A HEALTHFUL AND MEATLESS DIET

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The process of protein pairing involves serving together foods that have complementary amino acid makeups. That is, each partner's strengths make up for the other's weaknesses. For example, grains generally contain very little isoleucine and lysine, so their obvious protein "buddies" would be legumes, which are moderately high in isoleucine and very high in lysine. On the other hand, legumes are low in tryptophan and methionine . . . giving them an amino acid profile that's the opposite of that of most nuts and seeds. Dairy products are especially high in the very amino acids lacking in cereal grains, providing another beneficial pairing. Based on these principles of complementarity, three important combinations of foods should be kept in mind (and used every day!) by anyone practicing a meatless diet:

[1] Grains + Legumes,
(2] Legumes + Nuts or Seeds,
[3] Dairy Products + Grains.

The lesson of protein complementarity, then, is a required course for any vegetarian cook (in fact, it usually occupies several pages in the front of most modern meatless cookbooks) . . . but the good news is that it's easier to master than you might expect. That's because protein complementarity has served for centuries as the basis of many traditional native cuisines around the world and is even present in some of our common American dishes.

For example, beans and corn (served in the form of tortillas with beans, or bean-filled enchiladas) are a South American staple, black beans and Cuban rice are a plat national all over the Caribbean, and lentils and rice—in countless variations—are served daily in India. The Orientals, too, have long known about protein complementarity; they combine soybeans (usually in the form of curd, or tofu) with rice throughout China, Japan, and the rest of Asia. Indonesians commonly serve tempeh (fermented soybean cakes) with their rice. In the Mediterranean, native peoples feast on specialties combining garbanzo beans and sesame seeds. Closer to home, the American Indians taught the early colonists to eat succotash (a tasty mixture of lima beans and corn). . . and our modern standards include cereal-and-milk breakfasts, peanut butter or cheese sandwiches for lunch, and dinners of pizza (wheat crust and cheese topping) or macaroni and cheese.

So you can see that ensuring a healthy daily allowance of protein is really no problem for the vegetarian. Yet the questions remain: How much protein do we really need, and what proportions are necessary to successfully balance the amino acids in complementary foods? Debatable issues, both . . . but there is a margin of error within which a non-meat eater can feel perfectly safe. The amount of protein a person requires is determined by his or her body size, age, sex, and levels of activity and stress. The general rule of thumb—as specified by the National Research Council's Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)-is that we should receive 10-15% of our total energy needs from protein... or about 0.424 grams per pound of body weight each day. Thus a 150-pound person would need 63.6 grams of protein daily.

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