Choosing Beans for Their Protein? Think Again!

Wow! I never realized beans were carbs too.

But what about people who are vegetarians, or simply choosing to eat less meat? How should they get their protein?

Sure there's cheese (but that's usually crossed out for being fatty) and soy products (which our bodies don't process as effectively as other foods), but what else is there? I don't want to have to eat nuts if I don't want animal protein.

Chickpeas are about 1:3 protein:Carb ratio, that is really not a bad balance at all for most people who are not body builders or train very intensely. If you train a lot and sustain muscle tissue damage ( which is a normal part of training) you want to probably keep your meals at as much as 30% of your calories coming from protein. You will need a lot of protein to repair the muscle damage. In that case, the carb to protein ratio on chickpeas is a bit high in carbs(if thats all you are eating). Its maybe a bit harder to get enough protein, without consuming too many carbs on a strictly vegetarian diet but it is possible, just google for vegetarian body builders. There are also other foods, like lentils where the protein to Carb ratio is closer to 1:2.
Anyways, chickpeas, with their 1:3 protein:carb ratio are an excellent source of protein for the vast majority of people, without consuming too many carbs, remember everybody needs carbs, and any healthy diet should consist mostly of carbs, just not empty calorie carbs like processed foods and sugars.

Sure, I can see the argument for additional carbs in the beans. But that is a whole lot of chicken! Eat all that and you will be constipated. Not to mention all the hormones/chemicals that will leach into your system as the chicken SLOWLY moves through your intestines. (cause lets face it, no one is eating chicken that roams free in a pasture, eating what nature intended them to eat)

Doesn't this post sort of ignore the fact that 100g of protein is far in excess of what is recommended daily for the vast majority of people (which is around 50-70g), and thus far more than a "couple meals worth of chicken," unless chicken is only being eaten once a day? Also, it seems to ignore that many of our other foods that we eat throughout the day also contain small amounts of protein and that our intake of protein is dispersed throughout the day in multiple meals. The amount of chicken shown above would therefore last 2-3 days easy with a balanced diet (and the amount of chickpeas shown does not seem like a lot to eat if you are spreading them over 3 days and 2-3 meals a day, especially when the type of bean can be varied so that the same vegetable is not being eaten every day). Also, this article seems very misleading, because it says that eating beans for protein would be "at the expense of a ton of excess calories," but completely ignores that many of those "excess calories" are in fact important nutrients that meats do not contain at all. This article seems geared almost entirely to people who are trying to build muscle mass and thus need more daily protein (and it is doubtful that any such people will be trying to do so on a purely vegetarian diet in the first place).

How can people stand to not eat chicken and fish? I just can't bring myself to go vegetarian.

Wow! I never realized beans were carbs too.
But what about people who are vegetarians, or simply choosing to eat less meat? How should they get their protein?
Sure there's cheese (but that's usually crossed out for being fatty) and soy products (which our bodies don't process as effectively as other foods), but what else is there? I don't want to have to eat nuts if I don't want animal protein.
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