High Protein Foods to Eat

Whether you’ve decided to go meatless once a week or adopted a full vegetarian lifestyle, you need to keep nutrition on the front burner. Since you’ve nixed the meat, making sure your body is getting enough protein to stay strong is crucial. Protein functions to build and maintain your body, fight off disease, and keep energy levels high to you can stay alert all day.

Select a variety of protein foods to improve nutrient intake and health benefits, including at least 8 ounces of cooked seafood per week. Young children need less, depending on their age and calorie needs. The advice to consume seafood does not apply to vegetarians. Vegetarian options in the Protein Foods include beans and peas, processed soy products, and nuts and seeds. Meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat.

Soy milk

While most non-dairy milks are light in protein, soy milk is the exception. If you're eschewing cow dairy for reasons such as lactose intolerance, consider using soy milk to float your cereal in, or for whipping up post-gym shakes. To keep your intake of gut-busting added sugars to a dull roar, opt for brands labelled "unsweetened." And if your goal is to avoid genetically modified foods, splurge for organic.

Eggs

King of food protein is the humble egg. A medium egg has around 6g of protein of the highest biological value, meaning it comes complete with all 20 amino acids in the most digestible form. An omelette is a good way to start the day and is a good recovery snack too.

Protein Power

This bodybuilding staple delivers more protein than other poultry cuts, which is why it should remain a constant presence in your shopping cart. To keep more greenbacks in your wallet, get chummy with the meat guy at your supermarket, who can give you a heads-up when the poultry is likely to be marked down for quick sale.

Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese serves as great snack. It’s affordable, comes in reduced-fat versions, and also contains calcium to keep your bones strong. But you can also hide it in creamy dishes, or sub it out for ricotta cheese or sour cream in certain dishes too. Try combining with fresh veggies for a savory treat, or adding fruit and cinnamon for something more sweet.

Nuts

Whether you go for cashews, walnuts, pistachios, or any of the other varieties, whole, raw nuts are a healthy high-protein snack choice. If you're concerned about calories, limit your nut intake to a handful or two, and remember that though nuts are high in fat, it's healthy monounsaturated fat, which doesn't clog arteries and is an essential part of a healthy diet. Plus, nuts are high in fiber, which when paired with their protein content, keeps you feeling full longer.

Milk

Dairy foods are packed with protein and contain bone-building calcium, too. Chocolate milk is the age-old recovery food after exercise, since it contains energy-replenishing carbohydrates and a blend of both slow and fast release whey and casein proteins. You can get the same recovery-boosting effects from a milk-based fruit smoothie - such as this cranberry & raspberry smoothie recipe.

Foods You Should Eat Every Day

Eating healthy is an important part of life. Many of us strive to eat as healthy as possible every day, but are you really consuming the best nutrients for your body? There are countless “superfoods” on the market. These foods boast so many health benefits that they’re referred to as superfoods because of their many super powers.

With the help of several nutrition experts and the right kinds of foods, you can stave off heart disease, stay slim and boost your immune system. So what follows is a list of the healthiest foods you should be eating now.

Broccoli

Consider broccoli your number one cancer fighter, thants to its sulfur compounds, such as sulforaphane, which you can smell as broccoli cooks. These compounds signal our genes to boost production of enzymes that detoxify potentially cancer-causing compounds. Eat more broccoli and you could slash your risk of everything from breast and lung cancer to stomach and colon cancer.

Berries

All berries are great sources of fiber—a nutrient that most Americans don’t get enough of and one that is important for a healthy digestive system. Fiber may help to promote weight loss. Raspberries boast the most at 8 grams per cup—and also contain ellagic acid, a compound with anti-cancer properties. The same amount of blueberries has half the fiber (4 grams), but is packed with anthocyanins, antioxidants that may help keep memory sharp as you age. A cup of strawberries contains 3 grams of fiber, but more than a full day’s recommended dose of skin-firming vitamin C.

Oats

Oats’ cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering powers come from beta-glucan, a type of soluble fibre. One cup (250 mL) a day of cooked oat bran, 1 ½ cups (375 mL) of cooked oatmeal or thee packets of instant oatmeal provide enough beta-glucan to lower blood cholesterol by about five percent and heart attack risk by about 10 percent.

Beans

Beans are a good plant-based source of iron (up to 13 mg per 3/4 cup), a mineral that transports oxygen from your lungs to the cells in your body. Because your body can’t absorb the form of iron in plant-based foods as well as it can the form found in beef and poultry, pair beans with a vitamin C-rich food, such as sweet potatoes or lemon juice, to boost your iron absorption.

Yogurt

Yogurt is a great source of bone-building calcium, but its real strength lies in live beneficial bacteria, know as probiotics, that keep down the growth of harmful bacteria in your gut. Eating more yogurt could help with inflammatory bowel disease, ulcers, urinary tract infections and vaginal yeast infections.