One of the first questions I would always get when I tell someone that I’m vegetarian is “where do you get your protein from?”  There are PLENTY of sources of protein out there which do not come from animal products.  But in general, we tend to think that the more protein we consume, the better our health can be.  This is the furthest from the truth!  Too much protein can be a bad thing, actually.

Protein is essential to keep our bodies functioning properly by building healthy tissues and strengthening our immune systems.   As a general rule of thumb, out of the 2,000 calories you consume each day, about 200 of those calories should come from protein.  Since protein provides about 4 calories per gram, then about 50 grams of protein should be consumed generally each day.  Protein can come from vegetables and animal products.  For vegetable protein, foods such as legumes, nuts and seeds, and spinach are very good sources.  With animal protein, obviously meats would be the source for these.

Some people believe vegetable proteins are “incomplete”, meaning you will not receive many of your essential amino acids.  But your body is an amazing machine…as it stores amino acids to help complete the amino acids in foods you’ve just eaten.  And honestly, how many people that eat meat are REALLY concerned about getting their amino acids!?!?!  I mean, SERIOUSLY!?!?!

Animal protein do indeed contain a lot of protein, in addition to amino acids, A & B vitamins, zinc, etc.  But there are many more hazards in eating a lot of animal protein, compared to vegetable protein.  Meats are generally cooked in highly saturated fats and oils, so you consume these bad fats and oils with each meaty bite.  Have you ever noticed it can take a long while before meat leaves your system?  This is because the digestive process is slowed down to a crawl, causing the meat to become toxic in your body and will begin to rot inside of you.  All of those hormones, steroids, and chemicals injected in the meat are also inside of your body.  It’s like you’re simply being poisoned!

So if you think about the differences in vegetable and animal protein from a “package” point of view, the animal protein package has a lot more “bad” in the package than “good”.  It’s not really all about the meat itself that’s bad for you…it’s everything we do TO the meat, which causes the health risks.  The deep frying, the chemicals…Meat doesn’t taste “right” to us unless we prepare it in this fashion…and it’s killing us!

From a weight loss standpoint, if you think about the low calorie content with vegetable protein, the fat on your body will simply melt away if animal protein was either eliminated from your diet, or at least kept to a minimum.  If you really take a minute to think about it, then it’s really all common sense!

I’ll be speaking more about the reasons why too much protein is not a good idea in an upcoming post.  Until then, think about the foods you consume because some small changes could change your health significantly.  Eating right shouldn’t be a hard thing to do.  What we consider the “norms” in society is what makes something as simple as eating so difficult for the sake of our health.  We have to make some changes!  Let me know what you think in the comments!