Protein is an essential nutrient for our body. It is needed by almost all vital organs of our body including muscles, skin, hair and our internal organs. Protein remains in our body and keeps travelling inside in the form of hormones, RBCs and enzymes. The only food source in our diet which captures nitrogen is protein. The antibodies in our body are made up of protein and they help in fighting with diseases. Growing children need protein for growth. It helps our bodies in healing and getting fit. Hence, the importance of protein in our daily diet cannot be underestimated. The question is how to get protein in right quantity to meet our daily needs. There are abundant sources of protein and if we plan our diet well, we can meet our daily protein requirements. On an average, our body required one gram of protein for each pound of body. The easiest way to achieve this is to eat food containing proper protein. Read the steps given below to find out how to get protein.
Complexity Level: Moderate
Resources required:
1. Tofu
2. Cottage cheese
3. Whole grains
4. Beans, legumes and lentils
5. Seeds and nuts
6. Soy products
Instructions:
1: Eat Cottage cheese:
On an average, a person needs about 70 gms of protein each day. Foods like cottage cheese are very high in protein content. One cup of cottage cheese has 28 gms of protein. You can take one serving of cottage cheese either in breakfast or lunch and can add vegetables to make it tastier and more nutritious.
2: Add more tofu in your diet:
Tofu is packed with high protein. In a cup of tofu you get 20 gms of protein, so add tofu in your diet in various ways. Tofu has no flavor of its own, so you can add it in a creative way and pack yourself with high quality protein.
3: Whole grains:
Whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, barley, whole grain bread etc. contain a lot of protein. Quinoa is very rich in protein as it has all the essential amino acids. From one cup of cooked quinoa, you get 18 gms of protein. So include more and more of whole grains, especially quinoa in your diet.
4: Beans, Legumes and Lentils:
All beans, lentils and peas are an excellent source of protein, so eat them as much as you like. Black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, split pea soup and chickpea hummus – pick any one of them and watch the protein grams add up. One cup of cooked kidney beans contains about 13.4 grams of protein. Though Soya is also a bean and it is so high in protein and it is so popular that it needs special mention.
5: Soy Products:
Apart from tofu, you can eat many other things like soy ice cream, soy yogurt, soy nut, soy cheese etc. As an icing on the cake, many brands of tofu and soymilk are fortified with other nutrients. So add them in your diet and get enough protein.
6: Seeds and Nuts:
All the nuts and seeds like cashew nuts, pine nuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, flex seeds, peanuts, seasme seeds, sunflower seeds contain protein. You can eat a handful of nuts as a mid day snack and can feel full instantly because of high protein content.
Frequently asked questions:
What are amino acids? How are they connected with protein?
Amino acids are basically building blocks of proteins. There are 20 kinds of amino acids which synthesize protein. The shape of each food is determined by the sequence of amino acids in it. Out of 20 amino acids, our body can’t make 8 amino acids which we need to recover from the food we eat. Different foods are rich in different amino acids, hence various kinds of protein rich foods must be eaten to get adequate quantity of all amino acids.
Quick Tips:
Protein rich foods like nuts, legumes, seeds make excellent snacks also. Even if you are a working person, you can carry them with yourself to your workplace and can eat them as snacks to avoid bingeing.
Things to watch out for:
Soya is high in protein but it must be eaten in moderate quantities only because soy has phytoestrogens which are weak substitute of human hormones and can affect our health adversely.