Protein still coming around with a vegan diet?

I know ... Vegan. Big step right? How much protein am I getting if I don't eat meat? How about calcium without dairy? and all the other things I won't be getting ?!

Well surprise surprise! I'm actually fine! 

I'm still learning of course but I think I've got a small grasp on things. I'm not going to explain everything but I will link some awesome articles that do that :) I just don't feel like an expert enough yet to be able to tell you all that needs to be said.

Let's start off with protein.

Most people ask if vegans and even vegetarians get enough protein. Well, yeah. I think I do.
Our society is based on a high protein intake, but we don't need as much protein as we think. I found a neat calculation showing this:

How much protein do we need? The RDA recommends that we take in 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram that we weigh (or about 0.36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh) ¹. This recommendation includes a generous safety factor for most people. When we make a few adjustments to account for some plant proteins being digested somewhat differently from animal proteins and for the amino acid mix in some plant proteins, we arrive at a level of 0.9 gram of protein per kilogram body weight (0.41 grams per pound). If we do a few calculations we see that the protein recommendation for vegans amounts to close to 10% of calories coming from protein. [For example, a vegan male weighing 174 pounds could have a calorie requirement of 2,600 calories. His protein needs are calculated as 174 pounds x 0.41 g/pound = 71 grams of protein. 71 grams of protein x 4 calories/gram of protein = 284 calories from protein. 284 divided by 2,600 calories = 10.9% of calories from protein.] If we look at what vegans are eating, we find that, typically, between 10-12% of calories come from protein ³. This contrasts with the protein intake of non-vegetarians, which is close to 14-18% of calories.

This is taken from this awesome website: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.php

On the other hand it seems like animal protein is considered to be more complete because of the fact it contains the necessary amino acids we need to break protein down... Vegans and vegetarians just have to be a little extra careful with how we eat our protein. That's all!

Also, and this is my personal opinion. It makes total sense that animal protein has the extra amino acids needed to be digested because animals already digested vegetable proteins and we are just eating predigested and transformed vegetable proteins... 

Here's a neat simple and fast explanation of it all :  http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/questions/animal-or-vegetable-the-truth-about-protein


Here are pictures of meat and legumes (great source of protein for vegetarian vegan people)