11: Dietary Protein

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A chicken in every pot.

A promise of prosperity, campaign ad for Herbert Hoover, 1928

When we think of protein, most of us think of meat. Throughout human history, meat has been a luxury, a food of the rich, a food hungered for by the poor. Even today, most of the world’s vegetarians aren’t vegetarians by choice, but by the circumstances of poverty.

Protein is hard to discuss—it comes with more emotional baggage than other nutrients. Animal foods (meat, egg, milk) have the most protein and the highest quality protein, but they bring up environmental, religious, and animal rights issues.

For nutritionists, the conflict is that for most of the world’s population, protein is scarce. Small differences in a food’s protein content, digestibility, etc., can be extremely important. Yet, these differences are trivial to most of us in the U.S. The amount of protein in the typical American diet far exceeds what we need, and much of our excesses of calories, fat, and saturated fat come from animal foods.

The various aspects of dietary protein are important, or unimportant, depending on the situation. We’re reminded again that good nutrition aims for the middle ground—enough, but not too much—be it vitamins, fat, calories, or protein.