I want the focus of this blog to be the celebration of delicious, cruelty-free food, but I hope you will humor me when I periodically decide to go off on a tangent.

One of the greatest worries that people seem to have about plant-based diets is where vegans get their protein. The short answer to this question is: absolutely everywhere! In addition to its presence in nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains, protein is also found in all fruits and veggies. Thus, no matter what delicious whole food you are eating, you are getting protein.

The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board and the World Health Organization recommend that both adult men and non-pregnant women get 0.66g/kg/day and 0.75g/kg/day protein, respectively (regardless of sex). The CDC recommends that adult women age 19-70 get about 46 grams of protein per day and adult men get 56 grams per day, or 10-35% of calories from protein, which is consistent with the recommendations of the other two organizations for individuals of healthy weight. Currently in America, we as a population eat about twice as much protein as we need. Perhaps as a consequence, we have a skewed level of concern for our protein intake when looking at a plate that has no slab of animal protein on it.

I weigh 130 pounds, so I need 40-46 grams of protein per non-intense-workout day. Work days are the hardest days for me to eat what I want, but even so, protein is not an issue. On a typical work day, I get up and eat 3/4 cup homemade nutty maple granola with 1/2 cup almond milk, which gives me 10-12 grams of protein. At work, I heat up a Sweet Earth Curry Tiger seitan and lentil burrito (19 grams protein), eat a peanut butter sandwich (12 grams protein) and 1-2 bananas (2-3 grams protein). I keep roasted pumpkin seeds in my drawer at work in case I get hungry (3 grams per 1/4 cup). Consequently, I often hit my protein requirement for the day before heading home from work!

It’s hard to tell whether the stereotypical scrawny vegan begets the worry about protein or whether this worry begets the stereotype. The reality is that there are plenty of healthy, fit vegans out there who are in no way protein deficient. One of my favorite inspirational figures is Frank Medrano, who has been kicking ass as a lean vegan body builder and calisthenics expert for years. I doubt that anyone would question whether he gets enough protein.