Dietary protein comes from many plant and animal sources, including meat, fish, seeds, nuts, beans and even vegetables. The difference between animal and vegetable proteins is that animal proteins are most often complete, meaning they have all nine amino acids necessary to make proteins within your body. Vegetable proteins tend to lack one or more of these amino acids. You can find those missing amino acids in other vegetable sources, however, and eating different foods to complete the set of amino acids within a 24-hour span gives your body what it needs to produce the internal proteins, according to Columbia University Health Services.
Step 1
Eat lean meat or poultry to get approximately 21 g of complete protein per 3 oz.-serving.
Step 2
Choose fish over meats several times per week to avoid saturated fats and to take in natural healthy omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as salmon, herring and trout. Fish also has approximately 21 g of protein per 3 oz.-serving.
Step 3
Eat egg whites rather than whole eggs to avoid cholesterol, which may lead to heart disease. A whole egg has 6 g of protein, while the white only has 3 g, but the reduction in cholesterol may be worth the loss of protein, depending on your starting cholesterol level.
Step 4
Combine beans with rice and vegetables to complete your protein source. Eating 1/2 cup each of rice, beans and vegetables will give you a combined total of 13 to 14 g of protein and provide all nine essential amino acids. This combination also contains a high amount of dietary fiber, which can make the meal feel more filling, as well as help regulate your colon health.
Step 5
Add nuts or seeds to salads. Many nuts are high in fat, but you do need some amount of fat in your diet, and seeds often have healthy oils. Adding these to salads will help you gain complete proteins by mixing the vegetable sources with the nut or seed protein. Flax seeds and walnuts are good sources of healthy fatty acids, and almonds and sunflower seeds provide vitamin E.
Tips and Warnings
- Calculate your daily protein requirements by multiplying your weight in kilograms by 0.8 to get your recommended grams of protein intake per day.
Things You'll Need
- Lean meat
- Fish
- Eggs
- Beans
- Whole grains
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
References
- Columbia University Health Services: Complete and Incomplete Proteins in Grains and Vegetables
- USDA: Why Is it Important to Make Lean or Low-Fat Choices From the Meat and Beans Group?
- Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes
- Harvard School of Public Health: Protein --- Moving Closer to Center Stage
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