Lean beef has only one more gram of saturated fat than a skinless chicken breast. Lean beef is also an excellent source of zinc, iron, and vitamin B12.
Protein on the Go
Grab a meal replacement drink, cereal bar, or energy bar. Check the label to be sure the product contains at least six grams of protein, and is low in sugar and fat.
You probably know you need to eat protein, but what is it? Many foods contain protein (say: pro-teen), but the best sources are beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes like black beans and lentils. Protein builds up, maintains, and replaces the tissues in your body. (Not the tissues you blow your nose in! We mean the stuff your body's made up of.) Your muscles, your organs, and your immune system are made up mostly of protein.
Food Guide Pyramid Button Image
Your body uses the protein you eat to make lots of specialized protein molecules that have specific jobs. For instance, your body uses protein to make hemoglobin (say: hee-muh-glow-bin), the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen to every part of your body. Other proteins are used to build cardiac muscle. What's that? Your heart! In fact, whether you're running or just hanging out, protein is doing important work like moving your legs, moving your lungs, and protecting you from disease.
All About Amino Acids
When you eat foods that contain protein, the digestive juices in your stomach and intestine go to work. They break down the protein in food into basic units, called amino acids (say uh-mee-no a-sids). The amino acids then can be reused to make the proteins your body needs to maintain muscles, bones, blood, and body organs.
Proteins are sometimes described as long necklaces with differently shaped beads. Each bead is a small amino acid. These amino acids can join together to make thousands of different proteins. Scientists have found many different amino acids in protein, but 22 of them are very important to human health.
Of those 22 amino acids, your body can make 13 of them without you ever thinking about it. Your body can't make the other nine amino acids, but you can get them by eating protein-rich foods. They are called essential amino acids because it's essential that you get them from the foods you eat.
Different Kinds of Protein
Protein from animal sources, such as meat and milk, is called complete, because it contains all nine of the essential amino acids. Most vegetable protein is considered incomplete because it lacks one or more of the essential amino acids. This can be a concern for someone who doesn't eat meat or milk products. But people who eat a vegetarian diet can still get all their essential amino acids by eating a wide variety of protein-rich vegetable foods.
For instance, you can't get all the amino acids you need from peanuts alone, but if you have peanut butter on whole-grain bread you're set. Likewise, red beans won't give you everything you need, but red beans and rice will do the trick. The good news is that you don't have to eat all the essential amino acids in every meal. As long as you have a variety of protein sources throughout the day, your body will grab what it needs from each meal.
How Much Is Enough?
You can figure out how much protein you need if you know how much you weigh. Each day, kids need to eat about 0.5 grams of protein for every pound (0.5 kilograms) they weigh. That's a gram for every 2 pounds (1 kilogram) you weigh. Your protein needs will grow as you get bigger, but then they will level off when you reach adult size. Adults, for instance, need about 60 grams per day.
To figure out your protein needs, multiply your weight in pounds times 0.5 or you can just take your weight and divide by 2. For instance, a 70-pound (or 32-kilogram) kid should have about 35 grams of protein every day. If you only know your weight in kilograms, you need about 1 gram of protein each day for every kilogram you weigh.
You can look at a food label to find out how many protein grams are in a serving. But if you're eating a balanced diet, you don't need to keep track of it. It's pretty easy to get enough protein. Here's an example of how a kid might get about 35 grams of protein in a day:
* 2 tablespoons (15 milliliters) peanut butter (7 grams protein)
* 1 cup (240 milliliters) low-fat milk (8 grams protein)
* 1 ounce (30 grams) or two domino-size pieces of cheddar cheese (7 grams protein)
* 1.5 ounces (90 grams) chicken breast (10.5 grams protein)
* ½ cup (80 grams) broccoli (2 grams protein)
Of course, you can choose your own favorite combination of protein-rich foods — now that you're a pro at protein!
Protein
What do you think about when you hear the word protein? Maybe it's an ad for some protein shake that promises massive muscles? Or is it the last high-protein diet craze you read about? With all this talk about protein, you might think Americans were at risk for not eating enough. In fact, most of us eat more protein than we need. Protein is in many foods that we eat on a regular basis.
This section will help you learn more about protein. You'll find information about what foods have protein and what happens when we eat more protein than we need.
Proteins are part of every cell, tissue, and organ in our bodies. These body proteins are constantly being broken down and replaced. The protein in the foods we eat is digested into amino acids that are later used to replace these proteins in our bodies.
Protein is found in the following foods:
* meats, poultry, and fish
* legumes (dry beans and peas)
* tofu
* eggs
* nuts and seeds
* milk and milk products
* grains, some vegetables, and some fruits (provide only small amounts of protein relative to other sources)
As we mentioned, most adults in the United States get more than enough protein to meet their needs. It's rare for someone who is healthy and eating a varied diet to not get enough protein.
What are the types of protein?
Proteins are made up of amino acids. Think of amino acids as the building blocks. There are 20 different amino acids that join together to make all types of protein. Some of these amino acids can't be made by our bodies, so these are known as essential amino acids. It's essential that our diet provide these.
In the diet, protein sources are labeled according to how many of the essential amino acids they provide:
* A complete protein source is one that provides all of the essential amino acids. You may also hear these sources called high quality proteins. Animal-based foods; for example, meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, and cheese are considered complete protein sources.
photo of various foods
* An incomplete protein source is one that is low in one or more of the essential amino acids. Complementary proteins are two or more incomplete protein sources that together provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids.
photo of various foods
For example, rice contains low amounts of certain essential amino acids; however, these same essential amino acids are found in greater amounts in dry beans. Similarly, dry beans contain lower amounts of other essential amino acids that can be found in larger amounts in rice. Together, these two foods can provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids the body needs.
Plant versus animal proteins
In terms of healthy eating, you should aim to eat a diet with a higher proportion of plant proteins than animal ones.
Processed foods
Sausages and burgers may be the obvious culprits, but so are smoked foods which are also high in salt.
Try to keep foods such as smoked bacon and salmon to occasional treats.
* Many animal proteins are high in saturated fat or cooked with a lot of fat (oil, lard, dripping).
* Studies have linked eating a lot of red and processed meat to an increased risk of bowel and stomach cancer.
* Cooking meat, poultry and fish at high temperatures creates chemicals called heterocyclic amines (HAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It's thought HAs and PAHs may increase our risk of cancer, but more research is needed. PAHs are also found in the exhaust fumes and tobacco smoke.
* Plant-based proteins are low in fat and high in fibre, vitamins and minerals.
* Plant proteins contain phytochemicals that contribute towards health and disease prevention. For example, isoflavones found in soya beans have antioxidant properties, thought to be important in the prevention of cancer.
How much do I need?
Energy and protein
* 1g carbohydrate: 3.75 calories.
* 1g protein: 4 calories.
* 1g fat: 9 calories.
* 1g alcohol: 7 calories.
Current advice says protein only has to make up 10 to 15 per cent of your daily diet to meet your body's needs. That's around 55g for men and 45g for women.
Most of us eat more than this, and the British Nutrition Foundation puts the average adult intake at 88g for men and 64g for women.
* Around two thirds of the protein we eat is from animal sources.
* We get a quarter of our protein from cereal products (wheat, bread, oats).
* Nuts and pulses make up most of the final twelfth.
How much protein do foods contain?
Below are some examples of foods, so you can compare protein content. You can also check nutrition labels to find out how much protein something contains.
* One skinless chicken breast (130g): 41g protein.
* One small fillet steak (200g): 52g protein.
* One beef burger or pork sausage: 8g protein.
* One portion of poached skinless cod fillet (150g): 32g protein.
* Half a can of tuna: 19g protein.
* One portion of cheese (50g): 12g protein.
* One medium egg: 6g protein.
* 150ml glass of milk: 5g protein.
* One tablespoon of boiled red lentils (40g): 3g protein.
* One portion of tofu (125g): 15g protein.
* One slice medium wholemeal bread: 4g protein.
* One slice medium white bread: 3g protein.
Tips for healthy living
* Include oily fish in your diet at least twice a week.
* Try using soya products such as veggie mince and tofu. They will take up the flavour of the dish if you add them to stews and sauces.
* Snack on seeds and unsalted nuts. Try sunflower, pumpkin or sesame seeds and brazils, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds.
* Look at using pulses as an alternative source of protein. They include chickpeas, a wide range of lentils, split peas and a vast range of beans from the black-eyed to the broad, butter and kidney.
* Have one vegetarian meal each week.
You don't need to banish meat from your diet altogether.
1. Use lean cuts of meat and poultry.
2. Trim off any fat, eg the skin on chicken breasts and the rind on bacon.
3. Choose smaller portions.
4. Reduce the frequency of meat-based meals.
5. Pay particular attention to how you cook meat.
Temperature is the most important factor in the production of heterocyclic amines (HAs).
* Frying, chargrilling, and barbequing produce the largest amounts of HAs when the cooking temperature is increased from 200°C to 250°C.
* Oven roasting and baking use lower temperatures, and so produce lower levels of HAs.