Shobhit Yada asked in Dr Subhasree Ray's Holistic Nutrition & Dietetics Community on Twitter:
What should be the best diet to get 50-60 gm protein daily?
Dietitian Anupama Upadhyay gave a 5 word reply:
Include protein in every meal.
Actually, I love this idea of adding protein in every meal.
For easy calculation, I have taken that we need 1 g of protein for 1 kg of our Ideal Body Weight (weight determined by BMI). Let us say my ideal weight is 80 Kgs, then my protein
requirement is 80 gms of protein per day. Many websites recommend 50-60 g per day of protein for ladies, probably based on an average weight.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommends 48 gms/day of protein. Most of us consume much less. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein for an average Indian adult is 0.8 to
1 gm per kg body weight. However, the average intake is about 0.6 gm per kg body weight.
Daily Value (DV) is a term on food labels in USA/Canada based on RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance. It is based on a 2000 calorie diet. DV for protein is 50 g.
In my case, I try to get 100 g of protein a day, knowing that I will fail and manage to get 50-80 g per day. I try to get 25 g of protein in each of the 4 main meals I have (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner).
Soya chunks are an awesome source of protein, with almost half of it being protein. If you eat 100 g of soya chunks you are getting 50 g of protein. So you can include soya chunks, granules in some of your lunches and dinner.
Dals/Pulses/Legumes are a good source of protein for vegetarians. Most of the dals/beans have about 8-10 % of protein. Lentils (masoor) has 9 g per 100 g. Tofu has 8 g of protein per 100 g. Chitale Dahi has 3.5 g of protein. (so also most other dahis/curds). Greek Yogurt is double the quantity at 6 g of protein per 100 g.
You can always Google to find out the protein content of any dish. You can always read the food labels to estimate the protein content.
Our thali meal with 1 dal, 1-2 vegetables, 1 salad, 1-2 chaptais/50 g of rice, 50 g curds/butter milk. Easily gives about 15-20 g of protein. If you add paneer, tofu, soya it can go upto to 25-50
g.
If you are aiming for 50-60 g of protein, just the two meals (lunch/dinner) can take care of your protein requirements.
Protein powder/whey protein are a great and easy way (albeit a bit expensive) to add protein to your diet. Read below.
If you read this rambling blog page below, you will get more ideas on how to get adequate proteins.
If the picture reminds you of some drink, don't blame me. I have not actually seen a muscle, but I thought the colour may be somewhat like it. It represents muscles.
As we age, we lose muscles. Use it or lose it. We stop using, stop exercising, we lose some more. Our muscles also lose strength as we age and also when we don't exercise. This means we will not be able to lift heavy things. So much so we may not be able to lift ourselves if we are obese/overweight.
I know a lot of senior citizens take Ensure. My Gastro too had recommended -- or rather his dietitian -- Ensure to ensure that I get enough proteins and vitamins and get back to normal. In a cup,
it comes to 9 g of protein. If I had a cup of Ensure, I would have reached my target of 20 g!
Aside: I had not used Ensure for more than a year. So it had some creatures devouring it. I had to throw it!
I always thought that Ensure was expensive. Just checked the price, it is not all that expensive. Rs.1050 for 1 Kg on Amazon India. So Rs.105 for 100 grams, so about Rs.1 per g. Probably, the singdana (peanuts) that you buy after rolling down the glasses at signal is more expensive. Rs.20 for 15 g?
[Oye...if you follow me on Twitter you know...I am talking about my rich friends! Not sure whether I peeped out from an auto and bought Singdana at the Signal.]
Protein FAQ
Twitter is a great place to ask questions. Nutritionists, doctors, fitness experts are always ready to share information. Including fitness fans like me. (I have done some 6 short online courses on nutrition, diabetes, Covid.) As a former journalist and a Twitterati ( I mean with a Twitter badge) I am qualified to respond to queries on nutrition and practically anything under the Sun.
Atul Maharaj @Atulmaharaj
asked on Twitter:
Just because all health/nutrition bars are sweet, I wanted something namkeen so got these.
Thoda better than munching on namkeen Grimacing face Fitness experts, dieticians, you thoughts?
Pix of 7 grain Max Protein Snack from RiteBite.
My answer as a fellow foodie and a fellow fitness fan:
Serving size is 60 g. I doubt whether this will fill up anyone. But can you imagine, the calories is 286 calories. Would it not be better to have an idli or an upma instead.
The manufacturing mafia along with the advertising gang are always finding new ways to lure people to eat HIGHLY PROCESSED FOODS. We are obese, have diabetes, and a host of health problems partly due to HIGHLY PROCESSED FOODS.
All the stuff which comes in shiny, glistening, aluminium foil packets filled more with nitrogen than the food are the acme of super processing. Wheat idhar dalo, aur use maro, maroda, garam karo, thanda karo..EXTRUDE karo. Basically, mess up with it.
Scientists are there to then put in the taste molecules that make it VERY VERY TASTY. They have spent years refining this art of making stuff tasty with ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS.
Atul, Sir, hope you are still reading.
We are normally attracted with the words Protein. (the only other word which has more attraction is of course Free or BOGO).
BOGO -- Buy One, Get One free.
Sorry aur ek gyaan de hi deta hoon. BOGO aur health nuksaan BHOGO! Suffer!
In 60 g there is 10 g of Protein. This is pretty good. Getting 10 g of protein is not all that easy. I always speak as a vegetarian. Eggs are that way pretty neat cute 6 g packages of protein! So 2 eggs will give you more protein. (Not going into fat, right now.)
Total Fat is not all that bad at 13.6 g. Maybe bad, if you consider that we are supposed to have say 30 g of fat per day. 2.7 g is saturated fat...not all that much. The remaining is PUFA and MUFA (10.8 in total), which is again good. Comparison with egg...better to have that! 50 g of paneer by the way has 14 g of Protein (11 g of fat). But then paneer does not come in a shiny packet which you can open and eat. You need to cook it and spice it! Cooking is so tedious.
Carbs are 30 g. That's again, not bad, but not too good either. One theory is that lesser the carbs, better for you. (Of course, the ultimate theory is that fasting is the best method to get rid of all illness! Just making a point.)
Cleverly they have mentioned Sodium as 0.5 g. Oh, so insignificant. It is 500 mg! We are supposed to take only 2300 mg per day! So you have consumed almost 1/5 or 20% of your day's quota!
Sugar at 1.8 g is truly good. But then it is like our Bhalo Manush (OR Bhole from Padosan.....Simpleton) saying Gulab Jamun/Rassogulla does not have any salt.
Atul, I know you are a smart person. You already know this: but anything packed is not good, usually.
If you have this as an occasional treat....say once a year (yes...I am joking)....it is fine. If you are having it once a day or often....I don't think you are making a great choice. Advertising and false nutritional attraction will ruin your health!
Nutritionists, Dietitians on social media used to recommend Khakra as a good snack. (2 Marie biscuits was another common recommendation.) Wish Khakras were loaded (fortified) with protein and the fat reduced. That would make a great snack. Diet Khakras are available...though they do not up the protein. There are 7-grain khakras too. Again, protein quotient is not all that great.
A professor on Twitter shared an awesome Masoor Ki Tikki. That would be a great snack -- if fortified with protein powder!
Protein powder and protein drinks are good sources of protein too.
Nuts are a great snack and fairly good source of protein. I have pumpkin seeds all the time. A cup (64 g) has about 12 g of protein. It has a lot of fat, but most of the fats are good fats. Nuts would be a great choice.
Maybe we should invent a snack with all these ideas.
Hope this helps.
Breakfast Protein
I tweeted my breakfast and rued the kamtarta (shortage) of protein in my diet. [I always used to wonder why Rujuta Diwekar puts in Hindi words in her books!] My target is to have about 60-90 g of protein per day. So about 20-30 g per meal. Very difficult for a vegetarian to get enough protein. (of course the very is debatable!) But I always want shortcuts, so I was looking for one and asked:
Ensure is expensive. Any idea for cheap, DENSE, whey protein?
I got suggestions galore on Twitter. Here they are:
Penso (Sir/Mr./Docter/Your Highness/King) @JohnnyPenso
Have you figured out how much whey protein costs per 30g serving and compared to other options? In Walmart, 900g of this whey protein is $20. 22 servings of 26g of protein = <$1/serving.
My calculations:
Pure Protein brand
907 g - Rs.3699 - Rs.4 per g. For 20 g I would pay Rs.80. For 80 g for the whole day, I would have to pay Rs.320!
With discount it is Rs.2.64 per g. For 20 g it is Rs.53. Indeed, it is less than a $1/serving.
1 kg of masoor dal (lentil) - Rs.130 per kg. Rs.1.30 per g of the whole dal.
Uncooked masoor dal has 54 g of protein per cup. Say 250 g per 1 kg. Comes to Rs.5.2 per g.
Penso also recommended Pure Protein 100% Whey Lactoserum
Veganella @Veganella_
Choose a plant based protein!
Action: I did. I bought a pea and rice based protein.
Bo Gritz (no, not THAT Bo Gritz) @bogritz
Baby lima beans...sublime!
Note: Lima beans have 8 g of protein per 100 g. Like most beans. Field beans have the same amount. Green peas have only 5 g per 100 g.
Action: Bought Val (dried field beans) and Pavta (tender field beans). These are very popular beans in Maharasthra.
SteakNeggs @BlasiosDe
Absolutely! As we age we need a lot more protein.
1 gram for each pound of weight especially if you are lean.
I use maybe a scoop a day just to put me over the top. Meat is the best protein option. Also with whey you need to read the ingredients carefully for hidden sugars and carbs or anything weird
Dr. Lori Andersen, Ph.D. @drloriandersen
I like Orgain plant-based protein. You can get it at Costco.
Action taken: As this brand was way too expensive, I bought a brand which was cheaper from Amazon.
Ujjwala Baxi @ujjwalabaxi
Sharing a simple method for home made whey protein #Protein #Whey
Photos and text courtesy: Poshan Cure Thru Diet by Ujjwala Baxi.
Powerful Protein Thread
I follow some awesome nutritionists, RDs, doctors, and specialists. They are kind enough to respond to my queries on Twitter. I got some excellent guidance from them. Here are excerpts from a Protein Thread.
Prateek Dasgupta @prateekdg1 -- one of my favourite nutritionists
Evidence based Nutritionist . Health & fitness writer. Penn State Grad School Alumnus(MS).Sports aficionado (basketball, tennis, soccer, boxing). He has an excellent site: myrebelnutrition.com.
There is no benefit of taking protein powder over protein from regular food. However if you cannot meet your protein requirements it is a good option to have.
Regardless of exercising, you will have to take a higher protein diet with age to preserve muscle mass. Nothing wrong in incorporating protein powder if you cannot meet your total protein requirements. Just make sure you buy from a good source.
Protein Notes & Updates
Nick Norwitz @nicknorwitz
tweeted
Fact of day 340: The RDA for protein is 0.8 g/kg. But this assumes “reference protein,” i.e. highly digestible high quality protein such as eggs, meat, fish.
Peanuts and chickpeas don't count.
Brian Lenzkes, MD @BrianLenzkes asked:
What do you think is the best protein source for vegans who don't eat eggs?
Nick replied:
Soy has a reasonable DIASS and Sun Warrior I think has a pea protein sunflower protein mix that has all essential aa (pea alone lacks Methionine).
Pixapins @Pixapins_Docker added:
Protein intake is also recommended between 1 and 2g/prot/day/kg of ideal BW (≈1.5g). For a person of 75kg represents 112g (≈450g of meat) Also seems that a person can only absorb ≈30g protein/meal, so it must be done in at least 3 meals? May I ask your opinion about?