Out of all the questions I get. The one that I receive the most is, “How do you get your protein?” First of all I want to say that I am not a vegetarian. I do eat some meat. Not very often, but I will. My taste for it has all but diminished. Where I live, we have bonfires often and I do like a good sausage over the fire. There is a popular misconception that the only way to get protein is by eating meat. This is not true.
What is Protein?
Without getting to technical, protein is one of the basic building blocks of our body. It constitutes about 16% of our total body weight. Our muscle, hair, skin, and connective tissue are mostly made or protein. Proteins are made up of smaller units called amino acids. There are 22 amino acids important to human nutrition. Nine of these are essential amino acids, meaning the body cannot make them. Instead they need to be provided in the diet. The body can produce the other 13. The role of protein in food is not to provide our bodies with proteins directly, but to supply the amino acids from which the body can make its own proteins. When we eat a diet that supplies each essential amino acid in adequate amounts, our body supports protein synthesis. For a more complex discussion on protein, Go Here
How much protein do we need?
There is a calculation based off a person’s sex, weight, and calories that are consumed, but we are going to keep this simple. The RDA recommends .36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh. So for a 170 pound man, you would multiply 170 x .36 or about 61 grams of protein a day.
Did I get my protein yesterday?
The following is what I ate yesterday.
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Table 1: Sample Menus Showing How Easy It Is To Meet Protein Needs
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Protein (grams)
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Breakfast: 6am
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1 whole grain bagel with Almond butter
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11
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1 cup freshly juiced veggies (included, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, one cucumber and a teaspoon of ground flax seed
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9
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2nd Breakfast 9am
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1 cup Oatmeal with raisins
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6
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Snack 11am
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¼ cup Almonds
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8
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Lunch: 1pm
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2 cups of Spinach salad with 1 cup of broccoli, ¼ cup of chic peas, ¼ cup of peas, ½ cup mung bean sprouts, with a lemon/ olive oil dressing
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21
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Snack 3pm
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1 large apple
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1
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Dinner: 6pm
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1 Veggie burger on whole grain bread
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11
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1 cup cooked Brown Rice
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5
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Snack: 8pm
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2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
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8
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6 Whole Wheat Crackers
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2
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1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
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4
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TOTAL
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86 grams
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Let’s see how I did. I weigh 180 pounds. So that would be 180 x .36 = 64.8 grams of protein. Well, look at that. I actually went over my recommended limit. Since I do workout and lift weights, my protein need will be slightly higher.
Good quality protein
I know what you are thinking now. “Sure there is protein in vegetables, but it is a low quality protein”. When I hear someone tell me this, my first question to them is what is the difference? Most have no idea what this means. They just heard it and repeat what they hear. I am guessing the meat producers are feeding this statement. Well, guess what? It is true…. Sort of. It is only part of the story. Eggs, cow's milk, meat, and fish are high quality protein. This means that they have large amounts of all the essential amino acids. Soybeans, quinoa (a grain), and spinach also are considered high quality protein. Other protein sources of non-animal origin usually have all of the essential amino acids, but the amounts of one or two of these amino acids may be low. For example, grains are lower in lysine (an essential amino acid) and legumes are lower in methionine (another essential amino acid) than those protein sources designated as high quality protein.
What about protein combining
The “incomplete protein” myth was inadvertently promoted in the 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe. In it, the author stated that plant foods do not contain all the essential amino acids, so in order to be a healthy vegetarian, you needed to eat a combination of certain plant foods in order to get all of the essential amino acids. It was called the theory of “protein complementing.”
Frances Moore Lappe certainly meant no harm, and her mistake was somewhat understandable. She was not a nutritionist, physiologist, or medical doctor. She was a sociologist trying to end world hunger. She realized that there was a lot of waste in converting vegetable protein into animal protein, and she calculated that if people just ate the plant protein, many more people could be fed. In a later edition of her book (1991), she retracted her statement and basically said that in trying to end one myth—the unsolvable inevitability of world hunger, she created a second one—the myth of the need for “protein complementing.”
In these later editions, she corrects her earlier mistake and clearly states that all plant foods typically consumed as sources of protein contain all the essential amino acids, and that humans are virtually certain of getting enough protein from plant sources if they consume sufficient calories.
What happens if we get to little or too much?
Here are some symptoms of protein deficiency:
- Edema – A collection of fluid under the skin, which most commonly affects the legs, feet, and ankles, but can occur anywhere on the body.
- Weight loss
- Thinning or brittle hair, hair loss
- Ridges or deep lines in finger and toe nails
- Skin becomes very light, burns easily in the sun
- Reduced pigmentation in the hair on scalp and body
- Skin rashes, dryness, flakiness
- General weakness and lethargy
- Muscle soreness and weakness, cramps
- Slowness in healing wounds, cuts, scrapes, and bruises
- Bedsores and other skin ulcers
- Difficulty sleeping
- Headache
- Nausea and stomach pain
- Fainting
The risks of too little protein are as follows:
- Gallstones
- Arthritis
- Heart problems
- Muscle deterioration
- Organ failure
- Death
Good Sources of Protein
| FOOD |
AMOUNT |
PROTEIN(gm) |
| Fish, salmon, sockeye, cooked, dry heat |
1/2 fillet |
42 |
| Tempeh |
1 Cup |
41 |
| Soybeans, mature cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
28 |
| Couscous, dry |
1 Cup |
22 |
| Lentils, cooked |
1 Cup |
18 |
| Wheat flour, whole-grain |
1 Cup |
16 |
| Peas, split, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
16 |
| Oat bran, raw |
1 Cup |
16 |
| Black beans, cooked |
1 Cup |
15 |
| Beans, kidney, red, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
15 |
| Beans, pinto, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
15 |
| Beans, navy, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
14 |
| Lima beans, large, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
14 |
| Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
14 |
| Beans, baked, canned, plain or vegetarian |
1 Cup |
12 |
| Tofu, firm |
4 Ounces |
11 |
| Quinoa, cooked |
1 Cup |
9 |
| Peas, cooked |
1/2 Cup |
9 |
| Almonds |
1/4 cup |
8 |
| Soymilk, original and vanilla, unfortified |
1 Cup |
8 |
| Spinach, frozen, chopped or leaf, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
8 |
| Seeds, sunflower seed kernels, dry roasted, with salt added |
1/4 Cup |
6 |
| Broccoli, frozen, chopped, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
6 |
| Brussels sprouts, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
6 |
| Quaker Oats |
1/2 Cup |
5 |
| Turnip greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
5 |
| Whole wheat bread |
2 Slices |
5 |
| Asparagus, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
5 |
| Brown rice, cooked |
1 Cup |
5 |
| Raisins, seedless |
1 Cup |
4 |
| Sweet potato |
1 Cup |
4 |
| Okra, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
4 |
| Kale, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
4 |
| Squash, winter, butternut, frozen, cooked, boiled, without salt |
1 Cup |
3 |
| Mushrooms, canned, drained solids |
1 Cup |
3 |
| Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt |
1 Cup |
3 |
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