Another thing is to combine plant and animal protein. Such as adding some ground beef, stew meat, ground meat, etc. to a pot of beans. As you note use the animal meat as a supplement to the beans, think of it almost like a condiment rather than the main attraction.
You should have to consume more calories than you burn in order to get sufficient plant protein. Are you just going by the nominal protein for each food plant, or are you considering the effect of complementary proteins? Beans and rice have more usable protein than you might think from adding the protein in beans to the amount of protein in rice. Legumes+grains result in more usable protein because they complement each other - Legumes have amino acids grains are deficient in and vice versa. If you’re not familiar with this here is a link to get you started complete with a handy chart for assembling protein. Here is another one which you should also read.
That could be because you are changing your diet too quickly and you need more time to adapt or a slower rate of change.
Also, there are some people who just don’t seem to do as well on a mostly plant diet as some other people do.
You don’t have to go full on vegetarian. Just increase your plant based foods and reduce (but not eliminate) meat. Some meat is healthier than other meat. Fish, for example, can have healthy fats and/or be a lean source of protein but which fish you eat makes a difference.
As long as you can digest it it can be a part of your diet. Don’t overdo it, because it does contain fats, but if you increase the proportion of plant-based foods in your diet that won’t be such a big deal - you do need some fat in your diet.
The potentially beneficial metabolic effects of dairy product consumption, such as milk, yogurt, and cheese, on MetS risk could be explained through their complex nutrient matrix. Calcium, the most concentrated mineral in dairy products, seems to interact with SFAs, forming FA-insoluble soaps, consequently decreasing fat absorption (25), lowering TG concentrations, and improving the HDL- to LDL-cholesterol ratio (26). Moreover, calcium has been related to decreased blood pressure in intervention studies (27, 28). These potentially beneficial effects of decreasing fat accumulation and blood pressure and regulating lipid metabolism have also been related to the milk-derived bioactive peptides modulating satiety and, consequentially, total energy intake, reducing weight gain (27, 29, 30).
Dairy products also contain saturated fats that have been related to increased peripheral HDL-cholesterol plasma concentrations and decreased VLDL cholesterol and remnant chylomicrons (31, 32). Polar lipids (phospholipids and sphingolipids) located in the membrane of dairy fat globules have been suggested to have anti-inflammatory properties, which could partially explain the inverse association with MetS (33). Dairy fat also contains SFAs and MUFAs that could improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic response (34, 35). This modulation of plasma glucose has also been related to probiotic bacteria. Fermented dairy products, such as yogurt and cheese, contain different bacterial strains (36) that may modulate gut microbiota and insulin sensitivity. In fermented milk and cheese, menaquinones seem to exert similar effects (34, 35). Moreover, probiotic bacteria from fermented dairy products could also modulate different inflammation reactions, reducing the abundance of pathogenic bacteria and increasing the production of some metabolites, such as SCFAs, through the fermentation of dietary fiber from fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes (37).
Conclusion: Low total dairy intake or low milk intake frequency might be associated with lower incident dementia risk, however daily cheese consumers seemed to have an increased risk. Our study also suggested a possible inverse dose-response association between yogurt consumption and dementia risk, but further studies are needed to confirm whether this benefit was from yogurt intake itself or as a part of a healthy dietary pattern.
All these years suggesting people switch to low fat dairy…. But precious little good evidence it makes a difference versus regular fat dairy.
Excerpt:
(2025 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
“The most recent evidence indicates that overall, consumption of milk, yogurt and cheese, irrespective of fat content, is neutrally associated with CVD risk. There is also no evidence yet from randomized controlled trials that consumption of regular-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese has different effects on a broad array of cardiometabolic risk factors when compared with consumption of low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese. Thus, the body of evidence does not support differentiation between regular-fat and low-fat dairy foods in dietary guidelines for both adults and children.”
Huh. For me it depends on the yogurt. Regular yogurt has a fair amount of lactose and is … not for me. Greek yogurt and kefir though are no problem and are my most common breakfast (plain with some hemp and chia seeds, some Go Lean cereal, and berries if I got them).
I simply can’t abide the taste of yogurt. It literally makes me gag.
I can handle it mixed into something else, like a sauce or dip, but straight up yogurt smells/tastes like rotting milk to me and I just can’t bring myself to swallow it. A shame, really - people seem to enjoy it so much. My brother-in-law even makes his own yogurt. I’m sure it’s wonderful but being yogurt I can’t swallow it. I’m more or less the same way with sour cream. Haven’t tried kefir - again, the stench of rotting dairy isn’t something I can get past long enough to try a taste.
Yes, yes, I realize for some people that “tang” is part of the wonderful experience. It’s sort of like the cilantro debate between the “it tastes like freshness” and “It tastes like industrial soap” people.
Also lover of fermented foods but tastes do vary! Healthwise though there is little debate: as long as it isn’t packaged with tons of sweeteners and processing fermented foods, included dairy, rock.
I really enjoy some of those, but can’t stand sauerkraut either. It may be that I was raised with some of those and not others, so while bread and most cheeses seem fine to me, despite fermentation, the yogurt, which was never in the house when I was growing up, my brain never learned to accept as food.
We actually DO need protein. It’s dairy that’s optional. Is that what you meant to say?