Can You Really Get Enough Protein From Plants?
This article pulls a few practical takeaways from a recent live Starch Solution Community call with Tiffany Hobson and special guest Carra Richling, RDN. Carra is a registered dietitian and lifestyle medicine specialist who has worked in plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine for more than 30 years. The full conversation happened inside the Community, where members could ask questions and go deeper with Carra and the McDougall team.
“Where do you get your protein?”
It may be one of the most predictable questions people hear when they start eating a whole-food, starch-based diet. Behind it is an assumption that plant foods either do not contain enough protein or that the protein they provide somehow does not measure up.
During the call, Carra started by explaining what protein actually is.
Whether you eat steak, beans or quinoa, your body breaks protein down into amino acids, then uses those building blocks to make the proteins it needs for muscles, tissues, hormones, enzymes and other functions.
Whole grains, beans, lentils, vegetables and fruit all contain protein. Some contain more than others and their amino acid profiles vary, but Carra’s message was clear: we can get the protein we need from plants.
She offered a comparison that helps put that into perspective. One cup of lentils contains about 18 grams of protein, while a three-ounce steak contains about 21 grams.
But that led to what may have been the most useful takeaway from the entire conversation.
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The better question is what comes with your protein
Carra asked members to imagine two packages arriving at the front door. One is labeled plant protein and the other animal protein.
Open the plant package and you find foods like quinoa, broccoli, lentils and beans. They provide amino acids, but they also come with fiber, vitamins, minerals and naturally occurring plant compounds.
The animal-protein package contains protein too, but it also brings things like cholesterol and saturated fat.
That changes the protein conversation.
Instead of looking at a food and asking only, “How many grams of protein does this have?”, it may be more useful to ask, “What else am I getting along with that protein?”
Protein does not arrive by itself when we eat real food. The source matters because the rest of the package comes with it.
You probably don’t need as much protein as you’ve been told
Another idea Carra hears frequently is that people should eat one gram of protein for every pound they weigh.
For the average healthy adult, that is significantly higher than the standard recommendation she discussed on the call. The recommended daily allowance is about 0.8 grams per kilogram of ideal body weight, or roughly 0.36 grams per pound.
Protein needs can increase somewhat with age, activity level and resistance training, so there is not one number that fits everyone. But the increasingly common idea that everyone needs a gram per pound is not the starting point Carra recommends.
That can take some pressure off. You do not necessarily need to turn every meal into a protein project or add extra protein to foods that were already nourishing you well.
More protein alone won’t build muscle
Concern about protein often increases as people get older, especially when the goal is maintaining muscle.
Carra emphasized that adequate protein matters, but simply eating more protein does not build muscle on its own. Resistance training provides the stimulus. Protein then helps the body repair and rebuild the muscle fibers that have been challenged.
So if preserving strength as you age is the goal, increasing protein while ignoring resistance exercise misses an important part of the equation.
You may not need to count protein at all
One Community member asked how to know whether she was getting enough protein without going back to weighing food and tracking macros.
Carra’s response was practical: most people do not need to spend their day counting protein grams.
Instead, think in terms of food. A cup of beans provides about 16 grams of protein, lentils about 18 and tofu about 18. Whole grains and starches contribute too, as do the vegetables and fruit you eat throughout the day.
Regularly eating beans or lentils, whole grains, starches, vegetables and fruit allows those contributions to add up across the day.
For most people following a varied whole-food, starch-based diet and eating enough overall, getting adequate protein may be much simpler than the protein marketing around us makes it seem.
Try This This Week
For a few days, stop looking at your meals through the lens of “How can I add more protein?”
Instead, look at the foods already on your plate.
Are you eating enough overall? Are you regularly including beans, lentils or whole grains? Are starches still providing the satisfying foundation of your meals? And when you choose a protein source, ask what else comes packaged with it.
That one question may be more useful than chasing a bigger number on a nutrition label.
Want to Ask the Next Question Live?
An article can answer the general question. Real life usually brings the follow-ups.
What if you are over 65? What if you lift weights several times a week? What if you are losing muscle? What if you are eating a McDougall diet but still worry you are not getting enough?
Those were exactly the kinds of questions members were able to bring directly to Carra during this call.
If you already understand the basics of the McDougall Program but need more support applying them, the Starch Solution Community can be a natural next step. Members join live calls every week with the McDougall team and guest experts, ask their own questions and go deeper into the issues that come up as they put this way of eating into practice.
If you want more than information and would benefit from ongoing support, conversation and a place to get your questions answered, you can learn more about the Community below.
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