Proceedings: The potential for vegetable proteins in prudent diet foods

A major problem in designing diets of any sort, be they the “prudent diet”, or for reducing weight, or otherwise, is that the participant is faced with many restrictions and few alternatives. But now it is possible, with the aid of modern food science, to fabricate foods with changed nutrient compositions which might make dieting easier. For example, protein foods are generally associated with a high degree of sensory satisfaction; this is true particularly of meats and the like. The problem is that the high degree of sensory satisfaction and the high quality of protein and micronutrient mix brings with it cholesterol and saturated fats, both of which are restricted in the prudent diet. The virtue of vegetable proteins is that it is now possible, because of the methods of texturizing, to fabricate analogs which approach the animal foods in sensory quality, yet contain a nutrient mix that is more satisfactory in terms of caloric intake and the nature and quantity of the lipids.