The Meat-Eater's Guide to Crafting a Meatless Meal, pt. 3

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 1

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 2

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 4

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 5

I'm going to take a bit of a detour in this post, as I feel I've overlooked something that's important when it comes to getting protein in our diets. This is the digestibility of different protein sources, how well the essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein that cannot be synthesized by the human body and must come from food) survive the digestion process. This is often referred to as the bioavailability of protein.

You've probably heard this already -- animal sources of protein (the flesh as well as eggs and milk products) are more accessible to the human body, while plant sources of protein (beans, seeds, nuts, grains, vegetable matter) are less accessible. Part of this is the amino acid composition of the plant material. You've probably heard that if you eat beans, you need to combine them with a grain in order to get the full spectrum of essential amino acids. In addition, plant foods contain certain anti-nutrients, naturally-occurring compounds which can block the absorption of minerals and amino acids. The result of both of these conditions is that plant protein is less bioavailable than animal protein.

Beyond this simplified distinction between animal and plant protein, within both the animal and plant kingdoms, the resulting foods each have their own unique rating of bioavailability for protein. I'm borrowing the following table and linking to the site (just under the tables) from where it came. This site has a reader-friendly article that explains all of this further if you want additional information.

https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/

https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/

The writer of the article explains that the DIAAS Protein Quality Assessment is the most recent and considered the most accurate method of rating protein availability. A score greater than 100 is considered "high quality." A score between 75 and 100 is considered "good quality/medium." And a score below 75 is considered "low quality" protein. As you can see, all of the animal sources of protein score in the "high" range. 

By the way, milk protein concentrate is primarily casein, the protein building block in milk. Some people are allergic to or have a sensitivity to the casein found in cow's milk. Goat's milk and sheep's milk do not contain the same problematic form of casein, and are therefore more easily tolerated. Whey protein is a by-product of yogurt and cheesemaking. Even though both casein and whey sound like they are each only part of or a component of milk, they both contain all of the essential amino acids.

Looking at the table for plant sources of protein, you can see that the only plant source that comes close to animal sources is soybeans. Whole soybeans contain all of the essential amino acids, likely the main reason they have been featured so heavily in many vegetarian meat analogues. The scores fall to soy protein (I think they mean soy protein isolate, which is what TVP is made from), pea protein (often found in protein supplement powders), and chickpeas/garbanzo beans, all in the medium range. Yellow lentils and pinto beans are just below the threshold for a medium score.

While this assessment looks grim, for those of us who may find themselves eating a whole lot less meat in the near future, here's the good news. This scoring is based on the quantity of essential amino acids in individual animal or plant foods and doesn't take into consideration the practice of combining different types of protein foods, such as eating beans with a grain, beans with eggs, grains and cheese, etc. 

According to this article, It's true that plant foods may lose about 10 to 20% of their protein availability due to those anti-nutrients and fiber. However, I would guess that most of us are capable of eating far more grams of protein than what meets the minimum for health. The other concern is the essential amino acid leucine. While plant foods like lentils do contain leucine, they don't contain as much of the essential amino acid as animal foods do. However, this is easily remedied by adding a small amount of an animal protein source, such as a bit of cheese, a little milk, or an egg to the meal that is prepared primarily using plant protein. Here are a couple of easy examples:

• peanut butter on bread, with a glass of cow's milk on the side
• refried beans in a flour tortilla for a burrito, with some cheese added to the filling
• TVP spaghetti (as I used for illustration in the first post on this topic), topped with Parmesan cheese
• or, one of my favorites, huevos rancheros, adding beans to the skillet along with the corn tortilla, then topped with an egg

The same article also mentions that of all of the plant foods, soy foods contain the highest amount of leucine. This would include tofu, soy milk, soy protein isolate (TVP and powders to add to shakes), tempeh, and edamame. In addition, quinoa and buckwheat (grains or pseudo-grains) also contain enough of all nine essential amino acids for the human body.

Finally, one last table, just for reference. This one readily identifies which foods to pair together to get the complete amino acid set for your body to use as protein when only consuming plant sources.

https://nutrition.org/protein-complementation/

We often hear about dishes that use complementary amino acids, such as beans and rice or peanut butter on whole-grain bread. This table shows which essential amino acid is deficient for the plant protein food, and in which foods to find it. Basically, beans go with grains, nuts, seeds, or corn. And vegetables (such as Brussel sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, avocado) find their lacking amino acid in grains, nuts, or seeds, but not in beans.


All of this goes back to what I said on day one of this topic, that I try to use 3 or 4 different sources of protein in every meatless meal that I prepare for the family. The TVP spaghetti meal -- pasta (grain), TVP (bean), Parmesan cheese (dairy), sourdough toast (grain). Okay, so the pasta and toast both came from grains. 

With the Cabbage Patch Soup meal mentioned yesterday -- lentils (bean), Parmesan cheese (dairy), Yorkshire pudding (egg, dairy, grain), pumpkin pie (egg, dairy, grain).

Here's another meal, last night's Cinco de Mayo feast. My daughter made baked nachos, using corn tortillas (corn/grain), refried pintos (bean), cheddar cheese (dairy), TVP (bean), yogurt (dairy), and about 4 ounces, total, of ground beef (animal). That amount of beef meant that each of us ate 1 ounce of meat. In our house, we not only eat meatless meals, but we also eat less-meat meals. I sometimes use just a bit of meat in a meal to add to the satiety of a dish. This is another way that we deal with having less meat available, for whatever reason. For dessert, we had a Nestle Tollhouse cake (grain).


For additional information:
https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0419p30.shtml

The first article does a good job of explaining how protein foods are rated for their usability in the human body. The second article of the two provides an alternate viewpoint to the first article, in that the author of the second sees protein foods not as isolated individual foods, but as part of a larger diet that combines and complements various individual foods into a whole. Both are good reading and helped me understand how to make meatless and less-meat eating better for my family's health.

The Meat-Eater's Guide to Crafting a Meatless Meal, pt.2

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 1

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 3

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 4

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 5

When you operate with a low grocery budget for a long period of time, one of the concerns that becomes deeply-rooted is how the budget will impact family members' health and well-being. Will this be enough for my family? Will everyone feel full? And more importantly, will they get the nutrients that they need? Do my children and husband have enough to eat? These thoughts have filled my head for many years. And since we've eaten meatless a lot more than I ever did growing up, I've had to pay extra attention to the protein content in our meals.

For most of us, you really don't need to do a bunch of calculations each day to ensure a good amount of protein in your diet. We can kind of use an educated guess whether or not a meal looks like it's got enough protein or not. It's pretty simple when you're serving an animal-based protein, like beef, chicken, or fish. We all know what a serving of meat looks like. With meatless meals, it's not always so obvious. My best trick in getting enough protein (without going crazy making calculations) is to simply bump up all of the meatless meals just a bit.

What do I mean by bumping them up? I try to add something extra to every component of a meal. 

As I'm planning meatless meals, I make an effort to toss in some extras that pack some protein, like using an egg-rich Yorkshire pudding as the bread/starch side dish (adding 6.8 grams of protein for 1/5 of a recipe), choosing a high-protein vegetable like peas to go with an entree, or making a batch of milk-rich cornstarch pudding or a bunch of custard cups of egg custard for dessert, or adding a tablespoon of Parmesan to each serving (3 grams protein per tablespoon) or large dollop of plain yogurt on top of most anything (about 1  1/2 grams protein). Even a slice of pumpkin pie adds over 4 grams of protein. I aim for 3 to 4 different, good sources of protein in each meatless dinner. This pretty much ensures that I'm getting a balance of all of the necessary amino acids without having to look up tables and charts.

Here's how that might play out with my family.

My family loves broth-based vegetable soups, such as our fall favorite Cabbage Patch Soup (with about 15 grams of protein when made with lentils, add another 3 grams protein when topped with Parmesan). When this soup is on the menu, I often serve it with either wedges of Yorkshire pudding (almost 7 grams or protein) or open-faced toasted cheese sandwiches (adding about 10 grams protein), plus our favorite pumpkin pie (4 grams protein). This sort of simple soup and bread/sandwich dinner with pie dessert has 26 to 32 grams of protein. 

http://www.gallowaysnewwest.com/products/dried-beans-peas/

I'd like to note, while mentioning lentils, some beans have more grams of protein than others. The best way to make this comparison of the different bean types is by grams of protein for every 200 calories. So, here's the list starting from the top with the most protein and working down.

1. lentils come in at number one for protein content. For every 200 calories, you get 15.6 grams protein
2. split peas, with 14.1 grams protein in 200 calories
3. large white beans, with 14 grams protein in 200 calories
4. cranberry beans and 
5. kidney beans both have 13.7 grams protein in 200 calories
6. lima beans, with 13.6 grams of protein in 200 calories
7. black beans, with 13.4 grams protein in 200 calories
8. pinto beans, with 12.6 grams protein in 200 calories
9. and last in this little list --navy beans, with 11.8 grams protein in 200 calories

(information for this list courtesy of myfooddata.com)

That's a substantial spread in protein content between the top of the list and the bottom, a difference of 3.8 grams of protein in a serving. That's a little more than half of an egg's worth of protein, simply by choosing a different type of bean. Lentils are my preferred bean for their quick cooking. The extra protein is something of a bonus.

https://groovy-historian.com/2017/01/24/how-grain-shaped-history-by-the-hungry-historian/

While we're talking lists of best bang for the buck with protein and similar foods, I thought it would be interesting to look at a list of grains by their protein content.

1. kamut comes in at number one for protein. For every 200 calories, you get 8.7 grams of protein. Kamut is an ancient grain that is gaining in popularity. In my search for flour and whole wheat berries, I came across kamut in a couple of places online.
2. whole wheat pasta, with 8 grams protein in 200 calories. Pasta in general is high in protein
3. wild rice, with 7.9 grams protein in 200 calories.
4. teff, with 7.7 grams protein in 200 calories. Teff is another obscure grain that is gaining in popularity. While whole wheat flour was about sold out everywhere in April, I did see teff flour.
5. quinoa, with 7.3 grams protein in 200 calories. Quinoa is not a true grain, but it is eaten like a grain. Quinoa has all of the essential amino acids. You can cook it as a side dish, like rice, marinate it as a salad base, or add it to soup. It's one of my favorite "grains" for it's nutrition and versatility.
6. buckwheat, with 7.3 grams protein in 200 calories.
7. whole wheat flour, with 7.2 grams protein in 200 calories (the protein content does vary in wheat, but this is an average given by eatthismuch.com)
8. oatmeal, with 7.2 grams protein in 200 calories.
9. couscous, with 6.8 grams protein in 200 calories
10. all-purpose flour, with 6 grams protein in 200 calories
11. millet, with 5.9 grams protein in 200 calories
12. cornmeal, with 4.8 grams protein in 200 calories
13. brown rice, with 4.2 grams protein in 200 calories
14. white rice, with 3.6 grams of protein in 200 calories

Not a grain at all, but we eat potatoes in the same category as grains for side dishes. Potatoes have 5.27 grams protein in 200 calories, so slightly more than brown rice.

(information for this list from myfooddata.com)

This is interesting, right? While eating the same number of calories in your grain dishes, you can choose to get twice as much protein in each serving. By combining strong grain choices with bean choices, one could add as much as 8 or 9 grams of protein to a meal. That's as much extra protein as is found in 1.5 large eggs, without eating anything extra but just making stronger choices.

Before I go today, I wanted to point out a great calculator tool for recipes. There are a few different calculator tools, but I find this one to be very user-friendly. When I'm wanting to know any nutritional content for a home recipe, I can pop the ingredients into the tool, specify servings, and get the nutrients calculated for me per serving. I used it to calculate the protein for my mom's Yorkshire pudding recipe and the pumpkin pie that I often make.

Foods to include in the pantry (and fridge) for bumping up your meatless meals:

• dried beans, especially lentils
• canned beans
• bean flour to use in baking, such as garbanzo bean/chickpea flour (11.8 grams protein in 200 calories)
• whole grains (and their products), such as quinoa, whole wheat pasta, teff flour, oatmeal
• Parmesan cheese -- doesn't have to be the fancy shredded Parmesan. The powdered stuff has protein, too.
• Greek yogurt
• eggs
• extra firm tofu

Meat isn't only about protein content. When eating meatless, it's important to maximize all of the other nutrients that one normally gets from animal sources.  Till next time . . .