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Originally Posted by janellmd
Most green vegetables have protein (where do you think the cow gets it’s protein?).
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A cow's digestive system is *very* different from a human's--herbivore vs. omnivore, multiple stomachs versus our single stomach. A cow's multiple stomachs enable that animal to digest grasses (and grains) very differently and much more effectively than humans can. And while 'most green vegetables' contain *some* protein, only a very small percentage of the nutrients they contain are protein grams that your body can actually use. For reference, leather *also* contains protein, in fact it's nearly *all* protein (collagen) but that collagen protein isn't something that humans can digest and metabolize.
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100 calories of broccoli has MORE protein than 100 calories of steak. One cup of broccoli has 5.8 grams of protein and one cup of spinach has 5.4 grams (complete protein).
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Just to make those numbers an apples-to-apples comparison, 100 calories of beef (about 1.3 oz, or a piece about 1" wide by 2.5" long by 1/2" thick, or about 1/3 of a BOCA burger) has 11g of protein that is nearly 80% utilizable by your body, and zero g carbs. 100 calories of fresh broccoli is about 5 CUPS of fresh chopped broccoli (10g ECC and 13g of protein, according to the USDA and Netzer's 'Food Counts' book, of which only about 4g of the protein, or about 1/3rd, is usable/metabolizable by humans according to the most up-to-date NPU charts.) 100 calories of frozen, cooked chopped broccoli is 2 CUPS (again, about 10g ECC and only 11g protein, of which only about 3.5g is usable protein.) Spinach numbers for protein digestion are similar--but 100 calories of fresh spinach is 10 CUPS chopped, and frozen spinach, cooked, is 2 1/2 CUPS.
Either way, I hope you're hungry--because that's a LOT of broccoli or spinach, and a lot of carbs, for a relatively small protein gain.
They are fine foods, but they are NOT effective protein sources!
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And by the way, contrary to popular belief, incomplete aminos do not have to be combined in the same meal (ie. Beans and rice together). Your body knows what to do with the pieces when it gets them..
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True--however, you do have to eat the complementary amino and essential fatty acids within the same digestive period (i.e., within about 4-5 hours of each other, depending on your metabolism). Otherwise, what your body does with the pieces that are incomplete and don't have appropriate partners is eliminate them, and they do you no good.
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Simply wanted to point out that soy is not the ONLY option for protein for those that don't particularly like soy.
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Absolutely correct. There are nuts, and seeds, and their butters and flours; legumes like lentils and chickpeas and their flours; even vital wheat gluten; and dairy and eggs if you eat those things. Kefir, a cultured milk that's like but thinner than yogurt, has 14g protein and only 12g carbs per cup. There are protein powders made from whey and rice (although rice is incomplete and should contain some complementary dairy). But green vegetables as a protein source, except for spirulina algae, really don't make it. The volume you'd need to eat to provide you with 0.5g protein per pound of lean body mass would be appetite killing--to use another visual example, it would be kinda like that commercial where 40 bowls of Special K provide the same vitamin profile as one bowl of Total cereal.
Green veggies are vital to getting our vitamins and minerals, but they are really only an accessory to our main vegetarian protein sources.