Where do you get your protein?

I get asked this frequently. There is a lot of information out there online that is scientific and backs up both views. Personally I have added back in cooked eggs on occasion (for the B-12 vitamin) and also some cheese. I also eat nuts and seeds, dark green leafy vegetables and avocados to name a few. Here is some interesting information from the website "Living & Raw Foods". This is under the frequently asked questions section which I find to be very informative:

Where do raw and living foodist get their protein?
The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. On average, fruits have about 5% of their calories from protein. Vegetables have from 20-50% of their calories from protein. Sprouted seeds, beans, and grains contain from 10-25% of their calories from protein. So if you are eating any variety of living plant foods, you are getting more than adequate protein. Numerous scientific studies have shown the daily need for protein to be about 25-35 grams per day. So if you ate 2,000 calories per day, and ate raw plant foods that had an average of 10% of their calories from protein, you would get 200 calories worth of protein, or 50 grams. This is more than adequate to support optimal well-being. Other studies have shown that heat treating a protein (such as with cooking) makes about half of it unusable to the human body. So raw plant food protein is even a better source than cooked plant foods or animal foods. There is still a huge, foolish, misguided idea that plant protein is not "complete". This is based on studies done on rats in the 1940's. This false conclusion was drawn before we discovered the bodies protein recycling mechanism and its ability to "complete" any amino acid mix from our bodies amino acid pool, no matter what the amino acid composition of a meal consumed. This false idea is still perpetuated by the meat and dairy industries, in an attempt to influence people to continue consuming their truly health destroying products. 

Another great resource is "The China Study" (Startling implications for diet, weight loss and long-term health) by T. Colin Campbell, PhD & Thomas M. Campbell II. 


No matter what information is out there it is still important to listen to your own bodies and always check with your own doctors/nutritionist to make sure you're doing what's best for your own situation.