But where do you get your Protein? How much protein do we really need and where to get it on a vegan diet

If you are vegan, you probably can’t count how many times you have been asked the question “But where do you get your protein?” People tend to associate protein with meat and animal products so if you do not eat meat, you must take a supplement right? WRONG!!

The fact is that protein is just one of the three vital nutrients: Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat. These nutrients are found in different proportions in all different types of animal AND plant food. For example, 1 gram of ground beef is approximately 40% protein and 60% fat, but 1 gram of broccoli is approximately 17% protein, 10% fat, and 73% carbohydrate. The proportion of protein to fat in beef is actually lower than that of the same amount of broccoli. It is true that you get more protein when eating the same amount of beef versus broccoli but do you really want to be consuming all the fat that comes with the beef too? Most plant foods contain the proper proportion of nutrients for health and weight loss, with a majority being carbohydrate (approximately 60-80%) and the other 20-40% being made up of protein and fat.

So how much protein do we really need? This is a debated topic as many people assume we need much more protein than we actually do. A mother’s breast milk is approximately 6% protein, which allows an infant to double in size in the first 6 months of life. Just 6% of the baby’s diet is protein and they are able to grow that much! Do we really want to double in size by the time we are 20, 30, 40…? If not, than you should limit your protein intake to 10-20% of daily calories. For women this is approximately 46 grams per day and for men this is approximately 56 grams per day. 46 grams of protein per day is easily attainable on a vegan diet without the need for supplementation. See below for an example of my daily diet.

Exercise: 20 minute interval run and 20 minutes of strength training
Meal	Food	Grams of Protein
Breakfast	2 bananas	5
	1 Clif bar	10
Lunch	Chickpea salad with ½ cup chickpeas, green bell pepper, cucumber, tomato and balsamic vinegar	11
Snack	2 cups of grapes	2
Snack	Green smoothie	5
Dinner	Kale salad with butternut squash	17
Total		50

As you can see there are multiple ways to get sufficient protein on a vegan diet. Other high-protein plant foods that I incorporate into my diet on a regular basis are leafy greens, such as kale and spinach, and seeds, such as hemp and chia. To get enough protein from leafy greens you can make a large salad, juice them or add them to your smoothies. Hemp and chia seeds are also good additions to smoothies and salad dressings.

With all the hype out there about protein, it’s no wonder people ask this question a lot. The reality is it is easy to get enough protein on a vegan or other plant based diet as long as you eat enough calories and incorporate a variety of foods. So next time someone asks you “But where do you get your protein” maybe you can teach them a thing or two.