Oh Family. My brother is visiting and upon finding out that I am vegan — yes, have continued outside of my original 3 months and very happy doing so, don’t know how long it will last but it feels right and good… anyway, as we sit down to dinner last night I get every vegetarian and vegan’s favorite question: how do you get your protein? <sigh>

There are three rules to abide by: 1. Never get into a land war in Asia. 2. Never argue with a sicilian when death is on the line. 3. Never argue with a vegan about protein.

I understand that it usually comes from a loving place. As such I make jokes but eventually answer the question. Now perhaps I haven’t mentioned this before but I am the daughter of 2 lawyers. Dinner conversation at the family table is always opinionated and animated. So this opening question kicks off a 2+ hour “conversation” that winds through nutrition, animal cruelty, politics, the effectiveness of boycotts, personal decisions, counter culture movements and finally back to facts and science. I pride myself for staying calm throughout but did take hard stances based on — you know — facts.

We finished dinner with my brother frantically Googling his assertion that he knows “most vegans and vegetarians don’t  get enough protein.” Unsurprisingly (to me anyway) after 45 minutes he didn’t find it. Because there is no such data. There is actually a wealth of data to support the opposite. He tried to back into some NIH guidelines and advisories but nothing that says “most vegans don’t get enough protein.” The data doesn’t exist because it isn’t true.

This is all, of course, a long way of setting up my first link…

Information

If you are getting enough calories you are getting enough protein. Period. End of Argument. Can we move on please? [Read more…]