Tired of Animal Protein (Even Though You Know You Should Eat It)? - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

Alyssa: Hello, and welcome back to our weekly mini episode of Dishing Up Nutrition, “Ask a Nutritionist”. I'm Alyssa Krejci, a Registered Dietitian here with Nutritional Weight & Wellness. If you have ever thought to yourself, I know I should be eating more protein, but I cannot stand chewing meat at each meal, this episode is for you.

Today we'll discuss how you can get in the right amount of protein for you in a way that you enjoy. We will briefly walk through why eating enough daily protein, and in particular animal sources of protein matters; how much daily protein is enough, what challenges come from relying on mostly plant protein; how to eat enough daily protein if you are sick of meat, and how to make eating animal protein foods enjoyable.

Why is protein so important?

So first, why is protein worth all this effort in the first place? In short protein is what makes up all the tissues in our body. Protein supports bones, tendons, muscle tissue, ligaments, skin, hair, and nails. It is an important component to your overall health and feeling good in your day-to-day life.

For adults eating enough high quality protein rich foods is vital to help protect lean body mass, preventing the loss of muscle and strength associated with aging. Adults who eat higher protein diets, about 30% coming from protein, tend to feel more satisfied, which may help prevent overeating and support maintaining and or achieving a healthy body weight. When you plan and prepare a meal or order a meal out to eat, start with asking yourself, where is the protein?

Why are animal proteins optimal?

Now, why emphasize animal protein foods in particular? All proteins are made up of amino acids. You must obtain nine of the 21 amino acids from food because your human body is unable to make them on its own. They are known as essential amino acids. Animal protein foods contain all nine essential amino acids in adequate quantities, useful to the human body.

They're high quality complete proteins. Most plant foods, apart from a small handful of complete protein plant foods, including soy, pistachios, hemp, and chia seeds, quinoa, teff, buckwheat, and nutritional yeast are incomplete proteins.

Incomplete protein foods do not contain all nine essential amino acids in the ideal amounts for the human body. Protein does not only need to come from animal protein foods. Also true gram for gram animal protein foods are the most efficient way we have to get the right amount of amino acid building blocks your human body needs to thrive.

How much protein is optimal?

Let's move on to discuss the big question you may be thinking: how much protein should I eat? One blanket protein recommendation does not fit all. Your specific ideal protein needs as an adult depend on multiple factors. Most adults benefit from consuming somewhere between 0.54 and 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.

This amount of daily protein helps to prevent sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength. Sarcopenia is a key risk factor for falls. If you have significant body fat weight loss goals, we will often use a reference weight or your goal weight to estimate your daily protein needs.

Let's do some math for an example. Let's take a 150 pound adult aiming for 0.82 grams per pound body weight per day. They'll end up aiming for around 123 grams of protein per day. What does 123 grams of protein really mean? In the nutrition world, grams of protein refers to the number of grams of the macronutrient protein, not the number of grams of a protein containing food like beef or chicken.

A four-ounce serving of cooked beef tenderloin steak, for instance, weighs about 112 grams. But it only contains about 34 grams of the protein macronutrient. One ounce or 28 grams of animal protein containing food provides about seven grams of the macronutrient protein, following the range of 0.54 to 0.9 grams protein per pound per day.

Women often do best eating around three to four ounces of cooked animal protein at meals, or a total somewhere between 21 to 30 grams of protein, plus around two ounces or about 14 grams of protein at a snack, which lands somewhere between 11 to 14 ounces per day, about 80 to 105 grams of the macronutrient protein.

Men often do best with five to six ounces of cooked animal protein at meals, or 35 to 42 grams of protein plus two to three ounces, or 14-21 grams of protein with a snack. This lands somewhere around 17 to 20 ounces per day, about 128 to 140 grams of the macronutrient protein. Think of these numbers as targets to experiment with and check in with yourself regarding how you feel. Most of my clients find that once they hit these daily protein ranges, they feel more satisfied after meals, experience fewer cravings and notice stronger energy throughout the day.

Challenges when relying on mostly plant protein

Now let's discuss what challenges come from relying on mostly plant protein. You can quickly achieve eating somewhere between 20 to 40 grams of the macronutrient protein by eating a three to six ounce portion of cooked lean chicken or beef.

However, you may enjoy eating plant protein foods like beans, nuts, grains, more than meat, and you may want to lean on those for most or all of your protein. Focusing only on protein from plant foods can present some challenges, depending on your goals and overall energy needs. The plants that contain complete protein again include soy, like edamame or tofu, pistachios, hemp and chia seeds, quinoa, teff, amaranth, buckwheat, and nutritional yeast.

All these plant foods contain a mix of macronutrients. They contain protein, carbohydrates, and fat. The amount of energy coming from each macronutrient varies with each food. Take pistachios, for example; to get about 25 grams of a protein from pistachios alone, you need to eat about four ounces or one cup of pistachios.

And while that does sound tasty, that amount also comes with over 50 grams of fat, which may be way more fat than the amount you might want for one meal. For around the same number of calories or energy you can enjoy a four ounce cooked portion of steak tenderloin, two cups, or about six ounces of steamed broccoli, and a four ounce baked potato with a tablespoon of olive oil. Way more variety and more nutrients amongst those foods.

Grains are another example. Quinoa provides complete plant protein. You need to eat over four servings of cooked quinoa, about three cups or 19 ounces to obtain about 25 grams of protein. The same amount you can get from that three and a half ounce-ish portion of cooked lean beef.

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The sizable portion of quinoa provides your body with over 650 calories and includes over 100 grams of carbohydrates, while lean beef provides about 170 calories for protein and fat and no carbohydrates. While plant foods do contribute protein, a balanced diet that covers all your protein and energy needs, usually relies on a mix of foods with meat, fish, dairy, and eggs doing most of the heavy lifting and the plant proteins kind of filling things in around the edges.

The takeaway: if you're wanting to hit between 80 to 140 grams of protein per day, only from plant food sources, you'll most likely end up needing larger portions of higher carb or higher fat foods; large bowls of grains, generous amounts of nuts. For people with higher daily caloric energy needs, it can work.

For many adults, however, those portions can quickly throw off blood sugar balance, and lead to weight gain. Still do enjoy a variety of plant foods every day. Depending on your overall goals and energy needs, you may not want to rely solely on them as your only primary source of daily protein.

Consider combining animal protein + plant protein to meet protein needs

Okay. How can you eat enough daily protein? If you are honestly sick of eating meat, I want to recommend you consider protein stacking as a simple strategy to meet protein needs without only eating meat or needing to eat large meat portions at each meal. Have a combination of animal protein foods and plant protein foods at your meals that total up to your daily protein goals.

Plant foods also add a nice source of fiber to your meals, along with the textures and flavors. Protein stacking can provide a nice balance of nutrients, flavor and texture variety. A protein stacking example for breakfast that does not include chewing meat, it may include making a version of our Noats Seedmeal recipe from our website for breakfast.

The recipe combines plant protein sources from seeds like hemp hearts, chia seeds, ground flax with a milk. I generally use a lactose free ultra filtered milk that has a bit more protein per cup, and will add about three quarters of a cup of berries and somewhere between a quarter to one third of a cup of cooked grain.

For something different than just your general oats, try amaranth or buckwheat. It's a meat free meal providing over 20 grams of protein per serving and nine grams of fiber. An example: lunch is the recipe for our Mediterranean quinoa salad from our website weightandwellness.com. It's a nourishing bowl that includes plant protein from the quinoa along with the shredded chicken for animal protein.

If you dislike quinoa, again, consider trying one of those other alternative grains like the buckwheat groats or teff. For more plant protein in the recipe, replace one to two ounces of the chicken in your bowl with maybe a half a cup of chickpeas or lentils. A meal like this stacks the protein from chicken, quinoa, and chickpeas, and provides a total of around 35 grams of protein.

It's a mix of both worlds. These are good examples of this mindset shift where we want to practice instead of thinking, the only way is to eat more meat. Think more variety of protein sources at meals. Protein stack. Include both animal proteins and plant proteins. Besides protein at meals, include a source of protein in your snack.

Then it's not just eating copious amounts of meat or protein foods only at your meals. Snacks are like a little mini meal. They do not need to be complicated. A snack with protein could be a cup of leftover soup. Protein could be from beans, lentils, ground meat, and/or bone broth. A snack, again, is a mini meal.

Any of your meals can be split into smaller portions and count as a snack. A smoothie or yogurt parfait with fruit can be reduced from a meal size portion to a snack size portion. A snack could also be a couple hardboiled eggs, maybe some mini cucumbers and your favorite fruit. A plant protein for a snack could be a quarter cup of pistachios or dry roasted edamame paired with one to two clementines or a medium orange.

Tips on making animal protein foods more enjoyable

Last, let's cover a few ways to make eating animal protein foods more enjoyable for you. You may not enjoy seeing a large cut of meat or poultry on your plate. It can feel overwhelming. Try changing up the format. Instead of plating whole chicken breast, try shredding or dicing it into smaller pieces before plating it at a meal.

Small pieces of diced chicken mixed in with your carbohydrate foods like potatoes, quinoa, rice, and your vegetables can be easier to chew and visually look less daunting. Also consider the cooking method. You may prefer soft, slow cooked meat or air fried versus baked. Dairy protein foods like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, whey protein isolate powder, along with eggs, still count as animal protein foods just as much as that grilled chicken breast.

More meat-free protein ideas

Dairy proteins, if you tolerate them, are a great and easy way to enjoy high quality protein. If you're lactose intolerant like me, try lactose-free or lower lactose dairy options. Traditional straight Greek yogurt is lower in lactose and easier to digest. It's also possible to find lactose-free Greek yogurt. If you enjoy more sweet flavors at breakfast, try that parfait bowl with whole or 2% milk, Greek yogurt paired with fruit, nuts, and or seeds. It's high protein, tasty, balanced, and quick.

For a savory combo, try those two hard boiled eggs or scramble them and have half to three quarters of a cup of cottage cheese, lactose free if needed. Plus, add a generous pinch of dill. Pair the crunchy vegetables like mini cucumbers, carrots, and mini bell peppers with your favorite fruit on the side. Adding the herbs to the cottage cheese, they help switch up the flavor and add some variety. It's important to flavor your food.

Use what you like: spices, marinades, sauces that you enjoy. Your food does not have to taste blah and boring and as much as possible when you are adding in the flavors, be mindful the amount of added sugar.

Consider cooking protein in batches

Cooking protein in batches at least once a week can also make having the protein at meals easier, more accessible. I recommend you store your prepared meat in the fridge for three to five days or freezer for up to three months, so you always have options ready to heat and eat.

Protein powder: a shortcut protein idea

Even with all those ideas, sometimes you need a shortcut. This is where those protein powders can fit in the mix and help you move the needle from falling short on your daily protein goals to consistently rocking them. Whey protein is the gold standard because it contains all nine essential amino acids in an ideal ratio for your human body, especially leucine, which supports muscle building.

For those who don't tolerate whey or maybe just dislike whey protein powder, consider trying a plant-based blend that contains all nine essential amino acids or a grass fed beef based paleo protein powder. Protein shakes can be a great way when life gets busy, you still get the protein just in a more sippable format.

On a similar note, you may wonder about collagen powder or sipping bone broth for protein boost. Yes, these do contain protein. One cup of bone broth will give you somewhere between eight to 10 grams of protein. It is important to remember that the collagen is considered an incomplete protein. It does not contain all nine of those essential amino acids, so maybe not have collagen as your only protein source, but including it for a protein boost at meals can be a great way to meet those goals.

Wrap-up

To wrap up, protein stacking provides a solution to more easily meet your protein needs. You can stack a variety of protein sources together at meals. It doesn't always have to just be for one protein source. It's still wonderful to include animal protein foods. You can enjoy smaller portions of those animal protein foods by stacking them in with some plant protein food sources.

Instead of attempting to overhaul all your meals overnight, start by picking one meal: breakfast. Use protein stacking to boost the protein there. That may look like going from a 5.3 ounce Greek yogurt cup to the Greek yogurt, plus adding two tablespoons of hemp seeds and a tablespoon of chia seeds. Once that feels normal, move on to your lunch and then dinner.

Thank you for listening today. If you have recommendations for a topic to be covered on Dishing Up Nutrition, reach out to us through our Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook group, or email us at email@weightandwellness.com. Until next time, have a wonderful day.

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