How do you do?

[Nick.R]

Hi Everyone

About 6 weeks ago I made the full transition. Not really sure how it came about, I had always thought about becoming a vegetarian but never actually done anything about it. I think that the more time went on, I couldn't in all good conscience carry on the way I was. Before, I was not a massive fan of meat but did eat tuna on a massive scale, eggs, mince beef was always a favorite, sometimes chicken breast etc. About 2 months ago I stopped having milk in my coffee and two weeks after that I completely stopped eating any meat or meat products. I am aware that I made no real preparation for this and have had to quickly figure out what I was going to eat. I have always had a lot of protein I'm my diet and besides this everything is going well. Until very recently I reckon that I was eating under half my normal amount of protein, I was a bit worried about it and have sourced a soy protein powder to supplement me until I figure out better ways to eat.
So far I'm happy with how it's going, not craving anything accept milk chocolate which I've now sorted thanks to sainsburys free from chocolate bars. Would love a bit of advice on quick protein fixes or any other tips for things that I'm bound to have not considered.
Many thanks in advance for any replies.
Nick

 

[gab]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the forum.

I lift weights and before going vegan I was taking whey protein.

After going vegan, I looked into the protein requirements and realised that the protein intake requirements have been greatly exaggerated (I imagine by the companies that sell protein powders, drinks, foods).

Reminds you of another exaggeration ? 'You need milk to get your daily calcium intake requirements'.

Either way, I lift more since going vegan without taking any supplements. I eat rice, potatoes, cereals, beans - some of the cheapest food you can find really. £1 for a kg of rice for example.

For quick ideas that don't require cooking even: cooked rice, heintz beans, frozen cooked jacket potatoes, cereals with vegan milk (like almond milk).

Gab

 

[winter.frost]

Ah, protein. It comes up over and over again. I agree with @gab.

Please take a look at this post which pretty much tells you everything you need to know:
https://veganforum.co.uk/threads/protein-problems.464/#post-1973

Unless you intend to body-build, you only need 2.5% of your daily caloric intake to be protein. In fact, too much protein can sometimes be harmful. What the animal agriculture industry is a master at 'propaganda', which sounds like a heavy and over-used word. The advertising campaigners sit down with the boards and ask 'OK, so what are all the good things we can talk about where meat is concerned' and someone pipes up 'protein, we need protein for healthy muscles, repairing our bodies' so the result is marketing campaigns saturated with 'get your protein!' and 'where are you getting your protein?', 'are you eating enough protein?' These campaigns fail to mention that only a very small amount of protein is actually required, because if they used this appendage the campaign would have less compelling strength. The dairy industry does much the same about milk and calcium. They fail to mention that whilst milk does contain calcium, yes, when you consume it the net overall affect is negative because milk is acidic to the body and so - in order to counter this - our marrows are designed to leak alkalising metals from our very bones (such as calcium). We therefore lose calcium by drinking milk than we could ever gain, but that would kibosh the dairy advertisements so it doesn't get mentioned. Scientists began to look twice when they increasingly found that rates of osteoporosis are highest among western countries where dairy consumption is very high, and lowest in parts of China where dairy consumption can be incredibly low.

And it is also worth noting that there is no medical term for protein deficiency because it is beyond rare. Whilst we have conditions like 'anaemia' (iron deficiency), scurvy (vitamin c deficiency), rickets (vitamin d deficiency) and many more... but none for protein.

http://saveourbones.com/osteoporosis-milk-myth/
http://www.whitelies.org.uk/sites/default/files/milkmyths/Calcium factsheet 2012_0.pdf

Hope this helps and a big hearty congratulations for making the change!

 

[Nick.R]

Thanks for the advice guys, I will take a look at the link. I am in the habit of returning from the gym and sinking a protein shake and to be fair, I'm quite happy now that I've found a soy protein powder, although from what you are saying though, I am probably already getting enough through other means. I can't say that I have many other issues, the transition has been easier than I expected, fingers crossed I continue to feel this way.
Many thanks again from for your expert advice.

Nick