starvation and is more accurately described as "calorie deficiency."¹¹ When these children come under medical supervision, they are nourished back to health with their local diets of corn, wheat, rice, and/or beans. Children recovering from starvation grow up to l8 times faster than usual and require a higher protein content to provide for their catch-up in development -- and plant foods easily provide this extra amount of protein. Even very-low protein starchy root crops, such as casava root, are sufficient enough in nutrients, including protein, to keep people healthy.³

The World Health Organization knows the truth. Since 1974 it has recommended that adults consume a diet with 5% of the calories from protein -- this would mean 38 grams of protein for a man burning 3000 calories a day and 29 grams for a woman using 2300 calories a day. These minimum requirements provide for a large margin of safety that easily covers people who theoretically could have greater protein needs -- such as accident victims or people with infections. This quantity of protein is almost impossible to avoid if enough whole plant food is consumed to meet daily calorie needs. For example, rice alone would provide 71 grams of highly useable protein and white potatoes would provide 64 grams of protein for a working man.¹⁶ For a pregnant woman the WHO recommends 6% of the calories come from protein -- again an amount of protein easily provided by a diet based on starches, vegetables, and fruits.