Do You Have to Eat a Fat Juicy Steak to get Enough Protein?

The other day I read that many nutritionists still think you cannot get enough protein without eating meat, fish, or chicken. Can this really be true, I wonder. I'm not a vegetarian myself but days go by when I don't eat any animal flesh. So, I decided to research this topic. How much protein do you need? Where can you get it if you are like me or if you are vegetarian or vegan. I found some interesting answers and developed a list of non-animal flesh protein sources.

How Much?

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has set the daily Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) of protein for males, 19 years old and older, at 56 grams and for females, 14 years old and older, at 46 grams. Pregnant and lactating women require an additional 25 grams of protein per day for a total of 71 grams. Though not proven, athletes who are doing strenuous aerobic exercises may need extra protein. If you doing regular, strenuous resistant or weight-lifting exercises, your body is actually producing more of its own protein so you don't really need to be eating an extra amount.

Many nutritionist disregard all this because their conventional theory is the amount of protein a person needs is proportional to his or her weight. Their rule of thumb is the number of grams of protein you need is your body weight (in pounds) multiplied by 0.37. Thus, if you tip the scales at 170 pounds, you need to eat 63 grams of protein a day (170 x 0.37 = 62.9). Just to keep you from rummaging around for your calculator, here's a handy list to determine your protein needs based on your weight:

Body Weight Proteins (Grams)

110     41
120     44
130     48
140     52
150     55
160     59
170     63
180     67
190     70
200     74
210     78
220     81
230     85
240     89

How Many Grams in a Pound?

Before we go much further with this little exercise, it is useful to know how many grams are in a pound and the answer is: 453.592-let's just round this up to 454.

Now then, your average steak (T-Bone, Filet, Porterhouse, etc.) is about 25% protein. Thus, if you need 70 grams of protein a day, a 10-ounce steak will take care of all of this. (454/16=28 x 10 = 280 x 0.25 = 70) The fact is, anyone who eats meat, chicken or fish on a daily basis is probably getting enough protein when you add all the other sources and there are many.

However, if you were to rely solely on spinach, which is fairly high in protein for a vegetable, you'd need to eat 13 cups to get your 70 gram requirement and I'm talking boiled spinach not raw. Many vegetables contain protein, but just eating a variety of them as your only source will probably not add up to the minimum requirement. Add in some beans, lentils, nuts, and whole grains though, and things start adding up. Here's a list of protein rich foods not including meat, chicken or fish but some dairy products:

If you need 70 grams of protein and you're a vegetarian you could easily get this amount by eating 4 ounces of cheddar cheese, 1 cup of blacks beans, a cup of yogurt, 2 eggs and 1 serving of broccoli. If you're a vegan, it's a bit more complicated, but not entirely impossible-1 cup spinach, 4 ounces tofu, 1 cup lentils, 1 tomato, 1 cup oatmeal, ¼ cup almonds, 1 cup squash and 4 ounces of tempeh. Without the tempeh, however, you'd need to add about 5 other sources!

Of course, it is all more complicated than what I've presented so far. Protein is a complex molecule comprised of a combination of different amino acids, and not all proteins contain all of the amino acids. Eight of these are refered to as "essential" because your body cannot manufacture them on its own. The others are "nonessential" for the opposite reason.

You can get all of the essential amino acids by eating a variety of vegetables, beans, whole grains and nuts or by eating meat,chicken or fish.

To read more on this topic, here's a good interview with a Tufts University nutrition scientist.