For all of you who don’t know me well, I am Dietitian from my home country Colombia and I finished my studies with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to become a Health Coach and I will call myself a Holistic Nutritionist.
I don’t believe in diets but I believe in having nutritious meals, which means having a correct amount of animal or vegetable protein, the correct amount of cereal, grains or complex carbohydrates like fruits and whole grains, and healthy fats. I believe in primary food; this is the base to have a happy life, the primary food are: relationships, career, exercise and spirituality.
I want to talk today about animal protein
What do you think when you hear about protein? And what is your favourite source of protein?
Usually, the first thing that comes to our mind is animals like chicken, beef, pork, fish, Lamb. They are all complete proteins. There are lots of people like me, who decided to give up on animal protein just for healthy life and digestion problems. I am pescetarian meaning I still eat seafood, so I am not that complicated!
There is a group of non-meat foods out there that also contain protein, including eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, such a brown rice, even green leafy vegetables as they contain amino acids.
A gram of protein offers four calories of energy and supplies the body with amino acids. This component is an important part of the immune system, meaning that protect us from cold and flu, influence our mood, and creates the muscles that provide you with the strength to carry groceries and maintain a good level of energy.
There are two kinds of amino acids: complete and incomplete.The complete amino acids are coming from animal sources.
Vegetable based protein sources are incomplete, however different vegetable-based protein sources from different botanical families can be combined to be completed examples:
1. Lentil + brown rice
2. Beans such black beans or kidney beans +brown rice
3. Chickpeas +seeds for example vegetable patties made with chickpeas and sunflower seeds or sesame seeds.
4. Hummus made from chickpeas and tahini.
QUINOA
Is one of the few plant-based proteins that contain all essential amino acids so is considered COMPLETE.
Animal meats contain just 25gr of Protein, meaning that 100 gr of meat contains 25 gr of protein. That’s a lot if you consider the amount of protein we have to consume daily.
Is important to have a balance in our diet and instead of consuming meat everyday, what If you reduce it to three times a week?
It will help to reduce inflammation in your digestive system, it will keep you out from cravings, you will be consuming food from live sources not dead sources.
Why is important to reduce the amount of red meats?
*Improve the health of the planet and the animals.
*Lose body fat.
*Increase the consumption of raw and natural food.
* Getting to know a huge variety of easy and delicious recipes , easy to make.
*Reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
*Improve the level of acidity in your body.
*Increase the level of energy.
*Give to your body the nutrients that body needs.
*Balance your mood.
*Cleanse and purify your body.
*We don’t need much protein as you believe.
The body needs just between 0,8- 1 gr of protein per kg of body weight per day. So If I weight 58 kg I just need between 46 -58 gr of protein a day. Not much really!
What if I get too much protein?
The load on your liver will be increased as the liver must change components to be excreted.
You might become easy dehydrated.
Calcium excretion will Increase and we need the calcium for our bones.
Let’s try new sources of protein.
Blessings.
AndreaP xxx
andreap 