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.)

Comments

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

argh, I remember when I stopped eating meat, I was counting everything! but in France it's so easy to eat cheese all the time, I didn't have any problem finding the proteins...

you might want to check for the iron (?) - I know that I lacked some at a point (I'm not sure it's the right name for it... you know, the thing you get from red meat and spinach...)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep, iron is right. Luckily I take a vitamin, so I should be okay with that.

Various responses

[tersa.livejournal.com]

You have 3-4 cups of milk in cereal? That's almost a quart of milk!

An ounce of nuts isn't much, really. Weigh them out. You'd be surprised. :) It's about a palmful, depending on how you measure it. Most people would probably error on way more than an ounce.

Eating more cheese/milk is both good and bad. Good, because there's a lot of calcium. Bad, because most cheese and 2% milk still has a lot of fat. Also, as someone reminded me recently, the milk & cheese may be contributing to your congestion problems at night, as it promotes phlegm production.

I wonder what soy beans taste like?
Edamame is soy beans. Most Japanese restaurants (and some grocery stores) carry them. They can be served either hot or cold, and the seeds are eaten, popped right out of the pod. I personally prefer them warm and lightly salted.

Yogurt is good (I'm eating some right now, actually :). 1.5% milkfat vanilla yogurt, with fresh raspberries thrown in). As is cottage cheese, again if you head towards the lower fat variety.

I think we outta set you up with the low-carb pasta I found at TJ's, after I have a taste test. Not only is it low-carb, it's made with soy flour, so would have protein in it.

The potato protein is probably in the skin, so make sure you're eating that. And it's full of all the vitamins and fiber.

Tofu is a great option. I'm going to keep hawking that. :)

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

:) All the human nutritionists sing your praises for saying that. ;)

Re: Various responses

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You have 3-4 cups of milk in cereal? That's almost a quart of milk!

Eh, if that's almost a quart, then my guess is probably way off. It's "a lot" of milk, but I don't think it's a quart's worth.

Edamame is soy beans. Most Japanese restaurants (and some grocery stores) carry them. They can be served either hot or cold, and the seeds are eaten, popped right out of the pod. I personally prefer them warm and lightly salted.

That's funny. I was watching some anime last night (the series that I posted the screenshots of the odd opening song), and they were talking about edamame. The Japanese have some term for "trivia" or "trivial knowledge", it's very close to edamame ('etamame', I think), and the literal translation is "bean knowledge". So this one character said something like 'Soy bean are called edamame, and that's etamame!'. So bean knowledge is "bean knowledge".

Back on track... I'm going to look for the soy beans.

I've never tried cottage cheese, and it worries me a little so I'm going to keep putting it off. It looks yucky. :P

...after I have a taste test. Not only is it low-carb, it's made with soy flour, so would have protein in it.

Oh, yes. Please let me know how it comes out!

The potato protein is probably in the skin, so make sure you're eating that. And it's full of all the vitamins and fiber.

Ah, drat. I'm not a big potato fan, but if I was going to eat it, I'd mostly just eat the insides.

[devulgari.livejournal.com]

Edamame taste kind of like walnuts. I love them warm, with salt just on the pods. I wind up eating way more than a serving, but they're pretty good for you, so it's alright.

What you're forgetting is that almost all grains, especially whole grains, have proteins in them. It's not much, but it adds up over a day. It doesn't have to be from an animal or soy to count. Don't worry too much about "combining" proteins, which was a popular idea in the 1960s. Basically, of the essential amino acids that make up proteins we use, different ones are in different foods, but few foods have all of the ones we need. Beans and rice, for example, complement each other to give you the necessary amino acids, but if you ate them at different times of the day that would be alright too.

Iron and B6 are concerns-- a supplement is easy enough. B6 is so important, because a lack of it can lead to depression.

Cliff protein bars were made especially to give you a lift during strenuous activity-- hence the little guy on the cliff. They're high in sugar and fat for that reason. THey're not such a great meal replacer in general, unless your job is extremely high stress. Try Oskari bars-- they're made of sesame seeds, and therefore high in fiber, calcium, iron, and some protein. And way tasty too.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the information!

B6 is so important, because a lack of it can lead to depression.

Wow, I never knew that before!

Oskari bars

Yeah, I'd rather avoid the sugar and fat, so I'll look for these. Thanks! You all have such great information!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I believe B6 is the one vitamin that only occurs naturally in meat, so it must be supplemented.

Just make sure to taking your vitamins religiously! :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep, I do!

And while at lunch, I realized that we were probably talking about different things on the milk issue (3-4 cups of it being a quart). I was thinking the measuring cups-type cups, I bet you meant cups as in "glasses of milk"?

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Four 1-cup measuring cups worth of milk is one quart. It doesn't look like much when in those individual little cups, but it does add up. I'd guess you're probably thinking more like a pint? How often do you go through a quart or half gallon of milk?

Making a reply to a lot of stuff at once, I usually see edamame in the frozen food section at expensive and/or health food supermarkets. You should definately be able to find some at Trader Joe's. BUT, I'd suggest getting an order of them at a Japanese restaurant first because I HATE them and you might be stuck with a large bag of something unpleasant. Not that the things I hate will necessarily be things that you hate. *g*

Tofu's definitely a good source of protein. Some Amy's frozen meals have a good amount of protein in them and are good when you don't want to cook. And all Amy's stuff is vegetarian (at least, I've never seen anything with meat in it.)

Low fat cheese is good to wean yourself onto if you can't get past eating too much cheese. You can also switch to skim milk (I grew up hating milk, but the first time I had skim and not whole I was all amazed that milk could taste good.)

Also... canned tuna, the solid white albacore kind. I love it with some mayo stirred in. Maybe some lettuce and tomato Or just plain, though it gets a bit dry then. Yum-O! *is hungry*

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Also... canned tuna, the solid white albacore kind. I love it with some mayo stirred in. Maybe some lettuce and tomato Or just plain, though it gets a bit dry then.

And that was me, completely forgetting about the vegetarianism. *sigh*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That made me giggle. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

On the milk, we get gallon containers at work, so I just slosh on a lot. At home I hardly ever use it, and alas it tends to go solid. :P

Hee! Good idea on the edamame. I hate having big bags of stuff left in my (little) freezer.

I thought about low fat cheese, too. I just need to finish up what I have (or wait for it to grow mold), then I can get new.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Nope, I meant measuring cup cups. 1 quart = 2 pints = 4 cups = 32 liquid oz.

I would be genuinely surprised if you used more than 1 liquid cup (8 oz., 1/2 pint), maybe 1 1/2 c., of milk on your cereal.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I can't believe it, but there really are four cups in a quart! Cups are just little things and a quart is a big container. Sheesh. So yeah, maybe more like a cup, maybe a little more...

[niqui.livejournal.com]

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

look for genisoy bars -- they're cheaper than the atkins protein bars, have a decent amount of protein as i recall, and are pretty tasty.

but my favorite protein boost is to get a low-carb shake mix, and throw in a scoop of soy powder per shake. the shake has like 18-22 grams of protein in a serving, and the protein powder adds about that much again (and, assuming you use enough water (double it at first, then adjust it to however thick you like your shakes) and then blend it or shake the living crap out of your shaker, it improves the texture of the shake, i think, makes it more milkshakey). if you get vanilla shake mix, you can add flavor extracts or cocoa powder to turn it into whatever flavor you like, without having to buy all the different flavors of shake.

and, i second edamame! steamed with just a little salt. sooo tasty.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Mmm, sounds good! Thank you!