[vjvjvjvjghv]

You need protein for sure. But unless you want to win Mr Universe you will probably get enough through regular nutrition. And there are a lot of other things besides protein you need in your food. The current “Protein in everything” trend is just a fad created by industry

[nradov]

How much is "enough" exactly? Can you quantify that for us? There's a huge difference between enough to avoid acute malnutrition in a young person versus enough to optimize healthspan in an older person. Did you even listen to the podcast I linked above?

It is totally possible to get enough protein (by whatever metric you choose) through regular food. And yet the reality is that many people don't.

[triceratops]

> How much is "enough" exactly?

The upper limit seems to be 1g per lb (454g) of body weight. This is for people who lift heavy regularly to build and grow muscle. The lower bound is about 1/3 of that.

A 165 lb person needs about 55g of protein daily for maintenance. This is about one cup of black beans and 3 eggs. Huevos rancheros for breakfast will cover most or all of an average person's daily protein needs and that's before even counting the protein in the cheese or tomatoes.

While vegetables don't have much protein it still adds up. A single medium tomato has 1g, a potato has 3g, 1g in an onion, 0.5g in a carrot, and so on. Eat your daily portion of veggies and you can get maybe 10g of protein. That's nearly 20% of what you need!

Carb-heavy foods such as breads and rice also have some protein. More than veggies, less than lentils, eggs, dairy, and meat. A standard serving of pasta has 7g of protein. A cup of cooked brown rice has 5g.

All of this is to say even vegans who eat a healthy, varied diet are not deficient in protein. If they are ovo-lacto vegetarians it's a layup. They may need to supplement with whey and creatine or eat some chicken a few times a week if they want to squat 3 plates.

Insufficient protein is mostly not a problem in the first-world. The problem is eating crap. Eating grass-fed steaks every meal doesn't compensate for a crap diet.

[nradov]

You're not accounting for protein quality and essential amino acids. You can't just add up grams. That's not how this works.

[triceratops]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_quality#Protein_source...

Lots of sources of complete protein on there besides beef. Don't limit yourself. A combination of quinoa, buckwheat, eggs, soy, pea, milk, whey, beans, and nuts will provide all the amino acids you need. Even beef, despite being a complete protein, is deficient in tryptophan.

I like meat. I'm not a militant vegetarian or vegan or anything like that. I dislike the laundering of people's love of eating meat as "essential for health", when it's anything but (special dietary needs aside). Eating meat is a mostly a choice.

I'll repeat again: varied diets are essential. A single protein source won't cut it. And most people get enough protein going just by raw numbers.

[nradov]

I don't know why you felt the need to post that little rant. No one here claimed that people should only eat beef as their sole source of protein. You're arguing against a strawman.

[triceratops]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45722288

You've been pretty reasonable. Not everyone is.

[cthalupa]

I'm very pro-protein - we just tend to see better metabolic health outcomes when we eat more of it. Diets with higher proportions of protein result in better body composition, less fat, less chance of diabetes, etc. I think the vast majority of people in America at least would be better off with higher protein diets.

But "Did you even listen to the podcast I linked above" is an insane thing to say in a random online conversation. No, you cannot expect people to listen to a whole podcast to make whatever random unsubstantiated point you have. Explain the important things you took away from the podcast and link it as a reference for if people disbelieve you for whatever reason.