Protein

[thistlechaser]

Just some "thinking out loud" and figures on protein. Cut so it'll be more easily skipped by the uninterested.



Since I have some time today, I sat down and did some research. As far as I can tell, an adult non-athletic woman needs about 50g of protein a day.

One cup of 2% milk = 9.1 grams (2% is what we have here at work, and so what I most often drink)

Mozzarella cheese = 5.5g/ounce (much of my cheese intake comes from pizza)

Yogurt (lowfat) = 10/cup (I don't eat yogurt now, but I don't have issues with it and could easily include it in my life.)

Cliff protein bars = 10 grams as well (I thought they'd have more.)

So at the moment, I'm somewhat to very under what I need. On mornings I have cereal (say four times a week), I have 3-4 cups of milk with it, so that's good. On days I don't have cereal, I'm in bad shape.

(Dairy Council of CA for most of my dairy figures.)

Soy:
Soy milk has little protein (6.6g/cup), tofu more (19.8/half-cup), and plain old (boiled) soy beans themselves 14.31/half-cup. I wonder what soy beans taste like?

Nuts:
Peanuts: 7g/ounce
Cashews: 7g/ounce
(Seems like an ounce of nuts would be a lot though...)

Huh. A baked potato has 9g. That's not so bad.

So I guess I should try to eat cheese on a daily base, maybe. I wanted to eat less of it to keep fat/calories down, but I guess I can cut those in other places. Perhaps I'll start having pizza for lunch more often! Yay! (I could live on pizza.)

(This is so complex! So many things to balance. I can totally understand how this could be a college major, tersa.)