Veganism: Plant Protein Power

Image courtesy of Balance Into Health, Natural Medicine for Well-being

The Protein Predicament

One of the most frequently occurring statements I hear from clients & fellow yoga professionals is: “I would love to go animal product free, but I struggle to get enough protein on a vegan diet.”

I stumbled upon this predicament myself, almost 2 years ago now when I started my vegan journey by going dairy-free due to health reasons. Having been an omnivore for most of my life, the prospect of cutting out all animal products always seemed pretty daunting.

And frankly even today, now that I am recently vegan, I still feel under-qualified to provide anyone with one-stop nutritional advice. Diet transition is a very personal process & should always be made following professional supervision and guidance. (Please note that this article is merely published for educational purposes).

However, what I would like to share with you are a few pointers I learned on an Ayurveda course I undertook in Indonesia, a discipline which supports a plant-based approach to nutrition.

The Ayurvedic Approach

Ayurveda is a traditional Indian system of medicine that focuses on achieving balance in the mind, body & spirit. It emphasizes the importance of a healthy lifestyle & natural remedies to maintain well-being.

Ayurvedic philosophy does not generally extract & isolate specific macronutrients like proteins. Instead, the qualities & energetics of food, as well as a person’s constitution, age & environment (including climate & geography) are used to determine what is best for the body. For example, if you lived in the mountains of Colorado in the middle of winter, it would be quite difficult to maintain a sustainable plant-based diet because most above ground vegetables won’t naturally grow at that time. And if you lived on an island in the South Pacific, the body wouldn’t need red meat in such a warm temperate climate, as the agriculture there mostly comprises of cooling tropical fruits, vegetables & fish (Amita Nathwani- Ayurvedic Approach to a Protein Rich Diet).

That being said, in the interests of explaining how to support a plant-based diet from an Ayurvedic perspective, it is worth mentioning that the average adult needs somewhere between 0.36-.54 grams/pound per day depending on his or her activity levels. So, for example, that means that a 150 lb person would need 54-81 grams/ day of protein (Harvard Health).

In Ayurvedic terms & by way of example, the following foods are considered rich in protein & comprise a rough summation of what I personally consume in a typical day when it comes to protein intake alone: Split Yellow Mung beans (14.5 grams/ cup); Red & green lentils (18 grams/cup); most green vegetables (4-8 grams/ cup) & Almonds (7 grams/¼ cup). But notice- whilst individually the quantity of protein per produce may not be that large, it is the combination of such ingredients, when matched with other whole foods, that is “protein-powerful.”

For instance, eating rice & beans together is considered to create a complete protein. What that means is that when they are cooked together, they offer amino acids; one of the building blocks of protein. Here, the total protein consumed is almost doubled when compared to eating just beans alone.  One way in which Ayurveda supports this way of getting protein in the diet is by creating a mung bean & rice soup with a porridge-like consistency (27 g/cup) otherwise known as “kicharee” (- watch this space for next quarter’s journal; the Kicharee recipe will feature there!) We see a similar approach taken by the Blue Zone people of Nicoya, Costa Rica who consume a diet of beans, squash & corn, which together create a similar protein compound. That’s why natively these ingredients are called “the three sisters” (Netflix Documentary- Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones).

Conclusory remarks

So, when it comes to Ayurveda & protein consumption, always factor in a person’s age, their climate of residence, produce availability pursuant to geography & the combination of local ingredients, especially when it comes to the cooking process. It cannot be left unsaid that Ayurveda is a 5000-year-old, individualized approach to healthcare. Most importantly, it uses the inherent principles of the body to help maintain health in a person by keeping the individual’s body, mind & spirit in perfect equilibrium with nature. Much like yoga, Ayurveda requires an understanding of oneself, the individual (gastro-intestinal) workings of one’s body via an analysis of what is known as the system of “Doshas.” This is a subject that will be further explored in the next quarter’s collection of articles. Until then, watch this space!