More and more of my blog readers are looking for alternatives to meat and fish, or even all animal proteins.

And who, when I talked about the dangers of soy ( here and here ), they asked me what they could eat instead of tofu and other soy products  as protein foods.

The speech of proteins is undoubtedly important, even if overrated.
Many carbohydrate-based foods also contain proteins, and a person who wants to choose a vegetarian or even vegan diet can create very tasty recipes from legumes, leaving the various tofu and various veg croquettes that are so fashionable on the supermarket shelves, but they are not too good for your health.

The reason is simple.
Tofu, soy milk and other soy products are not the equivalents of the good fermented soy-based foods that Orientals have been consuming for a very long time (but which children do not consume until a certain age).

Instead, they are refined products, which come from a depleted soybean and not adequately treated because it does not contain antinutrients, nor treated to reduce the effect of isoflavones.

Fermentation, an ancient practice that few people still know here in Italy, makes soy harmless and more nutritious.

Instead, we eat “modern” and untreated soy products.
The risk is that eating them all day will only hurt you. Now, no problem if we eat tofu every now and then, but if we start with soy milk in the morning, during the day we eat soy yogurt or soy ice cream and baked goods that contain soy lecithin, and if we end up with tofu or soy croquettes, well… we could risk having serious problems with our thyroid, for example.

So, what to eat, apart from whole grains, pseudocereals and legumes, to guarantee us good resources of vegetable proteins?

Here are six plant-based protein alternatives

1. Mozzarella, dairy products and rice milk : you can find them organic. Choose brown rice (brown rice mozzarella, brown rice milk): a great alternative to tofu. Alternatively, there are hard or spreadable cheeses made with cornmeal and starch (rice or corn), for example jeezano cheese.
2. Lupine salami: lupins are legumes with fantastic nutritional properties, and lupine salami, which you can always find in bio, is also very tasty.
3. Wheat muscle: obtained from wheat gluten and a legume, usually lentils. Obviously it contains gluten, like lupine salami. I’m talking about it here.
4. Wheat germ pasta : costs three or four times the normal price, but it is more protein and nutritious because it is made with wheat germ, the most precious part of the seed.
5. Wheat germ: the taste is slightly bitter, but it is a versatile and very protein food. We can use it to make OUR vegan croquettes, putting it in place of breadcrumbs, for example, after having pureed spinach, zucchini or eggplant. Add a few tablespoons of wheat germ, flavorings to taste and a tablespoon of flax seeds. We form croquettes and voila, straight into the oven.
6. Mopur meat:  similar to wheat muscle, made with gluten and legumes (chickpeas).