I’ve discovered the protein issue with a vegan diet is more nuanced than is commonly realized. Yes, a well rounded vegan diet will give you plenty of overall protein. But if you use cronometer every day and see how such a well rounded vegan diet breaks down relative to each of the essential amino acids (essential in that you have to get them from food, the body doesn’t make them), then you will see that one is often chronically short of lysine and somewhat short of leucine despite the well rounded plant-based diet. So a more sophisticated question for the vegan diet, isn’t where do you get your protein, but how do you get the RDAs for those two specific essential amino acids? Lysine in particular is a serious problem for vegans imo.

I’ve been on a straight, plant-based vegan diet (Joel Fuhrman’s GBOMBS) for the last few years, but this experience with conometer has made me modify it to include a small amount of turkey to address the lysine/leutine issues.  Interestingly enough, even with the addition of a small amount of turkey, my lysine and leucine numbers still come in somewhat below their RDAs, which makes me think the change was even more justified.  Now I call myself an “almost vegan,” due to this modification to my diet.

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