Meatless Meals: How Eating More Vegetable Proteins Leads to a Healthier Diet

By Dinah Torres Castro 

Protein is an important part of a healthy diet. You can get protein from different sources of food, like animal products or vegetables. Animal sources of protein such as beef and pork are commonly found in the American diet. Studies have shown that these sources contain large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol which can damage your cardiovascular system. If you have heart disease or are aiming to improve your health, you will be happy to know that eating a diet rich in plant protein (protein found in vegetables, grains and legumes) and eating fewer carbohydrates (starches) lowers your LDL cholesterol level and blood pressure. For years we have known that properly planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthy, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in prevention and treatment of certain diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

If these benefits sound good to you, then take a look at the chart below to learn which plant foods contain the most protein, and start planning some meatless meals for your family.

Legumes	Nuts	Seeds	Soy & Soy Products	Whole Grains
Lentils (½ cup) 9 g	Peanuts, (1 oz.) 9 g	Sunflower seeds, (1 oz.) 6.5 g	Tofu, firm (4 oz.) 11 g	Barley, (1 cup) 3.5 g
Beans, black beans (½ cup) 8 g	Nuts, almonds (1 oz.)   6 g	Sesame seeds (1 oz.) 3 g	Edamame, Soy nuts, (1oz.) 11 g	Whole wheat bread (1 slice) 3 g
Peas, chick peas (½ cup) 6 g	Chunky peanut butter (2 Tbsp.) 8 g	Pumpkin seeds (1 oz.) 5 g	Soy milk (1 cup) 6 g	Brown rice, (1 cup) 4.5 g

You can also get small amounts of protein from common vegetables like spinach, broccoli and potatoes. It is easy to plan a meal that is rich in plant protein. Another bonus is that plant protein is far more affordable than meat protein. Do not worry about switching to plant protein a few times a week. It will not cause a protein deficiency. The reality is that most of us are already eating too much animal protein. Here are some tips that you can follow which will ease your way to making these healthy changes:

• Plan to have at least one vegetarian meal per week.
• Add chick peas, walnuts, or almonds to your green salad.
• Try having beans as a side dish instead of potatoes or pasta.
• Snack on nuts, seeds, or soy nuts rather than chips or crackers.

Here is a sample menu for a whole day of healthy plant protein:

Breakfast:

1 cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins

½ cup fortified soy milk

1 slice of toasted whole wheat bread with 1 Tablespoon of peanut or almond butter

½ grapefruit

Lunch:

1 whole wheat pita stuffed with hummus and sliced tomatoes, lettuce with baby carrots

Dinner:

1 cup stewed black beans

½ cup brown rice

½ cup steamed broccoli drizzled with lemon juice

1 baked apple

Snack:

1 banana soymilk shake

For more information:

Pulses: The Perfect Food

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn1508.pdf

Let’s Make Meatless Meals

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/wnep/teach/nfshpdfs/MtlsMeals.pdf

Dinah Castro is a Bilingual Family Well-Being Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Family Health and Wellness Program. She can be reached at 631-727-7850 ext. 351 or at dc258@cornell.edu.