Almost everyone has heard that you need to eat certain foods together to get a “complete protein,” typically this is furthered by the pushing of red beans and rice. While it is not a lie that eating certain foods together can help you get more balanced nutrition from them, the real lie here is that it implies you cannot get all your nutrition from any one source. When it comes to self sufficient living and growing food on a homestead this can be even more worrying. Worse still it the myth that you can’t get a “complete protein” without a lot of extra effort pushes against vegetarianism and veganism without any justification. Let’s look at the myth more closely and set the record straight.
Myth: Plants Don’t Contain Complete Every Amino Acid
The myth that plants don’t contain all the essential amino acids is patently false and comes about as an over simplification the idea that certain foods have more or less of specific amino acids than others. In reality grains like rice have all your essential amino acids, and so do every other “seed” like food we eat.
If the part we are eating is designed to grow into a whole new plant, be it an actual seed or a storage system like a potato, it will have every amino acid. The logic here is just as simple as the myth it arises from, but plants need those amino acids just like we do, so if the plant parts they grow from don’t have them, then they wouldn’t grow.
This myth arising from an oversimplification seems really appealing to people. It seems true at face value. When it took root things like vegetarianism was more widely disliked as well and people seemed to use this myth as a justification for eating meat. To be clear, eating meat is a personal choice, just like not eating meat, and trying to demonize someone else’s lifestyle (no matter which side you are on) is the real evil.
Another reason for this myth taking hold comes from more historic food needs. Beans and rice specifically supported this myth because they have been staples of basic survival food for thousands of years. The reason for this is not that you need to eat both to get enough nutrition, but instead because when you don’t have enough food and are already low on calories, you have to be far more efficient. If you only get one small meal a day you need to get as much nutrition as you can in the smallest serving possible. If more calories were available, like with most modern diets globally, this wouldn’t be a problem at all.
Truth: Modern High Calorie Diets Get Enough Nutrition (Usually)
If you don’t have trouble getting 2000 calories a day you likely don’t have to worry about getting enough amino acids. It would be really hard to have a high calorie diet that’s completely devoid or protein. Sure you could get all your calories from empty nutritional sources like candy or soda, but if you’re eating any real food at all you’re probably getting what you need.
Even eating just bread, albeit a lot of it, can get you all the protein you need in a day. If you eat whole grain or seeded bread you’ll get all your amino acids in even quicker.
It is appealing to think about nutrition as having weird simple rules, especially when they support a belief we’ve been raised with, but myths like this are harmful in many ways. An incomplete understanding of nutritional requirements can lead to both poor health choices and push people away from healthier option that they may easily have access to.
Self Sufficient Living and Complete Proteins
The biggest challenge that self sufficient homesteads have is not getting enough nutrition, but instead getting enough calories. It is hard to grow enough food to eat 2000 calories a day on a small plot without some time and energy investments, but it’s not impossible. The myth of incomplete protein sources makes people think they have to plant very specific combinations of foods to get by and makes an already high bar even harder to reach.
In reality if you focus on calories from a broad source of crops self sufficient living is possible and complete nutritional intake is easier than you think. Even if you only eat one type of food for most of the year, if you get the calories you need you’re almost certainly getting enough protein. Sure you’ll have more or less of certain amino acids, but you will definitely have enough.
On top of this point, most people are not eating just one food. Growing and storing a wide variety of crops throughout the year is what yields the best results for people aiming to be self sufficient. Growing multiple crops prevents devastation from pests or unforeseen weather and helps secure more calories even in the face of adversity. If you eat a varied diet AND get at least 2000 calories a day, you are almost guaranteed to have your protein sources covered.
This does not account for everything, such as micro nutrients and essential vitamins, but those do often get covered in a varied diet as well (but you should check that you are getting them).
Fight Food Myths
Myths like these are pervasive. They’re simple, they sound believable at face value, and they tend to support partisan beliefs in opinionated stances. It’s only natural that people would fall for them and not waster their time looking deeper into things. Now you know the truth, or at least know you should look into the science on complete proteins a little more. With that knowledge you can take a stance against these kind of nutrition myths and help raise awareness of their pervasive presence. Anything we can do to help show people that self sufficient living doesn’t have to be any harder than it already is is a step in the right direction.