Clean Protein: A Revolution for Your Body and Our Planet by Kathy Freston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had just read a book that was all about how protein is important for our diets and we should be eating more of it. Yet it didn’t discuss how vegetarians are supposed to meet this goal. Then I came across “Clean Protein” in my library and thought that this would be a great resource, since the cleanest proteins are plant-based.
I was sadly disappointed in this book. The first half of the book is about how terrible the meat and dairy industries are. This felt like it was “Food, Inc.” 2.0 and didn’t really share any information I didn’t already know. When it finally came to discussing plant-based proteins, there big “reveal” was that as long as you’re eating the recommended amounts of calories, you’re getting enough protein. This is what really disappointed me. Not that I disagree, but don’t make me wait half-way through a book for such a simplistic thesis. The rest of the book doesn’t go into a lot of detail but sticks to mostly talking about how plants are good for you and how to stay away from unhealthy proteins.
In the end I didn’t like this book not because I disagreed with their arguments, but because it most mostly theoretical and not a lot of practical advice. It basically showed me that we don’t know what to do with protein in our food culture. On one hand we have “eat all of the proteins” and on the hand we have “you’re already getting enough protein, don’t worry about it”. If you aren’t already eating plant-based proteins than this may be a good read. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, than there’s better books out there.
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