Now why would a person ask such a question? Because ever since we were children we have been taught that protein only comes from animal sources. It has been a part of our programming!

Most people are not aware that the nutritional learning materials used in most schools have been provided "gratis" by the meat, dairy and egg industry for over seventy years. How clever! Imagine an industry programming every child with the idea that a person needed that industry's products in order to be properly nourished. But we have been programmed with untruth because there is absolutely nothing to substantiate such teachings. Quickly, and very easily, let us dispel this notion. If there is protein in the flesh or milk of an animal such as a cow, what was the source of that protein? Obviously the answer is THE GRASS IT ATE!

Because much of what experts once believed about protein has been proven incorrect, U.S. government recommendations on daily protein needs have been reduced from a one-time high of 118 grams to 46-56 grams in the 1980s, and are down to the present level of 25 to 35 grams today. Many nutritionists now feel that twenty grams of protein per day are more than enough, and warn about the potential dangers of consistently consuming much more than this amount. Yet the average American still consumes over one hundred grams of protein each day.

Drastically reduced recommendations for protein consumption today are an indication that official information about protein, taught for so long to so many, including school children, doctors, and nutritionists, was incorrect. But there has been no major effort to inform the public that what we were taught has since been proven wrong. So there are large numbers of people with medical problems caused by eating more than five times as much protein as necessary, yet their misguided obsession is still to ensure that they get enough protein.

A good way of determining which foods provide sufficient protein is to consider recommendations on the percentage of our total calorie intake that should be made up of protein, and then determine which foods meet these recommendations. Reports in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION say we should receive 2.5% of our daily calorie intake from protein, and that many populations have lived in excellent health on that amount.

The World Health Organization established a figure of 4.5%. The Food and Nutrition Board recommends 6%, while the National Research Council recommends 8%. The 6% and 8% figures are more than what most people need, and these higher percentages are intended as a margin of safety. But even these recommendations are met by many fruits and greatly exceeded by most vegetables. (It is interesting to note that human mother's milk is 5% protein and meets total protein needs during a child's most critical and rapid growth period.)

The percentage of calories provided by protein in spinach is 49%; broccoli 47%; cauliflower 40%; lettuce 34%; peas 30%; green beans 26%; cucumbers 24%; celery 21%; potatoes 11%; sweet potatoes 6%; honeydew 10%; cantaloupe 9%; strawberries 8%; orange 8%; watermelon 8%; peach 6%; pear 5%; banana 5%; and apple 1%. Considering these figures, any nutritionist would have to agree it is very easy for a person on the Hallelujah Diet to obtain sufficient protein.

One of the reasons we have such low protein requirements, as noted by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond in their book FIT FOR LIFE, is that "the human body recycles seventy percent of its proteinaceous waste."

THE MYTH OF "COMPLETE PROTEIN"

Due to lingering misinformation from a 1914 rat study, many people still believe they must eat animal products to obtain "complete protein." And for other people, this fallacy was replaced by a second inaccurate theory promoted by Frances Moore Lappe, teaching that proper food combining is necessary to obtain "complete protein" from vegetables.

Both of these theories have been unquestionably disproved because we now know people can completely satisfy their protein needs and all other nutritional requirements from a good variety of raw fruits and vegetables without worrying about proper food combining or adding protein supplements or animal products to their diet.

Here is what the American Dietetic Association currently has to say on this subject: "Plant sources of protein alone can provide adequate amounts of the essential and nonessential amino acids. . . . Conscious combining of these foods within a given meal, as a complementary protein dictum suggests, is unnecessary." And Frances Moore Lappe's updated research reveals that on a healthy, varied vegetarian diet, "Protein combining is unnecessary!"

There are eight essential amino acids we need from food for our body to build "complete protein," and every one of these amino acids can be found in fruits and vegetables. There are many vegetables and some fruits that contain all eight essential amino acids, including carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, kale, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COOKED AND UNCOOKED PROTEIN

Our body is composed of 15% protein. Protein is composed of amino acids, and amino acids are made up of chains of atoms. These atoms that make up amino acids, which in turn make up protein, literally become the building blocks of our body. The problem is that cooking kills food and de-natures or re- arranges the molecular structure of the protein, causing amino acids to become coagulated, or fused together, and it even changes the vibration of the atoms.

N. W. Walker, D.Sc., emphasizes that there is a difference between atoms that are alive and atoms that are dead. Dr. Walker says heat from cooking kills and changes the vibration of the atoms that compose amino acids that compose protein that compose our body.

Dr. Walker writes: "Just as life is dynamic, magnetic, organic, so is death static, not-magnetic, inorganic. It takes life to beget life, and this applies to the atoms in our food. When the atoms in amino acids are live, organic atoms, they can function efficiently. When they are destroyed by the killing of the animal and the cooking of the food, the vital factors involving the atoms in the functions of the amino acids is lost." You can see protein change its structure immediately when you drop a raw egg onto a hot frying pan. And remember that any and all nutrients in animal products originated in the raw vegetation the animal consumed.

When you consider the health problems caused by consuming (cooked) protein, it should drive home the point that our body is a living organism made up of living cells. And protein composes 15% of our body! Therefore, the protein we take in should be living rather than dead. Consuming a high quantity of dead, cooked protein is similar to taking mega- doses of synthetic vitamins that we cannot assimilate properly.

We would do better to focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of nutrients, and ensure that the protein (and other nutrients) we consume is in a natural, living form that our body can assimilate at the cellular level and use to build healthy new living cells. Hopefully this information will lay to rest any concerns about the Hallelujah Diet supplying sufficient protein for the body's needs, regardless of age.

Having said this, it should be noted that one must consume are large amound of vegetables to get adequate protein and other needed nutrients. Meat on the other hand is very dense in its nutrient content. If you are not going to eat large amounts of produce every day while on a vegan diet, you would be better off long term to eat some clean lean meat a couple times each week.