Oh no! Not that protein question again!

“Where do you get your protein?” has become such a common question it is almost comical. Most of the answers I see are along the line of, “well, you don’t really need all that much protein”. While that is indeed true, it doesn’t seem to be very convincing to the average meat eating American.

I guess the geek in me makes me lean towards a physics point of view. With that, I like to point out that ALL protein comes from plants. Yes, every molecule of protein in every muscle in every animal on this planet, all came from plants. Animals that eat animals still get their protein from plants - they just get it second-hand.

There are major benefits to getting your protein, first-hand, from the original source. Back to the physics thing; there is loss with every conversion. This is true regardless of subject. Protein is assembled in biology – any biology – from amino acids. We get amino acids directly from plants plus protein that the plant made for itself. We then build our protein from the free amino acids. In order to build protein from ingested protein, we must first break it back down to its basic amino acids then rebuild it into our own protein. Remember, every conversion incurs loss. If you eat an animal, you have to break that protein down into amino acids to build your protein. The animal you ate built its protein from the plant that it ate. This multiplies the number of conversions and thus losses. This is observingly clear. Animals that eat plants are generally much larger, more muscular, have a lot more stamina and longer life-spans than animals that eat animals. Elephants, rhinoceros, giraffe, buffalo, horses, ostriches, gorillas, etc. are all plant eaters and are among the largest, strongest and longest living animals. In fact, the standard measure, Horsepower, is taken from an animal that eats grass. How much protein do you think is in grass?

Obviously, no one gets muscles from eating beef or meat of any kind. If they did then all of the meat eating couch potatoes would be muscle bound. As we all can see, muscle comes from exercise – regardless of diet. Although, a low-fat whole food plant based Starch-Smart diet does make those muscle building exercises a whole lot easier!

But, don’t all the strongest, most muscular humans all eat meat? Well, check out the VeganBodyBuilding website. There doesn’t seem to be any protein deficiency here. Or, how about Sammy Ray Foxworth? Read what he has to say about his elevated strength since going vegan. And check out Frank Medrano performing feats of strength that look mesmerizingly superhuman.

So, it appears that the question; “is it possible to be strong and healthy on a Vegan diet?” is actually a flawed question. Considering that the current title holder as the world’s strongest human, Patrik Baboumian, just happens to be vegan; the question should actually read, “Is it possible to be strong and healthy on anything but a Whole Food Plant Based Starch-Smart diet?”