Kitchen Myths

Facts and fiction about food and cooking

Tag Archives: vegetables

You cannot get complete protein from a vegetarian/vegan diet

Leave a comment Posted by on July 8, 2023

It is believed by many that only animal-based foods contain all nine essential amino acids–the amino acids that humans cannot synthesize and must be obtained in the diet.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and having all of them is essential to good health. But the fact is that all nine essentials are found in plants, just not all of them together in one food. So, eating a varied diet of plants – nuts, grains, beans, and so on – will give you all you need.

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Raw vegetables provide enzymes that promote healthy digestion

7 Comments Posted by on December 28, 2011

Sorry, no, never, nyet, fuggedaboudit. Raw plants do contain enzymes that are broken down by cooking, but (1) These are plant enzymes that have no function in the human body, and (2) Enzymes in raw food will be broken down by the digestive process anyway. Furthermore, those places that promote “live” enzymes are just feeding you a bunch of hogwash in order to separate you from your money. An enzyme is just a chemical (a protein, to be exact). It can no more be “live” than a tube of toothpaste.

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