Here are the top 10 veggies high in protein! Eat these high-protein vegetables if you want to get a lot of muscles, abs, biceps, lose weight, have good skin, hair, nails and well, maintain life.
Did you hear there’s not enough protein out there? The protein is nooooot enough…(007? The world is not enough? No? Fine, I’m the loser because I remember songs from 56 years ago.)
In fact, I’ve heard you’re more likely to dig out a diamond in the local park than to find protein in those old fashioned foods some people still eat these days.
Well, new research has shown, there is, actually, enough protein in our food, and we don’t need to get paranoid about it. I did this research using this database and here we’ll see the results.
I focused specifically on high-protein vegetables and surprise: some of them actually have more protein than meat. Which ones? I didn’t know, but I learned something new and you will too when you scroll down!
But before we start with the list of vegetables high in protein, let’s ask a question nobody seems to ask these days, because we feel protein is super scarce.
Why Do We Even Need Protein?
You might have heard you need to eat a ton of protein to gain muscles, to lose weight and to be super fit. That’s probably true, but there’s more to protein than making you look like Arnold (from Hey, Arnold, obviously!).
Proteins are pretty much like transformers because they can do so many things inside the body. Here are some functions of protein in the body we don’t seem to acknowledge anymore:
- As enzymes: Proteins are needed as an “assistant” to make different reactions and processes happen in the body. Without those enzymes, we won’t be able to digest food, produce energy or use the muscles we’ve built.
- As hormones: Proteins and peptides can act as hormones. Which means, they help different cells in the body communicate. Some examples are insulin, human growth hormone, and antidiuretic hormone.
- As part of the immune system: Proteins are also antibodies. The molecules your immune system can build, for example, when you’ve gone through infection or vaccination. These antibodies circulate through the body protect us from getting sick again.
- Tissue Building. And of course, we need protein for growth and for the ongoing maintenance of our tissues – skin, hair, nails, muscles – everything needs to be built and rebuilt consistently. We need protein for that.
Where Can You Find Protein?
I know, I also see a chicken breast in my mind when this question comes up. But here are some other sources:
- fish, eggs, beef, and even cheese
- chickpeas, beans, lentils and even quinoa
- nuts and seeds, especially chia and hemp seeds
- tempeh or tofu
- high-protein vegetables like those listed below
And these are many other dietary sources of protein. But remember that food should be about more than one nutrient. So yes, you can get a ton of protein in your diet, but what about the macronutrients that help your body utilize that protein and actually use it? The point is don’t look at just one nutrient, even if your only goal is to build muscle.
How Much Do We Need?
I’ve heard many stories. From we don’t need much protein to we need 1g of protein per pound. Here’s what we absolutely need according to NIH:
- infants: 1.5 g/kg/day
- toddler (1-3y) 1.1 g/kg/day
- Ages between 4 and 13: 0.95 g/kg/day
- Teenagers between 14-18: 0.85 g/kg/day
- Adults: 0.8 g /kg/day for adults
- Pregnant (using pre-pregnancy weight) or Lactating woman: 1.1 g/kg/day
Based on these numbers, a woman who is 55 kg or 121 pounds would need around 44g protein per day, not 121g of protein.
As always these numbers are very individual and also depend on your lifestyle (someone with a more active lifestyle would need more protein than someone who sits for a living, even at the same height and weight!). But if you’re struggling, no need to eat protein powder with a spoon – do something better for your body and simply add these high-protein vegetables to your meals.
