Rice, beans, and the "myth" of protein combining

Food chemist here. You are spot on. The point of protein combining is just to keep meals small, or rather, not grotesquely big. 15 pounds of cabbage a day will yield enough protein, but the cost to society would be dreadful.

Always love the research-based Monday videos! Would you consider doing a "WTF is freezer burn" video? What changes, chemically? Is it unsafe or just unpleasant? Would love your take on it!

I’m a senior and growing up my family came from impoverished regions of KY and TN. A very frequent meal was pinto beans and cornbread. The beans were seasoned with bits of pork. In summer we’d have greens, fresh tomatoes, corn and green onions. My grandmother canned lots of veggies and I remember when she got a freezer and we could save berries and peaches! We’d work at something all day. My grandmother still did her laundry in a machine with a ringer into a rinse tub then hang out to dry. My most unfavorite job was to strip tobacco. Yuck. Anyhoo we all were healthy, could do hard work and were strong. When i married my husband (from a wealthy family) he was/ is always amazed at how much i could/can lift and carry! Even as an old lady I’m still pretty strong!

when he mentioned how not enough lysine can make you tired and moody I googled "foods with lysine" to make sure I was getting enough. They were all foods I eat regularly, so I guess I'm just tired and moody

Grains and legumes are also complementary for soil fertility, because the roots of the legumes support symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria which replenish the nitrates depleted by cereal crops. There are other ways to close the nitrogen cycle, such as seasonal flooding or the terraced aquaponic rice paddies associated with China, but for civilizations based on "dry" farming of cereal grains, crop rotation with legumes was the predominant way of maintaining soil fertility. Hence why these civilizations all featured staple meals combining grains and legumes.

“Misconception” is probably a better word than “myth”

My husband is on dialysis (ie his kidneys are basically dead) and boy is THAT a restrictive diet. Rice is still great! Beans are 100% forbidden. We have had to work SO hard to learn what he can and can't have over the last 18 months - this kind of thing is exceedingly useful WHEN explained correctly. Which you did a great job on!

Never heard of protein combining before. Just thought most groups around the world found the combination a great pairing and delicious.

Coming from a culture defined by rice and beans, we always ate it due to rice being cheap and beans giving it great flavor. We never really focused on the nutritional aspect of it. As a side note, in my country rice would be consider the main dish and meat the side. Again, due to price.

Something that fascinated me in my Nutritional Anthropology class was Nixtamalization, or the process Mesoamericans used to soak maize in limewater before cooking. Maize by itself had some amino acids that aren't totally bioavailable, but by soaking in an alkaline solution, bonds were broken so that they were bioavailable to us.

For weight loss, my gf was put on a ’rice and bean’ combo by her dietitian, exactly for the reasons you said in the end regarding workout. It wasn’t a magical combo, but rather a way to be sure that she was satiated enough to do her workout, not exceed how many calories she burns, and also just keeping her nutritional intake well balanced. And it worked well for her! It took time, but the slow race is also how you stick with a new lifestyle with minimal risk of relapse.

People always talk about overbearing vegetarians or vegans. But can we please talk more about how weird some people get about meat? Some of these comments read like a slab of meat was holding the person hostage at gunpoint

Adam's background in journalism really shines through when it comes to heavily researched topics such as this. And his down-to-earth home cook approach makes it easily understandable to everyday folks like myself who want to understand foods better, but maybe don't have the time to do all the research themselves. Big thanks for making your valuable work available for free, Adam!

As someone who has worked in a bunch of kitchens your “protein” part was interesting. “Protein” has almost become a slang term in kitchens for the main focus of a dish. We used to refer to sliced eggplant as the “protein” in a sandwich and if someone ordered it without the ticket would print “no protein”. I remember one time we were running a special and the focus of the dish was fried avocado slices. Somebody requested roasted beets instead and the waitress came back and said “for the protein, swap avo for roast beet” and nobody batted an eye despite neither of those being particularly protein rich foods.

I'm vegetarian, have celiac, and am a chemical engineer, so this is basically my ideal nerd-out topic. Get nutrients in your body in generally the right amounts over a day or two and it's fine! Doesn't need to be super-carefully timed. But legume + grain is still delicious and filling.

Never knew I wanted to watch Keanu Reeves peacefully talking about food😅

And yet, I will still continue eating "complete protien" meals, because channa masala on rice or arros rojo and refried beans are just tasty combinations.

Grains and legumes? All I'm hearing is that beans on toast is part of a complete breakfast

one of the reasons i absolutely love this channel and adam's journalism is not just because of how researched, comprehensive, and nuanced his videos are, but also because of the well-intentioned debate and scientific discussion that i can always find in the comments. every time i watch a scientific video like this one i know that i can find a wealth of additional information in the comments to either support adam's claims, provide further context, or good faith arguments against some of his points. really awesome that he has fostered such a great community!

As a child i lived in a poor family and me and my 2 brothers basically ate just rice but at the same time we were the healthiest kids in school and won most sport competitions. Yeah food was boring but this was clearly not a problem for out health.