Complete vs Incomplete Protein

A few days ago I was talking to a brilliant neurosurgeon (this man is very intelligent and I would totally trust him with my brain) and we were discussing my running and my hip/glute injury. As we were talking, he told me that part of my problem (the slow healing of my leg) could be because of my vegetarian diet. He thinks that because I'm not eating meat that my leg muscles can't repair themselves as well as they could if I ate animal protein. He based this off of the idea that the body needs and wants animal protein to heal. At first I shrugged his comments off but I have to admit that the comment stuck in my head. Here I am days later still struggling with the comment.

"Am I hurting myself?", "Should I start eating chicken again? That isn't as bad as red meat and what harm could it do" And I'll only eat it every once and awhile and isn't running way more important to you." As these thoughts ran through my head there was another side of me struggling with the idea of eating meat again. I don't want to eat meat. I stopped eating it not only for my health but also because I believe its wrong to mass produce meat and I hate the way animals are being treated.

So I began conducting some research and I've found that a vegetarian diet can supply quality protein as well. Instead of just eating chicken and getting your protein a dinner of beans and rice is just as good and the heart benefits are numerable. Yes, it requires a little more thought and planning but its worth the work. Most research says that Americans eat way too much protein thinking they need it and that all that nice protein is helping their muscles be nice and strong but that's not true. All that extra protein is just turned into fat and it's causing a high protein and low carb/vegetable diet which is far from healthy not to mention the environmental problems it's causing.

This subject is something that really means a lot to me. I grew up on a farm where we raised cows that we sent to be slaughtered and I hated it. I still hate it to this day. As proud as I was (and still am) I could never be a part of it with my family. I would love to hear your comments and thoughts but I'm off to track practice. But let me know what you think.