Craig,

You are absolutely right about the protein myths, I used to have “protein guilt” when I didn’t get what I thought was enough protein at every meal. Now I know I am getting way more than I need. My brother still believes he needs a ton of protein, I keep trying to assure him he is getting way more than he really needs to bulk up…!

All the best,
Ariel

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Hi Craig! I’m not a vegan or vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve been known to go for days and days without consuming any meat products. I’ve never been worried about not getting enough protein, there’s so much of it in the great healthy products and whole foods that are available out there.

Also, I’m glad to see the ol’ handheld camera held on oneself technique gaining popularity!! I do it over on my blog too!! I’m glad I’m not the only one out there unafraid to shake the cam a little here ‘n there!! LOL … IMHO its far more interesting than just watching a static talking head with boring unchanging background! Good going!!

thanks for a great post
Jackie

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Loving the vegan protein- keep it coming- heres some more great vegan sources- check out these insane protein percentages

Organic Soybean Spaghetti (Explore Asian)
- 41gm protein, 32g carb, 9g fat per 100g (if you dont like soy they also do black bean)

Edamame Soya beans (Natural Harvest) per 100g 50g protein, 35g carbohydrate, 14g fat

Also check out seitan- its about 33gm protein per 100gms

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Maus Reply:
July 19th, 2009 at 9:52 am

Yeah but Sieten is no good for those who have gluten intolerance.

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Hi Craig,

Thanks so much for gathering more information on vegetarian diets. In all my internet searching, there has been very little information offered for vegetarian diets and fat loss/fitness. I have had great success using ideas from Canadian professional triathlete, Brenden Brazier. He has a product line called Vega and two books. His website is http://www.myvega.com. I hope to learn more from your findings. Thanks so much for such thorough work.

Cheers

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I live in Aus, never seen/heard of the Ezekiel 49,
Have started eating lentils chickpeas a few months back,
I am not even vegan/vegatarian,
but am looking at reducing meat,
Here we have Lupin Flour, made from sweet lupin,
per 100g: only 11.4g Carb, 6.5g Fat, 28g Fibre and 41g (Yes FORTY ONE) Protein,
Its far too heavy to make regular bread, most people blend it but i dont bother, easy to make homemade protein bars

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Another great high protein source on a vegetarian diet is Cous Cous. I have this as an alternative to brown rice and it has 15.1 grams of protein per 100 gram serving.

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Hi,
Looks like you are eating a lot out of a box.. wasn’t that your rule don’t eat anything out of a box ..
Seriously, why all the vegan.. why not fish and eggs..?

Markku

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Craig,

While I think it is great that you are drawing attention to the protein available from non-meat sorces, one issue that you haven’t addressed is the difference in absorbtion between animal and vegetable based protein.

My understanding is that our bodies absorb vegetable protein far less effeciently than animal protein – so eating 100g of vegetable protein will give your body less nutritional value than eating 100g of animal protein. I have been told that absorbtion is improved by consumming vitamin C with vegetable protein.

I would be interested to know your thoughts on this issue.

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I’m glad that you posted this because it’s on the minds of a lot of bodybuilders out there – and a lot of prospective bodybuilder’s minds.

I have studied the effects that animal protein has on the human body, through scientific works such as Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s “The China Study” and numerous other sources such as Gabriel Cousens and David Wolfe.

They say that animal protein is a “high quality protein” because of the speed in which it can by synthesized, but when you read up on it you start to understand that it’s actually a low quality protein, in the sense that it creates many more free radicals and actually harms your body leading to a much higher cancer risk incidence.

Vegetable proteins are a “low quality” protein because not all the amino acids are commonly found within single vegetables – so as your body needs the full chain of amino acids with which to build new muscle, eating from vegetable sources must be varied in order to get the whole chain.

I believe that to be of little significance however, since it’s very easy to have a varied vegan diet as Craig shows above.

Therefore, vegetable protein is of the highest quality in my opinion – since it does nothing to harm your body, and the health benefits that come with a varied vegetable diet far outweigh the benefits of an animal protein-rich diet.

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Hi Craig, don’t forget about all the sodium that are in those boxed foods and canned foods. Unless you get lucky and can find low sodium canned and boxed foods you might fall a prey to water retention or high blood pressure.

Kevin

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Isn’t there a catch in the high protein percentages of veg foods, i.e. they are not fully absorbable by human systems? I have read that peanuts, for example, have 48% or some such hi figure for protein, much more than meats, but in terms of absorbability the meats win hands down. Similarly with beans etc. Is this correct? If so, it does put a different slant on the issue.

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Great video, Craig! There are so many alternatives in vegetarian foods to get protein, but we have to eat in more variety because the “green” protein is not as complete as the animal.

I don’t have those brands in Portugal that you presented on the video, but if I get half of those foods my body probably would blow up!

I have multiple sclerosis and although nutrion is not my expertise, 5 years ago I had this feeling that if I learned how to balance my diet, the symptoms would start to disappear.

Well, what I found out was, first, that my BELIEFS are my reality! So it’s better they be positive ones, like saying to myself that the foods that I eat give me each day more health, right? And the other is that too much protein intake gives a hard time to the body to process it. If I over eat I feel my body getting numb and stiff, and fatigue takes over, and they are major symptoms in MS! Results: my relation with food is essencially emocional, so if I feel alright, I eat less, I am satisfied and full of life!

In raw or vegetarian diets, many people eat seeds as snacks or complements in salads and dishes: pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds. And also gogi berries. They are all protein rich and have severall benefits to our health. They help our body stay alcaline. Give them a try!

Thank you, Craig, for sharing your knowledge in such a light version of Life.. it’s just perfect! Please keep up! All the best, Luísa Matias (Aveiro, Portugal)

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Thanks for all the help Craig. I have always thought it would be either impossibly expensive to go vegetarian or too bland to enjoy. This gives me hope yet.

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Craig,

Could you please cover low fat raw vegan protein and calcium sources?

I would greatly appreciate it!

PJ Fox

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I’m not a vegan but incorporate all those foods into my diet already. For me, I do include other meat (chicken, fish, grassfed beef, eggs) in my diet but supplement with most of the products you mentioned. My only thing for using all those vegan items exclusively, is that it really increases your carbohydrate and fat intake. I am one who needs to monitor my carb intakes especially, and try to keep my fat intake around 25 – 30% so I don’t eat huge quantities of all those grains, breads and beans but do include them in my diet.
I do weight train 5-6 days a week and use the heavy carb stuff for post workout.
Anyway that’s my blurb………

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Hi Craig,

For those of us that are still trying to body shape and lose fat I think my main concern about following what you are eating is the high fat in a lot of the protein sources. Great for bodybuilders that need the high calories but when I have incorporated much in the way of nuts/nut butters/avocado the concentrated fats and calories have meant that I either end up way over my caloric needs or am hungry in order to stay within the appropriate calorie range.

I have been doing a 6 week raw vegan detox program while still using TT workouts and it has been very interesting that my level of working out has still been excellent. In fact I have improved on many of my lifts. And my body shape has changed as well, plus I am not hungry! I get to eat a large volume of good tasting food while eating live low-fat raw foods. It has been a good way to kickstart a new way of eating.

Vegetarian/vegan diets must be getting more mainstream for you to take the time and effort to do your June experiment and research. I look forward to more on the subject from TT Fatloss.

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Don’t forget Black Soybeans (Eden Organic Foods), very high protein and can be used interchangeably with black beans. Also, peanut flour/dehydrated peanut butter is a great way to sneak in fabulous peanut flavor in a lower fat, higher protein way!

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I am an Indian.so please let me know what kind of vegetarian foods i should eat to burn belly fat.

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btw, don’t anyone use soy products the way they are prepared in the western world.. very bad for you..

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A lot of the veggie proteins have lots of carbs. If you are trying to keep to a certian ratio of carbs/protein/fat, how can you do that with veggie proteins and keep the protein high and the carbs low and stay within your ratio. I would love to go vegetarian but can’t figure out how to not go over board on my carbohydrates but still keep my protein high for fat loss.

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I would love to know the program you are using for:

6 week raw vegan detox program

thanks! Heidi

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I think that there are many ways of nourishing yourself in a healthful way. My only argument is that, if you compare a healthy omnivoric diet with a vegan diet and you had the same amount of protein in each, the vegan would be taking in WAY more calories than the omnivore. For example, craig talks about eating two nut butter sandwiches that net about 25 grams of protein. OK, I could get 25 grams of protein in a 100 calorie serving of tuna or chicken breast. Craig, I’ll estimate your sandwich calories… 100-150 per slice of bread, nearly 200 per tablespoon (30g) nut butter. So figuring conservatively (2 total tbsp of nut butter) that brings us to 600 calories without any other items (Craig mentioned hemp milk-I’ve never even seen that and I don’t know how many calories are in that). That’s nearly half my day’s calorie needs just to get 25 grams of protein! I don’t question people’s diets because I think everyone’s needs are different and what works for me may not work for you. That being said, I disagree that a vegan diet is an efficient manner(especially calorie-wise)of taking in a good amount of protein. Especially for us small gals who don’t have a lot of calories to spare!!! I love TT Craig- no hard feelings, I hope!!

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HELLO CRAIG
SINCE 2 YEARS AGO THAT I BECAME A VEGETARIAN,I HAVE 100% MORE ENERGY,LOOK 15 YEARS YOUNGER,HARD TURBULANCE TRAINING EVERY DAY,WITHOUT MEAT,DAIRY,EGGS OR SOY…..I NEVER FELT MORE HEALTHY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. SO CRAIG,LOOKING FORWARD FOR ALL THE RESEARCH THAT YOU AND FOOD DIET EXPERT KARDENA WILL SHARE WITH US.ALL GOOD THINGS ALWAYS TAKE LONGER, TAKE YOUR TIME, BECAUSE I KNOW IT WILL BE “FANTASTIC”.
SENDING A BIG HUG TO “BALLY”

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There are SO many reasons to eat lower on the food chain, and it’s always so encouraging to see a plant – based diet getting more press, just like your post and video, Craig. Nice job!

Lani

P.S. Your quinoa pronounce works just fine for me

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This guy did a 30-day trail of a raw diet and documented each and every day. Very interesting.

If you haven’t seen it, check it out at http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/30-days-raw/.

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I invested 10 months studying the medical evidence in ~1,300 researches, analyzing them very critically and researching opposing views and their source studies. My unequivocal conclusion can be summarized as follows:
1. There is preponderance of unequivocal evidence that ALL 20th century’s new health problems (heart diseases and cancer diseases) are directly related to the consumption of Animal & Diary food, at least in today’s industrially processed form. Contrary to common myths that enjoy creative marketing, there is no credible study that provides a single evidence of the opposite.
(Our ancestors would always lose the access to vegetables and fruits to the stronger animals, and therefore they were forced to ‘bite the bullet’ and get the easy calories from whatever source (and their animal sources did not have the serious, real health problems caused by industrial meat processing). Clearly, we don’t have to make this sacrifice, and we have today unprecedented access to healthy foods: vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes, nuts & seeds. As our ancestor did not have supplements, there is no historical evidence of a societies that were 100% vegan, but those that enjoyed the highest longevity & longest quality of life had only 1%-5% of their caloric intake from animal food, and none from diary in the form of liquified animal fat.)
2. While most other processed foods cause no fundamental harm, they lose most of their nutritional value during the chemical processing. Case in point: white rice vs. brown rice.
3. In contrast to common myths and popular articles, there is no medical evidence that oil is good for your health. What is very clear that all oils are >90% fat.
4. At the end of the day, just avoiding harmful food is insufficient. You have to assure that the alternative is healthy and sustainable (meaning: tasty

After investing lots of time and personal experimantions, i have found one credible source that put it altogether into a single nutritional plan that addresses all of the above, and actually provide guidance for eating variety of healthy foods, how to train your taste buds to get used to them, and 100s of recipes. Based on my great personal experience of the past year, i highly recommend Dr. Fuhrman’s nutritional plan, as delineated in several books “Eat To Live” (aimed at people who are mostly concerned about disease prevention and disease reversal) and “Eat for Health” (for everyone else). You can learn more at http://www.drfurhman.com. To remove any doubt, i am not a sales agent of Dr. Fuhrman, nor am I an anti-animal or “raw-foodish” ideologist. I am simply sharing my two cents out of personal experience.

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Hey Craig,

Dude Ezekiel 4:9 cereal is insanely good. I bought some today and had 2c of it for my post workout meal mixed w/ 1/2c blueberries and 1tblsp of my homemade walnut butter. My wife and I eat paleo but have the Ezekiel bread every now and then. This cereal is going to be a stable in my nutrition. Thanks for the recommendations.

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Craig Ballantyne Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Great stuff Doug!

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Hi Craig,

Could you please include in your meal plans a few things that I have yet to find available on the internet?
A vegan diet with calories for women offering varied caloric needs per weight measurement. Also how to gauge protein and carbs when eating beans. Do I eat twice as much to achieve the desired balance? So often they say take the amount of protein per meal that matches the size of your palm…that is for a piece of chicken or fish, but beans, or quinoa grain or other alternatives may require different amounts and of course often higher calories and more carbs to achieve equivalent protein amounts.
I will look forward to your findings. Thanks again for your sharing and thorough studies in this area. It is impressive to see your sincere desire to improve yourself and others through your example. I would only hope that you might enjoy the vegan diet and perhaps continue it because of experiencing a higher level of fitness and mental clarity. If you are not already familiar with vegan Canadian professional triathlon athlete, Brenden Brazier, please check out his site at http://www.myvega.com. His complete meal powders and new vega sport products are world class quality. He also has two books published that are excellent.

I would love to hear your thoughts

Cheers,

Linda

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Craig Ballantyne Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Linda, we will get those questions answered.

As for fitness and mental clarity, I notice no differences. But again, it’s not like I was eating garbage before. If anything has made a difference in the last month it has been the elimination of all alcohol and caffeine.

As for those products, I am continuing with my lifelong ban of all protein supplements and associated products. I will always choose to eat real food.

Craig

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What is the main difference you have noticed with giving up caffeine and alcohol?

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Craig Ballantyne Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Hi Jennifer!

Mostly I wake up feeling 100%. If I had a few beers the night before, I’d feel groggy. With caffeine, if I have it too late in the day, I don’t fall asleep early enough.

Both aren’t massive problems, but enough that I notice a difference.

It all comes back to keeping that same, uninterrupted consistent sleep schedule.

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Thanks for all the vegan info Craig. How are you feeling eating vegetarian? Better, worse, the same? Have you noticed any difference in your strength, endurance, general health, feeling of well being? You said you are probably going back to eating meat, so you obviously have some qualms with the vegan diet. Care to share them?
Thanks again,
Jim

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Craig Ballantyne Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Hi Jim!

I feel the same. Everything is the same. I just like to eat meat. So I’ll probably eat it once per week or every other week. But only the best quality stuff.

It’s not really a problem with the vegan diet.

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Hi, I’d like to bring some BALANCE to these responses…

I was a vegetarian for 15 years…I have been a fitness pro for 15 years and am now a Nutrition expert for the last 8 and would like to share a few comments for y’all…

High protein vegan foods is an oxymoron.

Gabriel Cousens is a religious fanatic.

The China study is flawed in MANY ways. You would have to read and analyze it objectively which the VAST majority of vegans (not all) cant do since their diet choices are emotionally driven.

Ivon – I appreciate your passion, but you couldnt be any more misinformed about the cause of modern health dilemas like cancer and heart disease. Your ideas about our ancestors are totally inaccurate.

Brendan Brazier is seen as some sort of genius by vegan community only because he is an athlete, the truth is he promotes & sells highly processed supplements….WHY? Because the vegan diet is insufficient for MOST (not all) humans since it does NOT OCCUR IN NATURE.

Nuts are difficult to digest for many people. Peanut flour is a highly allergenic and extremely low quality processed food.

Protein from vegan foods, esp grains, is wrapped up in the fibers and since most people have digestive disorders, including and especially vegan/vegetarians, extracting the protein is not as easy as vegans so passionately try to convince others of.

Ezekial grains, even when sprouted, still contain GLUTEN which is a powerful toxin.
Even Millet has potent thyroid suppressing properties – yes, we find all sorts of natural protective devices in plants and some plants, including SOY, are poisonous plants.

One of the primary reasons there are so many unhealthy vegan/vegetarians with mood disorders and digestive problems is due to animal fat & protein deficiency.

The body builder concept of ‘how much protein we should eat’ is just as flawed as the vegans ‘protein myth’ argument against bodybuildings imbalanced concept.

Both are illusory and ignore the most important factor of human health and wellness – INDIVIDUALITY.

If you understand nature, you can see certain plants contain potent anti-nutrients especially wheat and yes, even millet.

The idea that veganism is the best diet for all humanity is completely misinformed.

CB seems to be one of the only fitness experts who shows an appreciation for vegan foods but has not fallen for the vegan myth.

Check out the recent article by Kathy Freshton on Huffington Post and read the responses. The vegan myth is deconstructed politely and intelligently.

We evolved on this planet for over 2 million years eating animals. Grass fed animals is what we are designed to eat. The more people ignore this fact, the more they support industrial agriculture and factor farming.

There are NO human cultures that are vegan/vegetarian, except for some Indian/Hindu cultures, and if you have ever spent any time in India, you would know the results of this diet.

Our hormones are primarily made from animal fats. Maybe this is why humans have evolved such a long, hard journey and are still alive today. We ate animals for millions of years despite what many vegans would like to believe.

If god didnt want us to eat animals, he wouldnt have made them out of meat.

Peace to all,
Im not anti-vegan…Im anti-ignorance
Eat what works best for you…
Give up the idea that you have the answer for all of humanity’s dilemmas and you will free your mind!

Antonio

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Ingrid Reply:
June 29th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Dear Antonio,

I really do like your answer. I find it very informative and although I’m not an expert but a very interested amateur I feel that what you say rings the most true with me.

Thanks for reminding me that I should just use my common sense, do my research and listen to my body and mind.

.. and thanks to everyone else for putting their two cents in an dmaking this debate very interesting!

and of course thanks to Craig for making it happen.

1 love y’all,
Ingrid

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hello craig.
i am a big fan, and i was wondering what are your calcium sources if you dont eat diary?

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Karen Reply:
July 20th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

Hi regina – where do cows get calcium? do they eat cheese and drink milk? no, they eat green foods, which is what we humans can do, too. Get a variety of greens to get the nutrients and minerals we need.

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Lindsey Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 1:15 am

Cows are chew their cud, and humans don’t. Their digestive systems are simply not the same as ours, not even similar, so to suggest that we can get calcium from plants because cows can is silly. Maybe we can, but this is a bad argument to use to prove it.

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With all due respect, I am not aware of any single high-quality medical study that supports any of your claims, and I will be happy to provide you with dozens of references to studies of longevity and quality of live in different cultures, and to current data from the WHO and national census, all of which point to a consistent correlation between the reduced consumption of animal foods and better-than-linear reduction in terminal diseases, and improved longevity. However, I don;t want to turn Craig’s hospitality into a bashing contest, so i will stop here and allow Craig to take his blog to whatever level of discussion he is interested in.

Either way, good luck to all of us

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Should I get the meal plans if I’m a vegetarian? I know you said that the vegetarian / vegan meal plans were still being developed, so I don’t want to spend money now if these meal plans have meat in them…

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Craig Ballantyne Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:51 pm

Hi Jane, these ones are not for veggies. Sorry! We are aiming to get our veggie meal plans done by the 27th! Thanks!

craig

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I appreciate all the info shared here. I am looking for a ‘high-enough-protein’ plan that is gluten-free. Also would love to learn how to be able to eat more beans. Tried diligently for three months with a hurting tummy before giving up (from a cup/day to no more than 1/4 c/day…sigh)…

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Melissa Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 2:46 pm

Karen and Craig,
I too am in the gluten free group. I eat a variety of beans. Black Beans, edamame and red lentils to name a few. I prefer to cook with red lentils,The cooked color of the green lentils by themselves can be well…how do I say…unappealing.
There is a red lentil roast recipe which tastes more like a slice of thanksgiving dressing. Which Helps satisfy some of the food texture issues with being gluten free. I use a slice of it as a ’startch’ with some steamed veggies and a meat.
High protein beans comes with High fiber which can become Tummy troubles – Any Advice?

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