william wrote:
> I spent some time trying to convince someone (probably vegetarian) that
> there are NO proteins in zuccini, beans etc., that they are in fact rich
> in amino acids which are components of proteins.
> 
> Was I wrong? Do beans really have muscles?

You were wrong.  And... 

a) proteins are not only for muscles, but...

b) in a sense beans (and all plants) do have muscles... they can move, 
after all (just watch a time-lapse movie of a bean plant climbing!)

Proteins are the complex organic molecules that do the work in all living
things.  Enzymes, for example, are proteins.  Other proteins are the 
various cellular "motors" that pump fluids, generate movement, transfer
nutrients from one place to another, etc.  Yet others are structural... 
even though in plants the major structures are fibrous (i.e. cellulose and
other polysachharides) the cell walls of plants contain enough of a certain
specific type of protein (extensin) that this type is therefor considered 
to be amongst the "most abundant proteins on planet earth".

Finally, consider this... living things are created by DNA, right?  But
immediately DNA only has one function: it contains the instructions for
making specific proteins.  And only proteins.  So anything that's not
protein in a living organism has to be somehow made by proteins.

:-j