Raw Food Protein

Healthy eating is important. For many people, healthy eating means adopting a raw food diet.  Raw food protein is something that anybody following a raw diet will be asked about very often. If you want to get involved in the growing raw movement, you better get used to answering the question, 'But where do you get your protein?' You are going to hear it from virtually all of your family and friends, plus a large selection of strangers!

The general population believes that protein is almost only found in animal products. In fact a lot of people have trouble believing that a vegetarian who eats milk and cheese is not getting enough protein. If you cut out these as well and become vegan, especially raw vegan where you will not eat processed meat substitutes, a lot of the people you meet will be anxiously examining you for signs of protein deficiency. They probably would not be surprised if you dropped down dead in front of them just from not eating meat.

Of course this is ridiculous. There are many raw food protein sources, even for raw vegans who do not eat raw meat or unpasteurized dairy products. What is more, most people in western societies consume far more protein than they need.

According to the World Health Organization, human beings require around 5% of the calories that they eat to come from protein. The USDA has a higher recommendation of 6.5%. This means that a person eating 2000 calories per day needs

The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. Now let's look at the foods that people on a raw food diet eat.

Vegetables

Vegetables contain the highest proportion of protein for energy, with around 10% of their calories coming from protein. This is way more than we need even on the American calculation. Of course, it would be very difficult to get enough calories by eating only vegetables, but it will surprise most people to hear how much protein there is in a food like broccoli or cabbage.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are higher in protein weight for weight but of course they also contain a lot of fat which adds to their calorie content. Generally you will get between 5% and 10% of calories from protein when you eat nuts and seeds.

Fruit

Fruits carry the lowest protein to energy ratio with around 2% to 4% of their calories coming from protein. This means that if your diet consisted entirely of fruit, you probably would not be getting enough protein. You would also be missing out on several minerals and vitamins.

As you see, it is not likely that anybody following a raw food diet will suffer from lack of protein unless they are trying to live entirely on fruit. Simply vary your diet, including a good variety of all raw foods, and you will automatically cover your protein requirements from plenty of different raw food protein sources.