Lentils such as: Peanut butter and bread make a complete protein. 100 g of peanut butter has 25 g of protein, 100 g of beef has 22 g of protein. Most people need 30-60 g daily depending on weight. There are so many sources of protein. One of the best complete proteins is lentils, as you get minimum fat and lentils can be cooked in 20 minutes using a cheap Walmart pressure cooker or, on the top of stove.
If you want to become a vegan, lentils are one of the best sources of fiber, energy and protein. When we eat cooked lentils 2-3 times a day in portions of 150-300 g, we get 40-80 grams of protein with all 9 essential aminoacids we need each day even if we are an athlete. We also get 36-72 g of fiber a day, more than most people get from all their foods. Most adults need 40-60 g of protein a day. We also need about 70 g of fiber for best prevention of diabetes, digestive tract issues, colon cancer and heart disease. Lentils have almost no sugars, lots of fiber that regulates blood sugar, cholesterol. They have the lowest level of phytic acid among beans, nuts, grains and legumes, the lowest oxalate level (20 times lower than spinach) among legumes, nuts and grains.
If you want to become a vegan, lentils are one of the best sources of fiber, energy and protein. When we eat cooked lentils 2-3 times a day in portions of 150-300 g, we get 40-80 grams of protein with all 9 essential aminoacids we need each day even if we are an athlete. We also get 36-72 g of fiber a day, more than most people get from all their foods. Most adults need 40-60 g of protein a day. We also need about 70 g of fiber for best prevention of diabetes, digestive tract issues, colon cancer and heart disease. Lentils have almost no sugars, lots of fiber that regulates blood sugar, cholesterol. They have the lowest level of phytic acid among beans, nuts, grains and legumes, the lowest oxalate level (20 times lower than spinach) among legumes, nuts and grains.
Soaking lentils for 10 hours in hot (60 centigrade) filtered water is a good idea, as it removes 90% of the phytic acid known to cause problems. Eating processed foods means eating a lot of phytic acid, since they don't soak grains/soy before making breads, tofu, etc. Phytic acid can cause mineral deficiencies. You can use a pressure cooker (they got those at Walmart for $80), it takes 20-30 minutes after soaking to cook them, that way you just press a button and it stops by itself.
A popular myth has been as such: "to get complete protein you need to eat rice and beans or rice and lentils, if you eat only lentils you are screwed". The myth means that "if you eat 100 g of cooked lentils and 100 g of cooked rice you get higher protein quality (more of the essential 9 aminoacids) than if you eat 200 g of cooked lentils". Below I will prove this is totally false and a total aberration.
Let us look at the science data now. 100 g of cooked lentils and 100 g of cooked rice contain the following amounts of the 9 essential aminoacids, according to
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5712/2
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4338/2:
COOKED LENTILS VERSUS COOKED RICE
1. Methionine ► 77mg/100g lentils vs 63mg/100g rice
2. Valine ► 448mg/100g lentils vs 164mg/100g rice
3. Histidine ► 254mg/100g lentils vs 63mg/100g rice
4. Tryptophan ► 81mg/100g lentils vs 31mg/100g rice
5. Leucine ► *654mg/100g lentils vs 222mg/100g rice*
6. Isoleucine ► 390mg/100g lentils vs 116mg/100g rice
7. Threonine ► 323mg/100g lentils vs 96mg/100g rice
8. Lysine ► 630mg/100g lentils vs 97mg/100g rice
9. Phenylalanine ► 445mg/100g lentils vs 144mg/100g rice
As science tells us in the 9 lines above, eating 200 g of cooked lentils provides you with a far more complete protein than eating 100 g of lentils and 100 g of rice. Eating rice is not needed for vegans or vegetarians, since you don't normally soak it, get loaded with phytic acid, get far less fiber and far less protein. The world should cultivate more lentils and fewer grains and beans. Why? Because grains and beans are harder to digest (some grains are as easy to digest as lentils) and have 3-5 times more phytic acid.
Even when you look at 6 other aminoacids, that are sometimes harder to make by the body in certain sick people, lentils beat rice:
1. tyrosine ► 241mg/100 g lentils vs 90mg/100 g rice
2. arginine ► 697mg/100g lentils vs 224mg/100g rice
3. proline ► 377mg/100g lentils vs 127mg/100g rice
4. glycine ► 367mg/100g lentils vs 122mg/100g rice
5. cysteine ► 118mg/100g lentils vs 55mg/100g rice
6. glutamine ► 1399mg/100 g lentils vs 524mg/100g rice
Eating just 1 pound of cooked lentils spread at 2-3 meals will provide you with 45 g of protein. Add tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, etc and you get a lot of healthy nutrition, all the fat, protein and complex carbs needed without sugar overload you get when eating sweet fruits. Lentils have far more fiber than most fruits and veggies we eat without the simple sugars fruits and veggies have.
Just so you know, as you can see at the same website, aminoacid score of lentils, 86, is higher than milk, 85 ( http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/69/2 ), so another myth is busted. As you may have read in other articles, some say 77 mg methionine is a little low, but if you eat 3 portions of 300 g of lentils, that's still a huge 700 mg a day from lentils alone. However, Eating foods low in methionine helps to extend lifespan in rodent test subjects, according to a study published in a 2009 issue of “Medical Hypotheses.” Reduction of methionine dietary intake from 0.86 percent to 0.17 percent increased the life span of rat test subjects by 30 percent, according to a study published in a 1993 issue of “The Journal of Nutrition.”
People in Uganda, before the western diet came along, didn't have any heart disease http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13375489 - one case found only in 1956 in a guy who started eating junk food), none at all and were known worldwide for that - and they ate 80 g or more of fiber from whole plant sources, more than the other countries. Once the junk diet rich in meat, eggs and cheese came along, with zero fiber and lots of animal fat shown to trigger diabetes that speeds up heart disease, heart disease became the number one killer - which shows our so called "progress" is often really stagnation, replacing one disease with another.
Instead of choosing a cheaper, easier diet of whole plant foods, we spend trillions of pills to lower our blood pressure and use 160 times more land to grow cattle and 200 times more water too. It's just mind boggling. The stone age didn't end because of a shortage of stones, nor does the meat age need to end because of a shortage of meat.
For more on why veganism makes sense, see
https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/8QfnfNqjUvn AUTHOR
A popular myth has been as such: "to get complete protein you need to eat rice and beans or rice and lentils, if you eat only lentils you are screwed". The myth means that "if you eat 100 g of cooked lentils and 100 g of cooked rice you get higher protein quality (more of the essential 9 aminoacids) than if you eat 200 g of cooked lentils". Below I will prove this is totally false and a total aberration.
Let us look at the science data now. 100 g of cooked lentils and 100 g of cooked rice contain the following amounts of the 9 essential aminoacids, according to
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5712/2
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4338/2:
COOKED LENTILS VERSUS COOKED RICE
1. Methionine ► 77mg/100g lentils vs 63mg/100g rice
2. Valine ► 448mg/100g lentils vs 164mg/100g rice
3. Histidine ► 254mg/100g lentils vs 63mg/100g rice
4. Tryptophan ► 81mg/100g lentils vs 31mg/100g rice
5. Leucine ► *654mg/100g lentils vs 222mg/100g rice*
6. Isoleucine ► 390mg/100g lentils vs 116mg/100g rice
7. Threonine ► 323mg/100g lentils vs 96mg/100g rice
8. Lysine ► 630mg/100g lentils vs 97mg/100g rice
9. Phenylalanine ► 445mg/100g lentils vs 144mg/100g rice
As science tells us in the 9 lines above, eating 200 g of cooked lentils provides you with a far more complete protein than eating 100 g of lentils and 100 g of rice. Eating rice is not needed for vegans or vegetarians, since you don't normally soak it, get loaded with phytic acid, get far less fiber and far less protein. The world should cultivate more lentils and fewer grains and beans. Why? Because grains and beans are harder to digest (some grains are as easy to digest as lentils) and have 3-5 times more phytic acid.
Even when you look at 6 other aminoacids, that are sometimes harder to make by the body in certain sick people, lentils beat rice:
1. tyrosine ► 241mg/100 g lentils vs 90mg/100 g rice
2. arginine ► 697mg/100g lentils vs 224mg/100g rice
3. proline ► 377mg/100g lentils vs 127mg/100g rice
4. glycine ► 367mg/100g lentils vs 122mg/100g rice
5. cysteine ► 118mg/100g lentils vs 55mg/100g rice
6. glutamine ► 1399mg/100 g lentils vs 524mg/100g rice
Eating just 1 pound of cooked lentils spread at 2-3 meals will provide you with 45 g of protein. Add tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, etc and you get a lot of healthy nutrition, all the fat, protein and complex carbs needed without sugar overload you get when eating sweet fruits. Lentils have far more fiber than most fruits and veggies we eat without the simple sugars fruits and veggies have.
Just so you know, as you can see at the same website, aminoacid score of lentils, 86, is higher than milk, 85 ( http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/69/2 ), so another myth is busted. As you may have read in other articles, some say 77 mg methionine is a little low, but if you eat 3 portions of 300 g of lentils, that's still a huge 700 mg a day from lentils alone. However, Eating foods low in methionine helps to extend lifespan in rodent test subjects, according to a study published in a 2009 issue of “Medical Hypotheses.” Reduction of methionine dietary intake from 0.86 percent to 0.17 percent increased the life span of rat test subjects by 30 percent, according to a study published in a 1993 issue of “The Journal of Nutrition.”
People in Uganda, before the western diet came along, didn't have any heart disease http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13375489 - one case found only in 1956 in a guy who started eating junk food), none at all and were known worldwide for that - and they ate 80 g or more of fiber from whole plant sources, more than the other countries. Once the junk diet rich in meat, eggs and cheese came along, with zero fiber and lots of animal fat shown to trigger diabetes that speeds up heart disease, heart disease became the number one killer - which shows our so called "progress" is often really stagnation, replacing one disease with another.
Instead of choosing a cheaper, easier diet of whole plant foods, we spend trillions of pills to lower our blood pressure and use 160 times more land to grow cattle and 200 times more water too. It's just mind boggling. The stone age didn't end because of a shortage of stones, nor does the meat age need to end because of a shortage of meat.
For more on why veganism makes sense, see
https://plus.google.com/+AlexP/posts/8QfnfNqjUvn AUTHOR
