Julia Altshuler > wrote:

>Steve Pope wrote:

>> While I agree that huge amounts of protein are not necessary,
>> I don't necessarily think the above is an accurate description
>> of mainstream nutritional advice.

> True. I tend to run into the lunatic fringe, the ones who
> obsess over everything and can site some study that supports
> their opinion or which they use to jump to untrue conclusions.
> The complementary proteins is the perfect example. They read
> the Lappe book and decide that they'll die of protein deficiency
> if they don't combine rice and beans all the time and every
> time they eat.

Well, given that Lappe was widely regarded as on-target with her
protein views for about 30 years, I don't think it counts as
a "lunatic fringe" that a couple generations of vegetarian cooks
followed her advice.

Surely, it remains true that one must eat a sufficient amount
of complete protein to be healthy. Rather then obsessing
over trying to figure out how little protein completion one can
get away with, or how long one can get away with eating unbalanced
protein, the practice of completing protein in each meal
definitely solves the problem and is not unduly difficult.
Pretty much every vegan knows that if they either eat soy protein, or
complement grains and legumes, they are fine.

Steve