Fact versus fiction, science versus myth.... As I prepared to post today, I had the intention to write a bit about beans.  This is because yesterday I wrote about grains, and in all my learning, they go hand in hand.  This is due to the fact that beans are generally richer sources of the essential acid lysine and grains relatively higher in the essential acid methionine (when all plant based foods are considered), and the essential amino acids are named accordingly because they are all essential to our general functioning.  

Recently, when mentioning to someone that it is important to make sure we eat a variety of beans and grains each day, another person commented that there is protein in everything.  And the idea that plant proteins are incomplete is a myth.  Now this is both true and untrue.  It is true that all plants contain all of the essential amino acids, so therefore they are not technically incomplete. However, some plants have just trace amounts of a particular amino acid, while it may be plentiful in others.  

If we have a lot of one amino acid and not much of the other/s, our bodies can and will only absorb from the pool of the greater available amino acid in proportion to that it was able to get of the lesser.  This is because different proteins that our bodies synthesize require different building blocks, so if there is only a bit of something needed, our bodies will only make what it can based on its "ingredient list" as compared it "ingredient" availability, very similarly to, if for example, you were baking chocolate chip cookies.  Even if you have 3 bags of chocolate chips, if there is only 1 cup of flour, you can only make a tiny batch of cookies!

So most of today's focus has become to explain why beans and grains, and eating a variety of plant foods, from all categories (beans, grains, dark green and other vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts) is important. We learned that essential amino acids occur in  varying proportions to one another, in each food or food category. So including some  from each category, each day, assures us that when our body goes to draw from our amino acid pool, to build new cells, hormones, and all the other internal structures that require amino acids / protein, we will have the necessary ingredient/s.

But out of all this comes the question, and the second part of the focus..... How do we separate fact from fiction, an authority from someone who is just "repeating what they heard from a 'credible source'?" ....

My daughter, if she were home, would likely tell me, at this point in the blog,  once again, "Mommy, it is too long, I am starting to fall asleep..."  So I must end for today and say "Are you interested in the answer to this question?  If so, tune back tomorrow, same time same place..."