Why is protein suddenly everywhere?
Well known sources of protein. Milk, cheese, fish, chicken, red meat, nuts, beans, chia seeds. Note that the vegetables in this picture also contain proteins.
Protein is so hot right now. We’ve all seen those websites with filler ‘health’ articles like ‘I started eating 30g of protein for breakfast and here’s how it changed my life’, a protein powder conveniently advertised in a pop up halfway through. When I asked my girlfriends what types of articles they would want to read, weight loss in perimenopause was top of the list, but protein intake was second. ‘How much do I need to eat?’ they ask, ‘what kinds of protein are the best?’ and ‘why do I need so damn much?’, it seems as though protein intake is on more radars than it’s ever been before. Especially for women in the midlife perimenopausal and post menopausal age. I remember when my mom and her friends went through menopause and I don’t recall an upsurge in ‘protein anxiety’ like we have now. Our moms didn’t have social media obviously but there is sound evidence that many women might not be getting adequate protein as they age and that the amounts women have been told they need may actually be too low to avoid muscle weakness in older women. So let’s take a deep dive on protein and answer some of those burning questions.
What is protein?
Let’s start at the very beginning. If I was wearing my sciencey hat, I’d say protein is a complex structure of amino acids joined together by peptide bonds. It’s true, but a useless description for normal day to day life. In a nut shell, protein is in every living thing on Earth. From flowers to humans, if it lived, it contained protein. Proteins are essential for life. In your body, proteins are a component of muscles tissue, vital organs, neurotransmitters, enzymes, blood, connective tissue (hello collagen) and even fat tissue. It's bloody everywhere. It’s really important and we get it from the foods we eat.
So how much do we need to eat?
That’s a great question with a very straight forward answer. Just kidding. How much protein YOU need as an individual is related to the size of your body (height, weight etc), how active you are and your age. The equation most people are familiar with is 0.8g of protein per kg of body weight (or 0.36g of protein per pound of body weight if you work in the imperial system). But researchers now believe this could be just a baseline to avoid deficiency in sedentary adults (sounds a bit judgy but go with it). For a 170lb (77kg) woman who doesn’t do much activity, this would equal about 61g of protein spread throughout her day. When a single egg contains about 6.3g of protein, 61g seems like a whole lot. And it is a lot for many women. Adding protein into meals and snacks can be hard for some, particularly if they don’t have a large appetite to start with. But this is just the start. Let’s see what happens when we add age to the equation.
Protein needs as we age
As we become wiser, our protein needs increase. We could argue this is because all of our gained wisdom costs our brain protein to maintain. If a woman is mostly inactive and doesn’t eat enough protein for HER needs, her body will naturally loose muscle mass as she ages. Remember when your grandmother used to say ‘use it or lose it’? She was right, and she would’ve known. This is a condition called sarcopenia (use that word the next time you’re in the doctor’s office, they’ll do a double take). Sarcopenia is not desirable. Actually it’s basically the opposite of what we’re going for in midlife. Think lower quality of life as we age. More likelihood of falls. Less independence and ability to do things for ourselves, like carrying grocery bags for example. So to combat muscle loss we need to eat more protein and move our body. You don’t need to run out and join a HIIT class, just walking will be adequate to start with. Gravity will help you build the muscle.
Our age related protein needs start to increase around the ages 40-50 to 1-1.2g of protein per kilogram. I just heard you raise your eyebrows. I know. What? You might be thinking, but I’m only getting two thirds the required amount now. You’re telling me I need MORE? Keep in mind that 1.2g is an upper limit, reserved for the most active members of society. It’s more likely you’re average (in the nicest way possible of course) and need something closer to the 0.9-1g/kg/day. Using our 170 lb woman from earlier, as she enters her 40s and 50s her protein needs increased to around 77g of protein a day if she wants to maintain her muscle mass. It’s possible to add protein to your diet a little at a time to allow your appetite and your palate to adjust to an increased intake. Working with a nutritionist can help you identify which foods you eat now are providing your protein, you may eat more than you think you do already. And if you could use some more a nutritionist can give you many, many options to choose from. For my own clients, we’ve found the hardest part is compiling a list of go-to protein options they actually enjoy eating. It takes trial and error but once that list is done, it’s put on the fridge and makes it much easier to get used to reaching for those foods at meals and snacks. I particularly like choosing protein foods at snack time as they do a much better job at satiating than carbohydrate foods. But if you’re a die hard carb fan, adding protein to it can help satiate as well as the bonus benefit of balancing blood sugars levels.
Any level of cooking skills can be catered to with protein foods. From tearing into a rotisserie chicken to a perfectly marinated piece of Atlantic salmon or cracking open a tin of baked beans, every person can find an easy and affordable way to include protein in their diet.
I’m going to tackle increased protein needs for activity in another article but if I had to give a take away from this information it’s that worrying about how much protein we eat each day isn’t helpful and in general most of us probably need to eat a bit more. Around 1g per kilogram of body weight is adequate for most women. While I don’t like clients meticulously measuring their food, the palm assessment to gage protein portions is a useful one. Your palm is about 100g so for animal protein you’re getting about 20-30g of protein in a serving that size. Below I’ve complied a list of common high protein foods to get you started.
Essential amino acids
Histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Ask any dietitian and they will tell you there are two things they can never forget from their dietetic degree. The first is the Krebs Cycle (the trauma) and the second is the 9 essential amino acids. They worm their way into our long term memory and just…never ever leave. I’ve always thought of the ‘essential’ as meaning two things; they’re essential for life and because we can’t synthesise them in our body it’s essential we get them from our diet. All foods from animal sources are ‘complete’ meaning they contain all of the essential amino acids in adequate concentrations. Think of it as the animal having done the hard work for you. They eat amino acids in their diet, collect them in adequate concentrations in their tissue and we get the benefit. But more likely you’ll hear essential amino acids brought up in conversations around plant based diets. It’s not uncommon to find incorrect information about plant based diets on social media. For example this or that plant food doesn’t have ‘X’ essential amino acid. This simply isn’t true. A more correct statement would be that this or that plant food has higher or lower concentrations of ‘X’ essential amino acid. People on plant based diets can get adequate amounts of essential amino acids by mixing plant foods. The most commonly recognized combination here is ‘beans and rice’. Combining these two plant foods compensates for the amino acids each is lower in. Rice is low in lycine but high in methionine while beans are low in methionine but high in lysine. They balance each other out. Again any good nutritionist or dietitian should be able to tell you if your diet is balanced and help you add foods to compensate where you may be lacking.
Common high protein foods
Low fat dairy- low fat greek yoghurt, cottage cheese (have you noticed everything can be made with cottage cheese now), 2% milk
Lean meats- chicken, turkey, fish (canned is fine), lean red meat
Plant sources- legumes, nuts, seeds, lentils
Eggs- egg whites in particular are high in protein
Approximate grams of protein in some common foods
Lastly here’s a small list of the approximate amount of protein in common high protein foods. Whenever you see 100g just think ‘the size of my palm’. My brain still mostly works in metric!
1 cup of shredded rotisserie chicken 32g
100g ground turkey 27g
1 cup of low fat greek yoghurt 23g
100g salmon 25g
3 oz can of tuna or salmon (in water) 22g
1 cup cooked lentils 18g
1 cup of shelled edamame 18g
1 cup cooked basmati rice and 1 cup cooked black beans 15g
1/2 a cup of cottage cheese 15g
1 cup cooked chickpeas 14.5g
2 large eggs 12g
1 cup of cow’s milk 8g
1/4 cup almonds 6g
1 cup cooked oats 6g
1/2 cup cooked green peas 4g
