Protein Foods, Whey Protein, and One Bad Vegetarian's Story

I am one of America's bad vegetarians. This could be taken two ways. That I didn't eat enough "fart food," known to vegetarians as beans. Or, that now I eat some meat such as turkey, chicken, and beef every so often. The best protein for you is what your body responds well to. No other person can judge for you. Each person has a different body type. Protein foods, a protein drink, a solution to half a lifetime of concerns. I was a teenager when my hair quality declined sharply, attributable later to protein deficiency.

There was a sign my father saw when I was growing up when he peddled food out to the prairies: "Eat here. Get gas." We always made jokes that it was about beans instead of gassing the truck up at a truck stop. I was teased as a child for farting all the time. I was a vegetarian the whole time. It is now known that if you soak your beans over night, drain off the water, soak them a bit longer and drain them again, and then cook them, you will have better digestive health when eating beans. I had gotten tired of beans, however, and who wants to eat sesame all the time anyway? Because I didn't know that there were so many foods with protein in them, I didn't focus too much on it. My dreaming stopped when I was 16 or 17, and if only I had known that I needed more protein then, I would be a different person today. It is now that I can press forward with what I know and start over again. It has cost me years of lost social and work opportunities to have had a protein deficiency, and standardized medical testing didn't exactly identify the cause: I NEED SOME PROTEIN, my body was screaming. Protein is composed of amino acids, which build the body and the mind.

Just because you are a vegetarian who uses meat substitutes or eats too many beans doesn't mean that you are home free regarding health. In fact, eating too many beans can be detrimental to digestive health if not followed by rough fibers such as can be found in snap peas, green or red cabbage, or carrots. Fiber moves food along. To rely too heavily on beans for protein can be counterproductive overall.

There is more to life than criticizing "meat-eaters" (omnivores). There are vegetarians who would be far healthier if they ate meat, and omnivores who would be far healthier if they ate some vegetables. All things in balance. Sometimes a person changes to one mode of diet and keeps it strict and then their body needs to swing back again. The rule is: what does your body want? Listen to your body and it will heal itself if you give it the building blocks of nutrition.

DISCLAIMER:I am not a medical professional. This is my own personal experience. Please see a doctor if you have medical problems. This information should not be used to cure or treat and has not been evaluated by the FDA. Seek proper medical advice and if in doubt or if something isn't helping, seek a second and third opinion. Physicians are human and there are limits to their knowledge.

I was on a business trip in a van many years ago stuck on a 4 hour ride to a distant city for a work training with an omnivore who was bound and determined to tell me and my boss both that we needed to eat red meat in order to be healthy.

Also I have been advised by a friend in the distant past that I needed to eat meat for mental health and that every vegetarian she had ever known had been unhealthy, and she cited a family that we both knew. The determinedness of those who ate meat to pound in their point had me prejudiced against even trying it, in addition to a family background of vegetarianism. Being a sensitive person, I did not want to take part in killing or even looking at something that had been killed. The last time I saw her was the time we both watched her friend on a farm cut the head off of a chicken. It haunts me to this day, yet, in the years to come, I challenged food prejudices all the way from cauliflower to beef.

The impetus to try the beef actually came from my doctor, who, when I asked about protein, suggested this. I did not really want to, but did so because I followed their directions. I find that I really do feel better eating some turkey, some roast beef, and some pot roast, so long as I take care to avoid saturated fat which can do severe damage to arteries. Personal experience: When I had my protein and B vitamin foods, high blood sugar vastly improved. I was teetering on the edge of diabetes with blood sugar highs and lows before I found this out by accident. Bloodshot and blurry eyes were part of what would happen to me when consuming any carb before getting my B vitamins and protein in sufficient quantity.

Protein foods:

In the time since the trip with a dyed in the wool omnivore and my medical appointments which suggested meat, I have discovered new protein sources:

Kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, pinto beans, chili beans, white sesame, black sesame, hemp seed [Bulk container, cheaper than by the pound 1-800-665-HEMP], beef, chicken, turkey, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, beans in general, brown lentils, red lentils, black quinoa, white quinoa, red quinoa, deer meat, feta cheese, pepper jack cheese, Mozzarella cheese. Cautions about cheese are about saturated fat. Can you imagine that in your arteries? It has to go somewhere! My standby cheese is feta. How good I feel when eating feta. Some claim it has B12 in it.

This is not an all-inclusive list, but protein sources are not limited to meat. In my experience I found that protein foods most often contain B vitamins too! For me, protein foods along with their B vitamins was the answer to several years of erratic blood sugar and the inability to eat anything that was sweet.

Protein Supplements tried personally: only one.

My choice was one with the least added ingredients that do not belong there. This is what I chose: Ultimate Nutrition Prostar Whey Protein. Ingredients: Premium Cold Micro and Ultra-filtrated Whey Protein (High protein concentrate isolate) and Soy Lecithin.

What this whey protein affected:
Muscle tension in shoulders and neck. Sex drive. Feeling of wellbeing and happiness. Dreaming with many senses (sight, sound, touch, motion, color, dialog, hearing) when sleeping as opposed to sleep being a meaningless void.

KIDNEY DISEASE AND PROTEIN
__________________________

IMPORTANT CAUTIONS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH PROTEIN DRINK CONSUMPTION: If your urine becomes cloudy upon protein consumption, get testing for kidney function [see some tests below] and prepare to go either herbal to heal your kidneys [search herbal kidney cleanses on google], which can be done according to personal experience, or go with what the system offers if you need to. If you urinate frequently, this is a risk that you are taking, that frequent urination could be caused by low kidney function, and high protein could be detrimental if your kidneys are compromised. This caution is from personal experience. I discovered when I did a lot of whey protein because it made me feel good that my kidneys couldn't handle it but that I did feel better in the above areas.

Kidney experts can work in conjunction with your primary physician and are called nephrologists. The tests for kidney function are as follows:

Glomerular Function Rate (GFR), Specific Gravity, Creatinine, Electrolyte Panel - especially potassium and sodium, Bilirubin, Test for protein in urine (proteinuria), Hemoglobin. I had chronic kidney failure/Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus and whey protein every day identified that my kidneys were in trouble because it caused cloudy urine. From there on out, I sought herbal treatment and have recovered my kidney function and just need herbal maintenance.

DISCLAIMER: This is personal experience and research. Kidney and urination doctors are called nephrologists and urologists. Consult a doctor if you are concerned about health issues.
__________________________

Protein is a broad topic and cannot be addressed properly in one single afternoon. Protein in my experience and research and knowledge is be addressed in later articles, in a series with links to this original article:

Here is a sampling of what I would like to discuss next:

Protein facts: What does protein do in the body? Why is it so important? Is it just for mental health and muscles, or is there more?
In a nation with plentiful food, why should anyone have protein deficiency?
What hormones and neurotransmitters does protein influence?
Symptoms of protein deficiency from multiple credible sources.
Protein and acid/alkaline balance.
In-depth criticism of raw food movement when it comes to protein.
In-depth Criticism of vegetarianism and veganism when it comes to protein.
Criticism of omnivorism and its oversights.
What protein does in relation to mental health?