Protein - what's in a name

Watched the final, painstakingly long, Masterchef episode tonight with Mrs VeganMista, aka VeganMissus (admittedly she isn't vegan and we ain't married!). Also did my ironing for the week at the same time - who said blokes can't multi-task? Something cropped up again on Masterchef that has been annoying me for some time. The hosts, talking about what ingredients the contestants have, talk about "protein" when referring to animal products, or meat more specifically. Why on earth?? Protein is one of the three macronutrients, the others being fat and carbohydrates. On a weight for weight basis, meats contain a significant amount of protein, but they are not entirely protein, and more importantly, they aren't the only source of protein. In fact, almost all unrefined plant foods contain protein and it is well nigh impossible to structure a vegan diet that has sufficient calories, yet is lacking in protein. The medical condition associated with lack of protein is called kwashiorkor. When was the last time you heard of someone in Australia with that? I struggled to find data about it in Australia. I did find that 8 people died from it in the USA in 2003. Meanwhile, roughly 7 million aussies are overweight or obese.

In his book, Eat to Live, Joel Fuhrman makes a good case for why foods are better compared on a per 100 calorie basis, rather than per 100 grams. The bottom line is that a person needs to take in a certain number of calories per day to keep a healthy weight. The mass of food needed to get those calories is irrelevant. On a per 100 calorie basis, many plant foods, including broccoli, spinach and kale, have more protein than a sirloin steak!

But, back to Masterchef - according to nutritional data websites like this one, the percent of calories from fat in eg. a steak or salmon fillet can be more than 50%. Why doesn't Masterchef refer the contestants to the "fats" in their ingredient boxes? (BTW, eggs and cheese (brie) are 63 and 73% fat in per calorie terms.) The main reason why this reference to meats as "protein" annoys me is that it continues the long-standing misconception that meats and other animal products are necessary in order to obtain enough protein. The common approach of structuring a dish centred around a meat caters purely to taste preferences, not human nutritional needs. In fact, the opposite is true - lower animal protein intakes are correlated with better health (lower rates of chronic disease).