Foods containing large amounts of protein: benefits for the body

It would probably be wrong to say that the human body needs protein, since protein is part of the body itself, without it cell structure, growth, and metabolic processes are simply impossible. In order for the body to absorb vitamins and minerals, protein is also needed. When a person wants to lose weight, almost any diet contains proteins.

If a person wants to correct his figure, plays sports and goes to the gym, they turn to squirrels. In cases where the body needs to restore strength, suffered injuries, diseases, operations, proteins are also irreplaceable.

Dairy products

Cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt, yogurt, fermented baked milk and any other milk-based products contain at least 8 g of protein. These foods are often enriched with many useful substances, so they should definitely be included in your diet.

Casein is a protein from low-fat cottage cheese that is 97% digestible and does not overload the body with extra calories.

Greek yogurt, which contains 10 g of protein, is especially beneficial. This low-fat product is rich in probiotics, B vitamins, magnesium and calcium. In addition to casein, yogurt contains whey protein. Their combination significantly reduces the amount of lactose. Therefore, yogurt is a great option for those who are lactose intolerant.

What is protein?

Protein or protein is a high-molecular substance of organic origin synthesized from amino acids, the combinations of which provide many different types. It was first discovered in 1728 by the Italian Jacopo Bartolomeo Beccard, but only by the end of the 19th century was it possible to obtain at least an approximate idea of ​​its amino acid composition and structure.

By that time, most of the amino acids that make up proteins had been studied. We managed to find out that they are divided into two large categories: replaceable and irreplaceable. The former are produced by the body independently in sufficient quantities, the latter come only from the outside: with food, various additives and dietary supplements. This is why it is recommended to include protein-rich foods in your daily diet. But there are other reasons.

Cereals

It was not for nothing that Hercules received its name in honor of the ancient Greek hero. Oatmeal (rolled oats) contains 10–12 g of protein, as well as all minerals and vitamins. Oatmeal is easily digestible, so this porridge will give you strength for the whole day. There is an exotic type of cereal - quinoa, which contains 14 g of protein. This is one of the most useful products, which, unfortunately, is not always easy to find in stores. On average, grains contain 6 g of protein and many other healing substances.

How to properly distribute protein foods throughout the day

As already mentioned, food rich in protein should be consumed daily. But it would be wrong to consume the entire daily requirement in one meal; it is better to distribute it evenly:

1. For breakfast, it is recommended to include easily digestible protein: dairy products, cheese, eggs.
2. The first snack should also be light; low-calorie yogurt, cottage cheese with fruit, or toast with cream cheese are ideal.
3. At lunch, it is important to follow the “plate rule”: half the dish should be vegetables, the rest should be carbohydrates, and equal amounts of protein.
4. It is better to make dinner protein, include lean meats or seafood.

Protein foods satisfy the feeling of hunger well and significantly reduce the risk of breakdowns in the evening.

Daily protein intake

The daily protein intake is calculated individually for each person depending on weight and gender:

On average, the amount of protein is about 1.5-2 grams per kilogram of weight. In this case, 70-80% should come from animal products.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms contain about 3.1 g of protein, but are composed entirely of protein. The following types of mushrooms are extremely useful: shiitake, chaga, honey mushrooms, boletuses, porcini mushrooms, boletus mushrooms. They can be added to soup or cooked in any form: boiled, dried, fried. It is very important to choose mushrooms collected from environmentally friendly places, because mushrooms absorb substances from the environment.

Foods that contain a lot of protein should be eaten every day. It is very harmful to refuse such food, but you should not abuse it either. You can prepare a variety of dishes by adding protein foods to them.

Why is protein so important?

Proteins support metabolism and are responsible for the functioning of the body:

1. Nourishes cells and supplies them with oxygen.
2. They transmit genetic information - DNA and RNA.
3. Provide muscle function.
4. Stimulates the nervous system.
5. Supply the body with energy.
6. Strengthen the immune system, prevent the penetration of foreign viruses, bacteria, infections, and fight them.
7. Supports hormonal levels.
8. Accelerate chemical reactions and promote the production of enzymes.
9. Responsible for blood clotting and the health of blood vessels.

Food rich in protein must be included in your daily diet. This is especially true for children, whose bodies are rapidly growing and developing, so it is strictly not recommended to exclude meat products from the menu.

Dish recipes

We invite you to try preparing various dishes from protein products: here there are recipes for soups, salads and main dishes. With such diversity, this weight loss system can hardly be called a hunger strike.

First meal

Do you think that making soups exclusively from protein products is impossible? Indeed, traditional first courses are a combination of protein (meat and fish broths) and carbohydrates (a variety of vegetables, cereals, pasta, noodles). But nutritionists never tire of repeating that liquid food improves weight loss results, so it cannot be excluded from diets. So let's learn how to cook first courses from protein products.

• Spinach soup

Remove the skin from the turkey breast or drumstick. Boil, remove from broth, let cool. Finely chop a package of spinach (frozen product will not spoil the dish), cook in broth for 10 minutes. Separate the meat from the bones, finely chop it, and return it to the broth. Cook the spinach and turkey together for another 10 minutes. Cool the soup, use a blender to puree it, adding 50 ml of skim milk, spices, and 2 cloves of garlic. Eaten hot.

• Salmon with milk

Pour boiling water over 4 medium-sized tomatoes, remove the skin and finely chop. Peel and chop a large onion. 1 PC. grate carrots. Fry the carrots and onions, adding tomatoes at the end. Place in a saucepan with a liter of cold water and boil. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Cut 450 grams of salmon fillet into cubes and add to the broth. After 5 minutes, add 500 ml skim milk. After boiling, add spices. Leave for 20 minutes.

• Meatball soup

Prepare chicken bone broth. Make minced chicken breast and form meatballs from it. Drop them into boiling broth. After boiling, add 50 grams of chopped bell pepper, the same amount of green beans, and herbs. Cook for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Second courses

Main courses made from protein products are the basis of the diet. The recipes include only low-calorie ingredients - specifically for weight loss.

• Chicken in kefir

Cut 100 grams of selected, fresh chicken fillet, mix with salt, pepper, chopped herbs. Add 50 ml of low-fat kefir, 50 ml of filtered cold water. Place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Place in a hot frying pan and simmer for 10 minutes on each side.

• Fried eggs

Break 5 eggs into a plastic container. Beat. Microwave for 2 minutes. It turns out healthy and incredibly tasty scrambled eggs. If you want to diversify your weight loss menu, you can add chopped chicken breast and herbs.

• Baked fish

Pour lemon juice over the salmon fillet, sprinkle with dried herbs and spices, and bake in the oven on foil until cooked.

Snacks

Salads made from protein products are indispensable for any weight loss system. They are nutritious, healthy, and contribute to menu diversity. They allow you to whip up dinner without putting on extra pounds.

• Protein salad

Boil 3 soft-boiled eggs, chop chicken breast (150 g), chop 50 g of squid. Mix everything thoroughly.

• Asparagus salad with chicken

Boil 3-4 cauliflower inflorescences in one container with 100 g of chopped asparagus and 300 g of chicken breast. Grind 2 medium-sized fresh cucumbers and 60 grams of celery root. Mix everything thoroughly. Add 2 tablespoons of canned green peas. Add chopped boiled and already cooled products. Season with 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

When choosing recipes for your protein menu, carefully look at what products are listed in them. Sometimes olive oil or lean lamb is allowed, but these should be exceptions to the rules, concessions, so that the diet does not seem completely debilitating.

But fats and carbohydrates in their pure form are strictly prohibited. So there shouldn’t be anything floury, sweet or fried in this diet.

Top best

Nutritionists name the best protein foods for weight loss, which you can eat in almost unlimited quantities during a diet.

• Eggs

Chicken eggs are the richest source of protein. To lose weight, you can eat 7 whites and 4 yolks per day. There are diets based on 5 eggs for breakfast during the week.

• Low-fat kefir

The main protein product for any weight loss system. The protein it contains is easily digestible with minimal total calories. Improves digestion, rids the body of toxins. The extra pounds disappear quite quickly. Protein content - 28 g. All these beneficial properties of this protein product formed the basis of the kefir diet.

• Cottage cheese

A protein product that is very quickly digestible. Provides a feeling of fullness for a long time, which has a positive effect on weight loss. Keeps nails, bones, teeth in good condition. Protein content - 20 g.

• Natural yogurt

For weight loss, only natural protein products without dyes, sweeteners or other additives are suitable. This yogurt will be stored for no more than 3 weeks.

• Milk

Compared to meat and fish, milk is higher in this rating because it contains protein, which is absorbed by the body much better. At the same time, you will not be able to lose weight on milk alone, since it does not have a very good effect on the functioning of the stomach. But for preparing protein dishes (the same cocktails) with minimal fat content, this product will be ideal.

• Meat

First up is chicken breast. 200 grams of meat contains about 40 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, 200 kcal. An essential protein product for weight loss. Secondly, it's beef. The ratio of main substances is approximately the same, but there is a little more fat. It is an alternative to white chicken meat to diversify your diet while losing weight.

• Fish

The best protein product is salmon fillet. Contains fats, but much more protein, as well as omega 3 acids. To lose weight, you should treat yourself to this tasty morsel twice a week.

• Legumes

These are plant-based protein products that can maintain normal muscle mass even during the process of rapid weight loss. In addition, they give a long-lasting and pleasant feeling of fullness, so you won’t be hungry.

• Protein powder/shake

Effective protein nutrition without fat. Recommended if you supplement your diet with exercise in the gym. Instantly absorbed by the body. It makes the figure not only slim, but also sculpted, as it promotes the growth of muscle mass.

Always keep this top protein diet for weight loss before your eyes when creating a menu. After all, these are the products that should be included in recipes that will make any diet seem like a holiday and not a test.

Expert opinion.

Yes, the list of advantages of proteins is quite impressive. But we should always remember that our body needs not only them. We cannot survive without fats, and without carbohydrates, and without minerals, vitamins, water, etc. To return and maintain health, you need to remember their correct proportions: after all, they were not invented by someone out of boredom, but were discovered over centuries of experience in painstaking research and practical work.

In general, proper nutrition is not about eating a lot of one thing. Everything (or almost everything) is useful, but to some extent. You can and should eat with pleasure and enjoyment, and rational nutrition was invented precisely for this, and not so that you walk around sad, skinny and gray.

Enjoy your meal!

Tips for use

To lose weight with protein foods, you need to know how to use them correctly. A few useful tips will allow you to reduce your weight by an impressive amount.

1. Meat protein products are best consumed boiled. To diversify the diet, stewing, baking and steaming are allowed.
2. During the diet, in addition to protein foods, the body must receive fiber in order to burn excess fat as quickly as possible and ensure the proper functioning of organs. Therefore, you definitely need to eat greens, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, cereals, and whole grain bread.
3. Many people ask what protein foods can be eaten at night: an hour before bedtime, you are allowed to drink a glass of low-fat kefir or natural yogurt. Everything else is prohibited.
4. Sweet dairy products (yogurt, curds with fillings), mayonnaise, sauces and other protein substitutes are harmful to health and do not contribute to weight loss.
5. In one meal, the body can absorb only 30 grams of protein, no matter how many eggs, for example, you eat. The daily norm for men is about 2 grams of protein per 1 kilogram of weight, for women - only 1 gram.
6. To improve the absorption of proteins by the body, you can introduce the principles of fractional nutrition into practice. According to them, food is taken up to 6 times a day in small portions.
7. Dinner must be no later than 19.00.
8. If you go in for sports while losing weight on protein products, you will not only reduce your waist size, but will make your butt firmer and your chest firmer, since protein is an excellent building material for muscle tissue with sufficient physical activity.

As for specifically each protein product that can promote weight loss, the features of their use as part of the diet are conveniently collected in the following table:

Now you know what protein foods include, and what products you need for quick, and most importantly, healthy weight loss.

It is also important to remember that such diets are still a serious shock to the body. Therefore, firstly, they should last two or four weeks, but no more. Secondly, it is recommended to use such a figure correction system no more than once every six months, and even less often in case of health problems.

Cottage cheese

Cottage cheese is considered one of the best sources of protein. The protein content in cottage cheese ranges from 16 g/100 g in a product with a fat content of 11% to 22 g/100 g in a low-fat product. Cottage cheese is also valuable for its high calcium content. Milk fat in large quantities is harmful to blood vessels, so it is recommended to choose cottage cheese with a low content.

To reduce costs, manufacturers often add soy protein and palm fat to cottage cheese, which are also not healthy. Therefore, you should look for places that sell a pure product, free of herbal additives.

Poultry meat

Meat from chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks are also protein-rich foods. This is an excellent source of easily digestible proteins; 100 g of the product contains 18-20 g. In terms of amino acid composition, it is not inferior to red meat, but in terms of the content of vitamins and microelements, poultry meat is poorer. It can be included in the menu of athletes and bodybuilders every day, but with some reservations:

• In poultry factories, when raising broilers, antibiotics and all kinds of growth stimulants are used, among which there may be substances identical to female sex hormones. Therefore, you should not get carried away with chicken from supermarkets. It is better to give preference to poultry from personal plots.
• Poultry adipose tissue contains both saturated and unsaturated fats. They are mainly concentrated in the skin. Traces of drugs used in raising poultry also accumulate there. Therefore, it is recommended to remove the skin from the carcass. Chicken and turkey fillets have the least fat; these parts of the carcass are considered dietary. If the bird is not too fatty and is raised on natural feed, then sometimes you can boil it with the skin, then removing the fat from the broth, since the skin contains connective tissue that is beneficial for joints.

Like meat, poultry is not recommended to be eaten in large portions; more than 150 g at one time should not be consumed.

You may also find tables of high protein foods helpful.

Greek yogurt

No wonder the Greeks are considered the healthiest nation in the world. Their daily diet contains all the necessary beneficial microelements. Their national dessert is Greek yogurt, which is also popular throughout the world.

Yogurt is a high-protein dairy product. It contains a huge amount of lactobacilli, which are necessary for the normal functioning of the stomach, digestion and breakdown of food.

It contains very little sugar, so you don’t need to worry about your figure.

Red meat

Red meat is usually called the muscle tissue of mammals: beef, pork, lamb, rabbit, horse meat, etc.

Meat proteins are very valuable in composition; they contain all the essential amino acids in large quantities. In addition, unlike many other sources of protein, meat contains a significant amount of vitamins A, D, group B, and important microelements: iron, magnesium, zinc. Deficiency of vitamin B12, iron, and zinc is often observed in vegetarians, and this is due precisely to their refusal to eat meat. Connective tissues are very beneficial for joints. Orthopedists recommend that their patients include beef and pork shank aspic and dishes with gelatin in their menu more often.

The protein content of meat ranges from 16 g/100 g to 21 g/100 g. It could be called an ideal source of animal proteins, but there are reasons why its consumption should be limited:

• Red meat contains large amounts of saturated fat, which is harmful to the cardiovascular system. Even if pork or beef does not look fatty, it still contains a significant amount of saturated fat. Especially if there are layers of fat. Beef fat is the most harmful, it is the most refractory, its melting point is 50 ° C, which is 13 ° C higher than the temperature of the human body. So marbled beef, prized by gourmets, cannot be called healthy. Pork fat, contrary to popular belief, is less refractory and harmful; in small quantities it is even beneficial. The least amount of saturated fat is found in lean veal, fat-free rabbit and lamb.
• Consuming large amounts of meat increases the acidity of the body's internal environment. A shift in the acid-base balance to the acidic side is very harmful, it contributes to the development of serious diseases and shortens life expectancy.
• Meat contains many purines, which are converted into uric acid. This leads to overload of the kidneys, as well as to the deposition of uric acid salts in the joints, which causes a common disease among elderly meat-eaters - gout.
• Fried meat, especially its charred parts, contains carcinogens - substances that provoke the development of cancer. The same applies to smoked products. Therefore, it is recommended to stew, boil, bake it.
• The breakdown and assimilation of meat food requires significant time and energy consumption, so it cannot be eaten in large quantities. An eaten portion weighing more than 150 g of meat does not have time to be absorbed in the small intestine and enters the large intestine. The large intestine is the kingdom of bacteria; under their influence, the remains of meat food begin to rot, releasing toxins and poisoning the body.

Considering all of the above, we can conclude that red meat should not be the main supplier of protein in the diet. But you shouldn’t completely abandon it. It is recommended to consume it no more than 2 times a week, 100-150 g at a time, giving preference to low-fat varieties. When preparing, it is advisable not to use frying or smoking. The best side dish for meat is vegetables and herbs; the fiber they contain neutralizes many of the negative effects of eating meat dishes.