https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-protein-combining-myth/

B12 is the only real deficiency vegans experience and it's easily solved by taking a supplement. B12 isn't some miracle vitamin, exclusive to animal products either. It's produced by bacteria in the soil and since we're usually sterilizing our food, it's not usually found on our produce anymore. That's why livestock are getting it supplemented, just the way vegans are supplementing it. It's not even like eating meat and animal products saves you from B12 deficiency as a big chunk of the population is actually deficient.

While true that plant proteins are not “incomplete”, it is also true that some aren’t absorbed as well [1] and are lower in certain essential amino acids than others. The article/video that you linked suggests that the essential amino acid profiles don't matter, even from plant proteins, because you get more than you need anyway but that's not true for everybody.

Importantly, if you're someone who is physically active or looking to gain muscle mass! When you're physically active, your body _does_ use almost all of the protein that you give it (at least, all of the protein it's able to absorb through digestion). And if you give it a deficiency in certain essential aa's that it can't create for itself, you can see less muscle growth. In that case, it is important to either stick to some of the more complete veggie proteins or to consume a combination of proteins that satisfy a complete amino acid profile.

I'd be happy to see research to the contrary.

I'd also encourage anyone reading to consider a vegetarian or vegan diet. Cutting out meat is pretty easy, even if you have to complement proteins for bodybuilding, and it's one of the best individual contributions you can make to inhibiting climate change.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2710749

The sulfur-containing amino acids, methionine and homocysteine, can be converted into each other, cysteine can be made from homocysteine, and phenylalanine with tyrosine. Likewise arginine, ornithine, and citrulline, are interconvertible.

But for example if you only eat rice, you think you get 2.56g per 100g, but just 3.8% of lysine and 8.2% of leucine in its proteins, when you need 23% of leucine and 18% of lysine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_amino_acid#Recommend...

Also nutritionfacts.org is junk science vegan propaganda like Cowspiracy and What the Health.

https://www.thatnerdysciencegirl.com/2015/11/13/the-case-aga...

What if we didn't sterilize? Would the bacteria then produce it in our stomach? Once I "get " those bacteria in, do I have to replenish?

What about the bacteria though? Not a good idea?

http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

So there's a good deal more at stake here than just optimal protein digestibility uptake rates.

Anecdotal, but I recently placed first in my age group and 5th overall in a trail marathon on a nearly vegan diet. Two other the other four in front of me were vegans. In another recent half marathon with over 1,000 runners, a near-vegan diet helped secure 4th out of 90 in my age group, close to the top 10% overall. I wasn't counting calories and certainly not protein. I did lose to close to 30 lbs while also getting faster. I used to have an "afternoon slump" at work, but that's rare now, even when running 7 miles before work.

For more interviews with scientists, the Cowspiracy movie (bad name) helps explain why animal agriculture has ended up as a top cause of climate change, and the newer movie "What the Health" interviews a number of doctors and scientists about the relationship between plant-based foods and health.

They were suggesting that if you get your protein from plant sources, you should make sure to hit a complete amino acid profile and you should understand that digestibility is also lower for plant-based proteins.

This seems to be a point of confusion for a lot of people: the thing you want to pay attention to is not plant vs. animal, but the amount of inputs that went into providing a calorie. If you use calories per dollar as your metric, and I think this is an imperfect but quick and dirty metric, you’ll see that chicken, for instance, is an order of magnitude cheaper per calorie than most leafy green vegetables. I wrote about this in detail here: http://www.thinkfundamental.org/why-kale-is-actually-terribl....

So what you really want to eat, if your goal is reducing your environmental impact, are grains, legumes, and plant oils. But eating a lot of kale, broccoli, and spinach would negate any gains from avoiding animal sources.

https://www.quora.com/How-accurate-is-the-movie-Cowspiracy

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16018658/wh...

Even vegans agree : https://www.vegan.com/posts/vegan-dietitian-review-what-the-...

>As a vegan health professional, I am sometimes mortified to be associated with the junk science that permeates our community. And as an animal rights activist, I’m disheartened by advocacy efforts that can make us look scientifically illiterate, dishonest, and occasionally like a cult of conspiracy theorists.

On the topic of muscles and protein:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-bodybuilding

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/protein-intake-and-igf-1-pr...

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/anabolic-steroids-in-meat

On the topic of B12. Many omnis are also B12 deficient, 1 in 5 iirc. In vegans all are eventually B12 deficient under the modern hygiene practices and without supplementation. All B12 originates from microbes that live abundantly in the soil. We are very clean with our food and water, so our plant foods and water are mostly devoid of B12. Pasture fed animals get it "naturally", their factory farmed relatives usually get a B12 supplement. I recommend everyone to get tested for B12 (and D) deficiency as it is very common, and supplement accordingly. Vegans with modern hygiene standards for sure need to supplement (or eat B12-fortified foods).

> B12 as deficiencies in it is a silent killer

Yes. So get your blood tested, and supplement accordingly. This is not something unique to vegans (though a lot more common). For good supplements consult: https://www.toxinless.com

[1]: https://cronometer.com

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1187088/

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/death-as-a-foodborne-illnes... https://www.thatnerdysciencegirl.com/2015/11/13/the-case-aga...

Or you mean I have to eat those microbes as they themselves contain b12? In which case dead or alive, what does it matter?