this is a summary of prevailing wisdom on proteins in a vegan diet, with an exception to include an amino acid "L-Carnitine" because i am on depakote, specifically divalproex 2500mg (/500mg ER tabs) daily.
most say that for a regular, 3000 cal, omniverous diet you need about .36g protein per pound of body weight. in application, 54g protein for a 150lb person. the same person on a vegetarian diet needs about .45g/1lb; which amounts to 68g for a 150lb person.
now when my girlfriend and friends went vegan however-many-months back, i skimmed the reading materials and did decently well until about the four week mark. getting used to the constraints was one thing, and i may have been winding down in my will anyway. however, i ran into a physical wall. i became fatigued, and physically ill at the drop of a hat and it had been going on for awhile into the diet and wasnt going away. but i knew i wasnt having problems getting enough, or a sufficiently varied array, of protein.
Carnitine: molecule of the month!what i came to find out was that the illness was to to having a specific amino acid deficiency, L-Carnitine, which was a direct result of combining a vegan diet with depakote. so to all the vegans who are epileptic/bipolar and on mood stabilizers like valproic acid, be mindful if you are perpetually vomiting and tired as your blood may be clogging with ammonia waste from cells (the result of the deficiency).
(aside from being basically unheard of,) the thing with L-Carnitine is that it really isnt listed as the essential amino acids because the minor amount included in your diet and produced by your body is basically enough for the majority of people. (TMYK: the definition of "non-essential" amino acids is one produced by your body, so i guess i used the word 'essential' ambiguously, but double-effectively).
now, as is the FDAs wont, there are no specific caps on the amount of soy protein (or any other food with a well-endowed subsidy and agro-fiefdom behind it, but i digress) that you should allow into the recommended diet of "varied sources of protein." however, the following clip is recited ad nauseum at the soy beans PAC: “25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
so, lets stay strict for the sake of creating flexibility and take that to mean you need 43g of other proteins (68g@150/lb - 25g soy protein), and you need to get some L-Carnitine in there too, but obviously not from fat and bone. So, for those of you who want to get the most bang for your soy buck with the Carnies, go for Tempeh. In just half a cup (100g) you get 19.5 mg L-Carnitine, and 15g protein. Fortunately we can also derive some from avocados and peanuts and bread. Now, if you decide to go the supplement route, they get expensive. Heres one on the cheap without any additives (+/- ?) at £6.95 ($10ish?) / 100g. heres a list of not on the cheap with additives (the particular additive i searched for was CoQ, which supposedly aids in absorption and activation) at google shopping.
as for me myself, if i get serious about trying veganinity again, i think i am going to get most of my soy protein from tempeh because a) its the bomb and b) it gets my my carnies AND c) its got some of the b12ies that get stripped from my diet by my meds. im going to eat more avocados because theyre rad. i already eat lots of peanut butter. maybe were going to start drinking almond milk? anyway. i have no position on whether you should take a supplement, much less whether you should go for in the raw or with CoQ. i am skeptical of them and only take b-complex and drink tons of oj (when im being good). i saw that vitamin C and B6 are pretty intertwined in the carnie process so you should probably be on a +C and +B-complex regimen, too (hell if youre an omniverous bipolar/epileptic you should be on it anyway because you are more than 80% likely to suffer from depression and both help with that!).
and a final, unqualitative note for people with these anti-seizure / mood stabilizer meds; "[In the treatment of valproate toxicity] L-carnitine supplementation ...is thought to provide benefit, particularly in patients with concomitant hyperammonemia, encephalopathy, and/or hepatotoxicity." this is not a highly substantiated claim, and is one open to further blah blah. additionally, you should know by now that anything you do chemically can have a profound impact on your level. so yeah normal people have to "check with their docs before taking supps" yada, but you really need to. you know your brain doctor matters more than your gen/pdoc. so make sure she/he knows what youre doing. also, while youre there, get a blood test to find out where your ammonia level is next time you get your blood drawn. a very good summary can be found on supplementation here.
for more links:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/carnitine/Carnitine.htm
http://www.vegan-supplement-checklist.com/2008/10/l-carnitine.html
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/carnitine-l-000291.htm (#)
(round up:) http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/articles/protein-veg-diet.php
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/819315-treatment (#)
(#) = same source?
10:23AM in 
