12 Steps to Whole Foods

Making Plant-Based Main Dishes
eat green food, your body has all the amino acids in a free-floating pool to assemble proteins, so you don’t have
to eat all of them simultaneously in one meal to get enough protein. The amino acids you eat are used over a
24-hour period, so you needn’t make rocket science of your eating habits. 28 Above all else, just eat lots of plant
foods, especially greens.
Because of the way amino acids in plant foods combine, the amount of protein in the chart below, both for the
legume and the grain, don’t give the whole picture. Trust your body to manufacture enough protein, even if
your food isn’t “quality” protein. “Quality” only means that it matches human flesh closely, as animal protein
does. The building blocks of proteins are amino acids, and your body can assemble proteins when you give it
all the amino acids found in dishes made of a variety of five natural, whole food categories: grains, legumes,
nuts, seeds, and vegetables. If you are imagining these foods being a limited menu, think again: you have a
huge variety of highly sustaining foods to choose from!
When your body builds muscle mass from plant proteins, the muscle mass is more durable and long lasting,
even if it takes longer to come by. I am an avid weight lifter, and when I once injured my shoulder kickboxing,
I had to stop lifting weights for nine months. When I started again, I was thrilled to find that I had lost virtually
no strength, and was lifting my previous weight within two weeks. This was personal proof to me of my studies
that plant proteins create durable muscle mass.
I seem to have regular conversations with my powerlifter friends about this topic. Suggesting that a
competitive weightlifter consider eating less meat and more plant food is like trying to tell a Catholic priest to
quit going to Mass. What powerlifters do to build up huge pecs, lats, biceps, and triceps muscles might win
competitions, but it also accelerates aging as well as disease risk. My friend Roy (who maxes the bench press
with 455 lbs.) recently told me he’s on a 60% protein diet. While he’s thinking of his upcoming competition
and fearing the ungodly carbohydrate, I’m thinking of the massive enzyme-draining load on his body.
So, the question isn’t “How do I get enough protein?” The more appropriate question may be “How can I avoid
getting too much?”
Dr. Colin Campbell says this, referring to the Oxford/Cornell China Project:
There is a strong correlation between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate,
pancreas, and colon. The culprit in many of the most prevalent and deadly diseases of our time,
according to this study, is none other than the very thing most of us have been taught to hold
virtually sacred—animal protein. People who derive 70% of their protein from animal products
have major health difficulties compared to people who derive just 5% of their protein from
animal sources. They have 17 times the death rate from heart disease and the women are five
times more likely to die of breast cancer. In conclusion, animal protein is at the core of many
chronic diseases. 14
Consider that along with the protein in animal sources also comes synthetic hormones, steroids, antibiotics,
pesticide chemicals, bacteria, and sometimes saturated fat.
160 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw