About Protein...

Funny how when you stop eating meat, the first question is, "Where are you getting your protein?" I'm guilty of asking it to Lynn's daughter, Jacy when she first became vegetarian. It's like we are programmed to think that protein is the most important nutrient that we take in.
After a year and a half of researching (I even read a paper from the World Health Organization, on protein production in people who are malnourished - that was a tough one to get through....) I have decided to share some of my findings here.

Have you ever known, or even heard of, someone having a protein deficiency? Even in countries where malnourishment is a problem, no one ever mentions protein, or lack of meat, being the problem. That's because our bodies can actually make protein. It's true.
Protein is made up of amino acids (not be be confused with fatty acids - omega 3s and 6s, etc - that's a story for another day.) Depending on what you read, there are between 20 and 23 amino acids. You might recognize some of the names - tryptophan, phenylalanine, lysine....anyway - there are 20 more names like that. Our bodies can actually create 15 of those amino acids, but 8 of them (9 for children), are considered "essential" to get from food. That's why those 8 are called Essential Amino Acids. When a food (like meat, soy beans, hemp seed, buckwheat, quinoa, etc...) contains all 8 of the Essential Amino Acids, it is called a complete protein.
The really cool thing is that most foods contain at least some of the essential amino acids, and our bodies have a nifty way of storing those amino acids in a bit of a storage bank, while they wait for the rest of the amino acids to join them to make a protein. The tricky part is eating enough of a variety of food to build those protein chains. Not all of the amino acids need to be consumed in the same meal, or even the same day. That storage bank holds them there for a while. It's really cool how the body works. Pretty fascinating.  :)