So why is protein important?
Protein is a vital macronutrient that's a building block of the body's muscles, bones, blood, skin, and cartilage. It's necessary for almost all physiological functions and energy.
Protein benefits:
- Building muscle: Protein and amino acids are essential for muscle growth.
- Improving bone health: Protein helps bones absorb calcium and can prevent osteoporosis.
- Boosting metabolism: Eating more protein can increase the number of calories burned each day by 80–100.
- Reducing hunger: Protein can make you feel full longer and reduce cravings.
- Maintaining weight loss: Protein-rich snacks between meals can help you consume fewer calories.
- Lowering blood pressure
And honestly every single one of those is important to me.
So how much protein should we be eating?
The short answer is we should be eating ⅓ of all our calories in protein, or (very roughly) 25 grams of protein with each meal–breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
To be a little more precise, you should, at the minimum, eat .36 grams of protein for every pound of your body weight.
On top of that, your protein should be complete protein whenever possible, meaning it includes the 9 essential amino acids that your body needs but can’t make for itself.
But this is HARD for me. I just don’t eat meat at every meal. And an egg, albeit great food, only gives 6 grams of protein. So I'd need to eat 4 eggs to have a full serving of protein. That's about 2-3 too many for me, in one sitting.
So on those days that I just can’t squeeze in enough good protein via real food, a high-quality protein powder is NECESSARY, for me at least. Because in menopause especially, all those benefits of protein are so important.
But, the The Cook of (not) Truth was right about one thing, over on my instagram, most protein powders are junk. They have one or maybe two sources of protein and they may not be complete proteins. And they have all kinds of ingredients that were made in a lab.
