Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Getting an adequate amount of TOTAL protein grams on a whole food plant based diet is easy but misleading when it comes to strength and size. You might be able to suck down enough grass to accomplish the proper amount of protein grams. On the other hand if you're into maximum strength and size there is a bigger problem. I know of only two other vegans who are into strength and they both supplement with vegan protein powder. As someone who is interested in strength and size the focus has to be on one particular amino acid and that's lysine. Plants outside of beans are short on lysine. Work your diet to get enough lysine and the rest of the amino acids will take care of themselves. There are many successful strength guys that are vegetarian because milk builds size and strength like nothing else except for steroids. I'm not sure if it's the casein (it isn’t the whey) in the milk that builds the muscle or whether it's the hormones given the cows that produce the milk that does the trick.