Being a bad parent and all, it is only now after 20 years of being a vegetarian that I have become really interested in nutrients and deficiencies and the like. Until recently I had figured that other than the obvious B12 thing that we were probably getting all the nutrients we needed.
This all changed when one of my sons went to see a naturopath who advised that he start drinking protein shakes to help cure what ails him. Of course, as the chief cook and bottle washer I was some what offended that my culinary offerings were not up to snuff on the protein front and so I began reading.
What follows is what I have learned, all wrapped up in 1 million words or less.
What is Protein?
Proteins are considered to be the building blocks of your body. They are necessary for the proper development of muscle, tendons and organs, including healthy skin. Proteins are made up of amino acids (I’m having nightmares of grade 10 biology right now). These amino acids form chains that are proteins. There are 20 different amino acids, 9 of which cannot be created by the body and therefore must be consumed. This then is the basis for the whole discussion. These 9 “essential” amino acids that we have to get from our food, are they problematic or not?
What do we need?
By all accounts, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is .8 g / kg of body weight for a sedentary adult and 1.2 – 1.7 g / kg of body weight for an active adult. To give some perspective to this, consider that if you are a 75 kg adult (165 lbs) you would need 60 – 112 g of protein in your diet per day. All that sounds great, but what does it really mean?
Current wisdom tells us that there is no muscle building advantage nor disadvantage to having more than the recommended daily amount of protein. For vegetarians the tricky part is getting complete proteins. Many plant based proteins contain some but not all of the 9 essential amino acids that we need to stay healthy. For this reason we need to combine our sources of protein in order to make up these complete proteins. Typically this means combining a legume with a whole grain. A great example is beans and rice. This staple is awesome because by combining the amino acids available in beans with those found in rice, we get a great tasting meal packed with complete proteins (20 g in 2 cups). This point is significant because a 3 oz. serving of chicken has 21 g making beans and rice a real alternative to North America’s favourite meal.
Translate into Real World:
I had a look at my situation in order to get a sense of the implications of my new found knowledge. At 90 kg, I figure 100 g of protein per day ought to be adequate. 72 g would be a minimum, and I consider myself to be fairly active.
Being conscious of the vegetarian, carbohydrate trap, I might typically have two eggs or yogurt with blueberries for breakfast. This would contain 16 – 18 g of protein. Lunch might be a sandwich of a Dave’s Killer bread, Tofurky and Cheese, for another 25 g. A dinner containing red lentils and quinoa will add another 25 g of protein to the total. So a quick and dirty look at the day adds up to 66 g of protein out of the 100 g needed. Hmmm maybe there is a problem here!
In looking at the protein content of foods that we might typically use in a vegetarian recipe, namely… vegetables, few really have any impact. Peppers and onions have virtually no proteins and so while they taste great, they aren’t adding any tissue building goodness to our day, adding maybe 2 g of protein to a meal. Let’s say we’re now at 70 g now because that’s a nice number to work with. This then leaves us 30 g of protein short for the day.
Top it Up
Don’t despair though. there are lots of vegetables that pack a bit of a protein punch beyond the obvious. Corn (4.7 g / cup), spinach (5.3 g / cup) and squash (5.1 g / cup) are all high protein vegetables that are easy to add to a meal. Add a bed of spinach to our red lentils and quinoa and we’re up to 75 g by dinner’s end. With just 25 g to go to reach our target it looks like this might be possible after all.
In researching which vegetarian friendly snack foods were packed with the most protein, it all came down to nuts and seeds. This is where it seems that we need to make up the difference between a typical veg meal and the magic number of grams of protein that we strive to get each day. Based on a quarter cup serving, foods like pumpkin seeds (8.5 g), pistachios (5.9 g) and peanuts (6 g) are the perfect vehicle to reach our desired protein intake. Just three small handfuls of pumpkin seeds will get us where we need to go and then some.
The List
Here is a quick list of foods that have a decent amount of protein in them. If you can keep these on hand and in the rotation it seems pretty likely that you will be able to get all the protein you need in your daily diet.
| Yellow Split Peas – 21 g / 1/4 cup dry Chickpeas – 14.5 g / 1/2 cup dry Red Lentils – 17.8 g / cup dry Quinoa – 8 g / cup cooked Soy (tofu) – 20 g / cup * Peas – 7.9 g / cup Spinach – 5.3 g / cup Squash – 5.1 g / cup Avocado – 4 g / fruit |
Pumpkin seeds – 8.5 g / 28 g Peanuts – 6 g / 28 g Peanut Butter – 8 g / 2 tbs. Pistachios – 5.9 g / 28 g Sunflower Seeds – 5.5 g / 28 g Cheddar Cheese – 7 g / 28 g Cashews – 4.3 g / 28 g Eggs – 6 g / Egg Greek Yoghurt – 20 g / cup |
* Tofu is a complete protein and the firmer the tofu the better.