The Powers of Protein

Today’s blog post is going to focus on protein. I’ve seen a lot on social media recently about protein and eating higher protein meals appears to be trending, so let’s talk about protein from a dietitian’s perspective. 

Protein is a macronutrient that provides our bodies with energy, or calories. Protein is needed in many functions throughout our bodies including building muscle and connective tissues, creating enzymes and hormones, and for creating antibodies to help fight off infections and illnesses. 

The main building blocks of protein are called amino acids. Different protein foods may contain different amino acids. Our bodies may be able to create certain amino acids from some of the amino acids we consume, however, there are some amino acids that we cannot create. These are called essential amino acids, and this means we have to get these amino acids from the foods that we eat. We want to aim for a variety of protein foods throughout the day as different protein foods will provide our bodies with different amino acids and different vitamins and minerals. For example, some of our animal products like steak or chicken breast, will also contain iron, whereas some of our plant based proteins like chickpeas will also contain fibre. 

Foods that contain protein include foods such as chicken, beef, pork, fish, eggs, milk and other milk products such as yogurt, soy products such as tofu or edamame, chickpeas, beans, and lentils, and nuts and seeds. 

Some of the foods that we eat are called “complete proteins” and “incomplete proteins”. A complete protein has all 9 essential amino acids, and incomplete protein does not contain all 9 essential amino acids. Complete protein sources include animal products such as poultry, beef, fish, pork, and soy products like tofu. Incomplete protein sources are foods such as lentils, chickpeas, peanut butter, almonds, and quinoa. Some combinations of foods can create complete proteins if one of the foods contains the amino acids the other ones might not contain. For example, eating rice and beans at one meal will provide a complete protein source. 

Eating an adequate amount of protein is important for overall functioning, however, it is possible to eat too much protein in the day. Eating too much protein for long periods of time can be hard on the kidneys and could cause more calcium to be excreted in urine, which could increase a person’s risk for developing kidney stones. 

Now you may be wondering how much protein you should eat in the day. The current recommendations are to have around 10-35% of your total daily energy coming from protein. For someone having 2000 calories per day, this would be roughly 200-700 calories from protein daily. There are 4 calories per gram of protein so this would equal 50-175g of protein per day. 

Here’s an example of what this could look like:

Breakfast: 1 cup cooked oatmeal (7g), 1 medium apple, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp almond butter (3.5g), cinnamon, 1 cup milk or soy milk (8g) 

Lunch: Turkey Sandwich with 2 slices whole grain bread (7g), 5 slices turkey deli meat (15g), lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, mayonnaise, 1 medium pear, ¾ cup yogurt (9g), 1 granola bar (2g) 

Supper: 1 cup cooked pasta (7g), ½ cup tomato pasta sauce, 4 meatballs (11g), ½ cup garden salad with 1 tbsp salad dressing, ½ cup ice cream (2.5g)

Snack: 1 cup blueberries, ¼ cup trail mix (5g) 

This gives us a total of 77g of protein in this example, which would fall into the recommended amounts of protein from above.

If you’re looking into how you can incorporate protein into your day or looking for more individualized guidance from a registered dietitian book an appointment with me here.