Everything we eat is made up of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. A healthy diet implies their balance, but any diet recommends reducing the content of fats and carbohydrates in food and, accordingly, increasing the proportion of proteins in the diet. Protein food helps break down fats and increase muscle tone. It should be remembered that our skin, muscles, and connective tissues are composed of protein, so a lack of it in the diet immediately affects the appearance, inhibits metabolic processes, and finally leads to physical and nervous exhaustion.
But what about vegetarians? After all, vegetables, fruits and berries cannot provide enough protein. Contrary to popular belief, there is a little protein in mushrooms and it is poorly digested.
The fact is that there are two types of protein foods: vegetable protein and animal protein.
Vegetable protein is most found in legumes (red and white beans, peas, chickpeas, beans, soy).
Products such as buckwheat, semolina, oatmeal, pearl barley, rice, pasta, and nuts can also provide the daily protein requirement. But the carbohydrate content in them is very high, so they are excluded from sports diets and diets for weight loss.
Milk, cheese, cottage cheese and various fermented milk products are rich in protein, but the most protein food is meat, fish, offal (liver, kidneys, heart), eggs.
Having decided to "sit down" on a protein diet, it should be remembered that these protein products have different fat content, which must be taken into account when drawing up a diet menu.
Recommended protein foods, the table of which is presented below, practically satisfy the requirements of a healthy and nutritious diet. This table allows you to choose foods high in protein and low in fat. The protein content is indicated in grams per 100 g of product.
- Chicken, rabbit, veal -------------------- 20-23
- Low-fat beef -------------------------------------- 18.9
- Low fat cheeses ------------- 25,
- Low-fat cottage cheese ------------------------------------------ 16.7
- Milk, kefir ----------------------------------------- 2.8
- Egg White ------------------------------------------- 12.7
- Sea fish with white meat (cod, hake) --------- 15
- Red fish (salmon, tuna, pink salmon) ------------ 21
- Nuts ------------------------------------------------- ------- 25
- Beans ------------------------------------------------- ----- 22
- Peas------------------------------------------------- ------- 23
- Soy ------------------------------------------------- ---------- 34
Protein food almost always requires heat treatment. For this, it is preferable to use a double boiler, oven, barbecue. Steaming, frying without oil and fat, baking - the best ways to cook meat, fish. Eggs, egg whites are also better to eat boiled or baked, but not fried.
A diet in which protein food of animal origin is the main, or even the only component, is very harmful. On average, an adult needs only 100-120 grams of protein per day. And their excess leads to poor digestion of food, stagnation of waste products, the development of putrefactive bacteria in the intestine. To prevent this, protein food should be combined with a large amount of plant fiber. With vegetables, proteins are absorbed most fully, but carbohydrates inhibit the process of protein breakdown into amino acids. Namely for their sake we eat meat, fish, cheese. Of the twenty amino acids necessary for our body that make up the protein, only half is synthesized, and the rest we get from food, but it should be noted that vegetable protein contains an insufficient set of amino acids.
The need for protein foods is especially great in childhood, adolescence, when the body grows, the muscle frame is formed. For women planning a pregnancy, it is especially important to include protein-rich foods in the diet. Moreover, in addition to the construction function, protein is actively involved in strengthening the body's immune system.
Proteins are necessary for every person, but with age, the need for them decreases, which must be taken into account in a balanced diet.