We are told that we need to follow this plan from grade school on the food categories we eat and the amount of protein we need to consume to be healthy. I can not say that I am a total believer on the high protein diet as gospel but makes you wander when the information in today’s society shows you a complete different take of this notion. I am far from a vegetarian or frutarian because I need my protein and I tend to get that from grass fed animal meat, no hormone added chicken and wild caught seafood. In my studies, I found this notation below, from The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush by Andreas Mortz, as very informative and eye opening. Makes you go hmm.
The often-cited scientific fact that we need to combine certain foods (such as beans and rice) in order to get complete proteins is plain misinformation, too. The body does not depend on food proteins to produce the proteins it requires to be healthy.
The strongest animals like the elephant, wild horse, orangutan, and bull do not have to eat animal proteins either. Like us, their vegan foods, the air they breathe, the sunlight they are exposed to, and the water they drink, provide them with the necessary molecules to make their own proteins and strong muscles. By giving them animal protein-based feeds, they actually become sick or die, just like many humans (as confirmed by the already mentioned research).
Some people have argued that chimpanzees, whose genetic makeup is almost identical to that of humans, eat meat, i.e. flesh food and so accordingly, it must be in our genes to eat meat, too. However, chimps don’t eat other animals. The amount of animal protein they may eat is about the size of half a pea a day and it consists of small insects, not animals. The hands and nails, teeth, and digestive tract of a chimpanzee are those of a predominately vegan animal, or fruitarian, not those of a carnivorous beast that hunts down, tears apart and devours other animals.
The ultimate determinant of whether an animal is required to eat foods high in protein is the composition of its mother’s milk. The milk produced by primates, to which the human species belongs, is very low in protein. Among all primates, the milk produced by humans has the lowest amount of protein, at 0.8 to 0.9 percent. It also contains 4.5 percent fat, 7.1 percent carbohydrates, and 0.2 percent ash (minerals)88. This still leaves protein at less than 1 g/100ml whereas cow’s milk is 3.5g/100ml.
Breast milk of primates like chimpanzee, baboon, rhesus monkey, and gorilla has a protein content of only 0.85 to 1.2 percent.
Now compare the tiny percentage of protein in human milk and other primates with the large percentage of protein in the milk of a carnivorous animal, such as a cheetah. The nutrient content of cheetah milk is 99.6 g protein, 64.8 g fat, and 40.21 g lactose per kg milk89. That amounts to 9.96 percent protein, over 10 times the amount found in human milk. Also, can anyone give an explanation as to why our protein requirement would change so drastically from 5 percent during infancy to 10-20 percent range for adulthood?
Human breast milk is a newborn child’s most important and balanced food. For a newborn’s cells to divide and multiply and for its body to grow, it needs a lot of protein, or so it seems. Yet right from the beginning of life, the growing baby is naturally prevented from ingesting a concentrated protein food. This is where science fails to explain the true workings of the human body.
In reality, there is no need for a high protein food anyway since whatever the baby receives from the mother’s milk, air and sunlight, the infant has everything it needs to jump-start protein synthesis by the cells and triple its body weight within the first 16 months of its life. Once the biggest growth spurt in a child’s life has occurred, it has an even lesser need for concentrated protein foods than during the first 16 months. In fact, after breast feeding for one year, the protein content in mother’s milk drops even further. This simple fact defies the very principle of nutritional science, which claims we need to eat a large amount of protein each day to survive.
When the body reaches adulthood and stops growing altogether, eating such foods may not only be unnecessary but can actually interfere with its most important functions. It makes no sense at all that we need less than 1 percent protein in our food when we grow the most, but 10-20 percent (as recommended by nutritionists) when we stop growing altogether.
The high concentrations of carbohydrates and fats in breast milk gives us further clues as to what our natural diet should consist of during adulthood. Fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. are rich in carbohydrates. Besides eating olives, nuts, seeds, and avocado, we can easily use such oils as olive oil and coconut oil to satisfy our naturally high requirement for fats.
Besides cleaning out the liver and gallbladder, I recommend that you check for any existing abnormal health conditions that could be due to a high-protein diet. Sometimes, just avoiding these foods for a couple of days may already bring you the desired relief.