From: young@sasquatch.serum.kodak.com (Rich Young (x37176))
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: Re: De-muffining
Date: 7 Apr 92 20:12:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: ssd.1992Apr7.201202.20900
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company

>In article <6APR199219133556@cc.weber.edu> JTAN@cc.weber.edu writes:
>
>[first part of article deleted]
>
>>	I have switched to eating a lot of rice now,
>>but someone told me that I should eat meat or beans
>>with it:  does anyone know why?

From __The Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter__, Vol. 10, No. 1,
March 1992, an excerpt which may help to illuminate:

	(In response to question asked by reader about incomplete protein
	consumption on a vegetarian diet.)

	"A: Certainly it is true that the proteins in plant foods are not
	as complete as the proteins in animal foods, meaning they cannot
	perform as well on their own to aid in tissue growth, create enzymes,
	and do all the other things protein does to keep us healthy.  The
	reason is that, unlike most animal proteins, proteins that come from
	important plant foods such as corn, wheat, and rice are missing or
	contain inadequate amounts of various protein building blocks, or
	amino acids.  Rice, for instance, is low in the amino acids lysine
	and threonine, and beans do not have the most desirable amount of
	the amino acid methionine.  Together, however, each supplies what's
	missing from the other.  And, not surprisingly, the further apart
	the two foods are eaten, the more diminished their combined protein
	'power' will be."

	"But as for whether they need to be eaten at exactly the same time
	for the desired effect, the data have been somewhat contradictory.
	In one of the more recent experiments on the subject, scientists fed
	protein from rice and protein from mung beans to different groups
	of weanling rats.  The rats who were fed just rice protein or just
	mung bean protein did not grow well, as was to be expected.  But
	those who were fed rice and bean protein as many as five hours apart
	grew just as well as those who were given rice and bean protein
	simultaneously.  The researchers concede they have no 'tangible'
	data for whether the same would be true in humans, but they believe
	some preliminary evidence indicates that perhaps it would be."
	
	"Fortunately, the question is very much an academic rather than a
	practical one.  One reason is that in the United States, where most
	people consume an excess of many different kinds of protein from
	many different foods, complementarity is less likely to be a concern
	than in countries where protein intake is marginal.  Second, few
	people eat single protein sources at one time.  Even small meals
	and many snacks tend to include more than one type of protein-
	containing food.  And those foods often end up in the 'right'
	combinations without any forethought.  In fact, vegetarians who
	pay no attention to whether or not they take in complementary
	proteins at the same time will probably end up eating them together
	as a matter of course.  Rice and beans, peanut butter and jelly
	sandwiches, bean-based soups with a piece of bread -- all of these
	and many more dishes people prepare without consideration for
	protein requirements automatically fit the guidelines for making
	complete proteins."

	[Remainder of article deleted...article posted without permission]

-Rich (young@serum.kodak.com)

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