As a Vegan it is vitally important to watch over your own diet. Protein especially needs to be maintained at the recommended daily levels to ensure a healthy body and mind.
Fortunately there are plenty of foods that provide protein for your diet, though it does help to combine them to ensure your body is supplied with a full compliment of amino acids (The basis of proteins)
Common Foods that Provide Protein
Type of food | Quantity providing 10g protein (g) |
Soya flour | 24 |
Peanuts | 39 |
Pumpkin seeds | 41 |
Almonds | 47 |
Brazil Nuts | 50 |
Sunflower seeds | 51 |
Sesame seeds | 55 |
Hazel Nuts | 71 |
Wholemeal bread | 95 |
Whole lentils dried & boiled | 114 |
Chickpeas dried & boiled | 119 |
Kidney beans dried & boiled | 119 |
Wholemeal spaghetti boiled | 213 |
Brown rice boiled | 385 |
So what do you combine to make sure your body has the full dietary compliment of proteins it requires?
The most common list of protein combinations for vegans is quiet simply legumes and seeds. This kind of mix can provide a great supply of all the essential amino acids a body requires. A complete vegan diet of this however can become a bit of a chore, and lets face it, just because we are vegan doesn’t mean we have to eat boring meals!
To ensure a full compliment of proteins in a vegan diet the best option is to choose one or two items from each of the below groups. There is some debate among experts as to whether you require this in each meal or per day, but the consensus seems to lean towards this being a daily requirement, though if it is in each vegan meal all the better!
Group One
(foods low in sulfur)
Green beans
Asparagus
Broccoli
Potatoes
Lentils
Soybeans
|
Group Two
(foods low in tryptophan)
Barley
Mushrooms
Chard
Green peas
Garbanzo beans
Brown rice
|
Group Three
(foods low in lysine)
Almonds
Pumpkin seeds
Pecans
Yams
Brown rice
Corn
|
If you ensure you have foods from each group (Remember to look at the list above for the amount of protein in each) you will fulfill your bodies requirements for protein on a vegan diet.