Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (48 page)

Wheat + Peanuts* + Milk

Wheat + Sesame + Soybean

Exception: Rice + Sesame

plus Yeast, for example:

Rice + Brewer’s yeast

* Peanuts are botanically classified as legumes
.

Tips for complementing the protein in fresh vegetables

Since the most striking feature of fresh vegetables is their very low ratings in the last amino acid column, sulfur-containing amino acids, you would first want to look for foods with a high rating in that column. In Protein
Table IV
we find
sesame seeds
and
Brazil nuts
—both unusually strong (A and A+ rating) in the last column. Sesame and Brazils would probably serve best as complements to those fresh vegetables such as lima beans, green peas, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, which are very deficient in the last column while strong (A or B rating) in the second column, isoleucine. This is true because sesame and Brazils are themselves somewhat weak (C rating) in the second column.

In Protein
Table V
, among the grains, we can also find some possible complements to these fresh vegetables.
Millet
and
parboiled rice
(converted) stand out as exceptions among the grains; they are both very strong (A rating) in the last column, sulfur-containing, and moderately strong (B rating) in the second column, isoleucine. They, therefore, might well complement the protein in many fresh vegetables, especially the greens, which have just the opposite pattern.

Some vegetables might complement the protein in other vegetables.
Mushrooms
, high (A rating) in the last column, sulfur-containing, could be combined with lima beans, green peas, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or cauliflower—all lacking in this amino acid.

Tips for complementing other foods with the protein in nutritional additives

Amino acid strength in the two center columns (isoleucine and, especially, lysine) make nutritional additives likely complements for foods having the opposite amino acid pattern. Likely complementary protein combinations include nutritional additives:

Tips for using meat and poultry to complement the protein in plant food

High amino acid ratings (especially lysine) give even small portions of meat and poultry the ability to complement plant foods, particularly those, such as grains, which are low in lysine.

Turkey apparently surpasses all other meat and poultry in its ability to complement plant protein. Experiments show that if you add only one-fifth as much turkey to a meal of wheat, peanuts, or black-eyed peas, the protein quality of the combination will be the same as if the entire meal had been beef!

How the Food Groups Rate—Protein-Wise

S
EAFOOD

Seafood rates first place as a source of protein. Fish is near meat in protein content and superior to meat in protein usability (NPU), except for shark and skate. Some fish, like cod and haddock (#13 and #15 on Protein
Table I
), are practically
pure
protein; that is, they contain
no
carbohydrates and only about .1 percent fat. Though the average protein portion I have given is small (less than ¼ pound), even at this level some fish can fill 40–50 percent of your daily allowance. It doesn’t take much: even small chunks of fish in soups and lightly cooked vegetable mixes can give the dish a taste and protein boost.

The next-to-the-last column of the table tells you about the protein usability of seafood: the high NPU of most fish, 80, reflects excellent amino acid ratings. Notice particularly the high lysine content (A + rating) of seafood. It is now easy to explain why fish and rice are sucessfully eaten as a staple by so many people. Rice, as you will see, is deficient in lysine and isoleucine—defects that seafood can effectively remedy.

I have given the values for raw as opposed to cooked seafood only because the best data available to me was in this form. No significant amount of protein is lost in cooking seafood.

D
AIRY
P
RODUCTS

You may have been surprised to discover that dairy products appear low on the quantity scale of the “Food Protein Continuum.” It is true that their percent protein on a weight basis is low. However, the fact that milk (#5 in Protein
Table II
) is only 4 percent protein and eggs (#9) are only 13 percent protein should not mislead you. Remember that the quality of these products is higher than any other food. On the right side of
Table II
, you can read their NPU scores—the measures of protein usability. The NPU of milk is over 80 and that of egg is 94 as compared to beef, for example, with an NPU of 67.

An example will remind you of the importance of NPU. Although eggs
appear
to have much
less
protein than beans (that is, eggs are only 13 percent protein, while beans are 21 percent protein), as far as your body is concerned their protein content is nearly equal. Why? Because the high NPU of eggs means that its protein is almost fully used by the body while the low NPU of beans makes its protein only partly available.

Also, the relatively low protein content of some dairy products is made up for by the fact that they are in forms that we normally eat in large quantities. For example, two cups of milk (#5 on
Table II
) supplies more than one-third of your daily protein allowance. Let’s compare this with another food, noodles (#4 on Protein
Table V
), whose protein content is
three times
that of milk. To get the same proportions of your daily protein allowance from noodles as from 2 cups of milk, you would have to eat
4
cups of cooked noodles. The point is that whereas you might easily drink 2 cups of milk a day, you are not likely to eat 4 cups of noodles!

The protein cost and calorie comparisons (
Appendixes F
and
D
) show that dairy products fare quite well on these counts also. And dairy products have another virtue to recommend them: they are our major source of calcium. This nutritional strength takes on special importance in light of the fact that the majority of American women consume considerably less than the recommended allowance of calcium. But some people hesitate to increase their intake of dairy products because of their fat content. This shouldn’t be a stumbling block—not when there are so many delicious ways to enjoy
low-fat
dairy products.

L
EGUMES
: D
RIED
B
EANS
, P
EAS, AND
L
ENTILS

Legumes are one of the earliest crops cultivated by man. Even in biblical times their nutritional value was known. When Daniel and other favored children of Israel were offered the meat usually reserved only for the King of Babylon, Daniel refused. He asked only for pulses (legumes) and water. After ten days, the Bible passage relates, the faces of the children “appeared fairer and fatter than all the children that ate of the king’s meat.” This is not too surprising, because the protein content of some legumes is actually equal to, or greater than, that of meat! But maybe you are registering surprise that anyone would
choose
legumes. It is true that dried beans and peas can be the dullest food in the world, but they can also be the basis of the most savory dishes in your menu. Lentils, peas, black beans, and soybeans make delicious and satisfying soups. Kidney beans and garbanzos (chickpeas) make a great cold salad, or they can top off a fresh green salad. Pea beans with maple syrup is the old favorite: Boston baked beans.

Since legumes are all at least 20 percent protein, why don’t they contribute even more to meeting our daily protein allowance than the typical 10–20 percent indicated on the table? The answer is twofold: first, their NPU scores are on the average lower than any other food group recommended as a protein source. Lentils (#11 in Protein
Table III
) have the lowest NPU score, 30, of any food included in these tables. But legumes also include some of the highest-quality plant protein. Soybeans and mung beans (#1 and #2) have NPU scores of 61 and 57 respectively—reflecting protein usability approaching that of meat. Note that tofu (soybean curd) has an even higher NPU, 65, than the untreated soybean. Second, we tend to eat legumes in small quantities. A serving of ¾ cup of legumes actually weighs only 50 grams before cooking. We usually eat other high-protein food, like meat, in quantities at least twice this amount. But remember that the percentages I have given you here are for legumes eaten
without
the benefit of supplementation with other protein sources. Eating legumes with cereals can make the protein
in both
more valuable to you, increasing the availability of their combined protein content as much as 40 percent.