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Protein Quality and Quantity

Category : Healthy Eating

I’ve been a big advocate of protein over the years and have written plenty of articles about the benefits of protein and how to get more protein into your diet. There’s always more to learn though, so I wanted to share what I recently read in this month’s IDEA Fitness Journal called “Tapping the Power of Protein” by Christopher R. Mohr, PhD, RD. This article emphasizes eating high quality protein at least three times per day.

Here’s what I learned:

Be sure to eat protein throughout the day, but particularly at breakfast.

Americans tend to eat most of their protein later in the day, however we should really be eating in for breakfast. According to Stewart Phillips, PhD and professor at McMaster University, “It’s a good idea to aim for around 20 g of protein if you’re younger or 30-40 g if you’re older.” Also, in a 12-week study conducted by Heather Leidy, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri it was discovered that a high protein breakfast (35 g of protein) reduced daily hunger and  led to voluntary reductions of about 400 calories in daily food intake.

Also, not all protein is created equal…

I learned about an amino acid called leucine. When this amino acid is present muscle protein synthesis will occur. So which foods that are high in leucine? IDEA fitness journal’s article mentions the following: cottage cheese, chicken breast, ground beef, wild salmon, whole egg. I searched online for more options because I felt that list was very limited for vegetarians. Here are some good choices: soybeans, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and white beans. The goal is to eat 2.2-3 g of protein with each meal.