Vegan Protein
Simply adopting vegan food choices to veganism as a lifestyle run the gamut of intense vegetarianism to social activism against fur and avoiding gelatin capsules. People who are simply looking for a healthy diet sometimes choose vegan over moderate vegetarianism, which includes milk and eggs. A true vegan eats no animal products. Some stars use this diet to loose weight and tone up, such as Beyonce. For some body types, this is an ideal "clean" diet.
The push toward plant-based eating is not only good for the planet, it is becoming the popular diet of choice. . . eating mostly plants, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts helps form the basis for a protein-combining approach to getting complete proteins.
In former days, nutritionists thought you had to combine proteins at each meal to make a complete protein. Although this is good advice for people with compromised digestive systems, we now know that the liver has a pool of amino acids and we can form complete proteins from plant foods by eating them within three days of each other. If you eat nuts at one snack, and broccoli and brown rice at your next meal, don't despair. The body can use all these amino acids to build protein.
I spent 5 years as a vegan in university, and loved this approach to food. It required a lot of cooking beans, whole grains, and soaking seeds and nuts to get enough calories and protein. It is a demanding lifestyle, as you constantly have to be on the watch for your own nutrition, take snacks when you go places, and cook for yourself. I am now a lapsed vegan, and although I usually eat vegetarian, with Omega-3 eggs and coconut milk instead of dairy; I occasionally eat chicken or fish.
I have included here a few of my favourite meal replacements (Vega One is great if you're on the go), and fermented protein powders from vegetable protein.
