Protein is the first thing that new vegans are concerned about and the last thing they should be concerned about. All plant foods—except for fruits and fats—supply protein. Beans are the richest sources, but vegans get protein from nuts, grains and vegetables, too.

The building blocks of protein are amino acids. Humans can manufacture most of the amino acids they need. But there are nine—called the essential amino acids—that must come from food. All plant proteins contain all nine of these essential amino acids. Some foods are a little short on certain amino acids, but when vegans eat a variety of foods—beans, grains and other sources of protein—they get a good supply of all the essential amino acids.

Misunderstandings about plant proteins

At one time—several decades ago—nutritionists believed that vegans had to eat certain combinations of food at each meal in order to get enough of all the right amino acids. Newer research on protein shows that this isn’t true. As long as vegans meet their calorie needs and eat a variety of foods throughout the day, protein needs are easily met.

The quality of plant protein was also misunderstood for a long time due to early research in rats. It turns out that rats don’t grow very well on certain plant proteins because they have different amino acid needs than humans. For years, researchers underestimated the quality of plant proteins because of poor growth in rats–when those same proteins support human growth and health very well.

Vegan protein needs

Government recommendations for protein are based on the assumption that people eat both plant and animal foods. They aren’t designed for vegans. Because plant proteins are not quite as well digested as those from animals, most nutritionists agree that vegan protein needs are about 10 percent higher than omnivore requirements.

Women on low-calorie diets can also have higher protein needs. Vegan women who are watching their weight may need to add a few additional servings of protein-rich plant foods to their meals.

To estimate your protein needs, multiply your body weight (in pounds) by 0.4. Using this calculation, a person weighing 130 pounds would need about 52 grams of protein, and someone weighing 160 pounds would need 64 grams. You can see from the list below that meeting those needs isn’t difficult for vegans.

Grams of protein in plant foods

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