Does the Vegan Diet Provide Enough Protein?
It has been shown that vegans can easily obtain sufficient protein from their diet, providing that they consume sufficient calories and eat a variety of unrefined grains, legumes, green vegetables and nuts/seeds on a daily basis. Good sources of protein in the vegan diet include: beans, peanut butter, tahini, brown rice, nuts and soya products e.g. soya milk, yogurt, TVP and tofu. Studies have shown that vegans usually obtain an average of 10-11% of their daily energy from protein which is very close to the figure of 10% which is recommended by NACNE. In fact, the amount of protein required by the human body is small – only about 20-40g each day and consuming too much protein can, in fact, be harmful leading to kidney damage or to an increased risk of developing ‘brittle bone’ disease (osteoporosis).
