Robert Rieck Jr.s argument for growing plant foods for humans instead of for livestock would be much more compelling if his June 3 letter to the editor didnt contain a glaring error. He wrote, Plants are the only thing that makes proteins, not animals.
Wow! My body did not make the keratin of my skin, the collagen of my bones and cartilage, the actin and myosin of my muscles, or any of the thousands of other proteins that serve as hormones or receptors or transport channels or signaling molecules?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies and is unique to animals; that is, plants do not make collagen. Our bodies digest the foods we eat into their simplest components, such as amino acids, absorb the amino acids, and then synthesize proteins from those amino acids.
Of the 20 amino acids, nine must come from the diet and these are called essential amino acids. The majority of plant proteins do not contain all nine essential amino acids, which is why one must be well-educated before adopting a plant-based diet.
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Diets more complex than we think | Opinion | kearneyhub.com - Kearney Hub
