Nutrition: The importance of getting enough protein in your diet

Okay, now we're going to talk about the importance of protein. Protein is an essential nutrient in our bodies. It helps protect our bones. It even helps you with suppressing hunger if you want to lose weight, I'm told. How do you know how much protein to eat? What's the best sources out there?

Olivia Carone is a registered dietitian nutritionist. You can visit Olivia online at nutrition by Olivia.com. Hello, Olivia. Hello. Okay. So is protein really that important? It's quite important. Yeah. It has tons of different roles in the body. It makes enzymes, hormones, compounds, chemoglobin, for example, to transport oxygen to the body, digestive enzymes to make our digestive system work properly.

And yeah, I mean, for sure, it's important for muscle mass, like maintaining it or improving it. And one of the functions that I talk about most with my clients is that it helps keep you fuller for longer. Like you're saying in terms of appetite, if you're someone who gets hungry an hour or two after eating your meal, it might be lacking protein. Okay, so on average, you think we get enough of it every day? Yeah, yeah, we do get enough. I think that

I think that social media makes it seem like we need tons and tons of protein, but most people do get enough for the basic function, like for those enzymes, hormones, etc. But if you're someone who wants to improve in your sports, to improve recovery times, gain muscle mass, then you would need more. So to give you an idea, someone who doesn't necessarily play sports or doesn't really need to improve,

You would need about 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. If you're doing some sports, you want to improve, it would be more like 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. And then if you want to gain muscle mass, it would be more like

on that higher range. So around 1.6. Okay. Okay. This is what I've always I've been talking to people like you for years. And this is where I get have a hard time getting my head or wrapping my head around this. So somebody who's an average man or an average woman who you pick. How do you like quantified? What does that look like? Is it the size of? Is it like the size of an apple? Is it, you know, like, is it five pieces of meat? What is it?

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, an average man or woman, it's about a quarter of your plate. So three times a day, a quarter of your plate. That could be if it's, if it's meat, it's about the size of the palm of your hand. But if it's something, if it's a vegetarian protein, then typically you do need more than that. So about a cup could be, could be good. So that's like the size of your, your fifth. Okay. That makes it, that makes sense.

Yeah. What about protein powders? What's your take on the, should we bother with those or just try to go for the meat? Yeah, I think typically I do suggest getting your protein from food first just because there's a lot of other nutrients in the food compared to the protein powder. But again, like if you're, if you're trying to gain muscle and it's quite hard for you to get it all through food, then it could be a good supplement for sure.

It's just not the number one priority. Okay, now you sort of made reference to this. If you're vegetarian or vegan, how do you consume enough protein? Yeah, you just have to get it from the different vegetarian proteins at each of your meals and probably in your snacks as well. So it can be either through legumes, like lentils, beans, and chickpeas, or it could be from soy foods,

like a tempeh tofu and edamame. So if you have, oh, and also nuts and seeds and peanut butter, so go ahead and have those in each of your meals and snacks, then it's definitely possible. And there are vegan protein powders as well if you are try to gain muscle. All right. Hey, thanks very much, Olivia. We'll look you up. Okay. And we'll do the math ourselves. Nutrition by Olivia.com. That's Olivia Coron, who's a registered dietician, nutritionist.