Protein - How Much Do You Need And Where to Get It?

I challenge everyone to write down what they eat each day. Do that for a full week and then you can focus on what you are consuming. Few of us pay attention to what we eat, and it may just surprise you. For anyone trying to make a change in his or her eating habits, knowing what you consume is always a great start to knowing how to reduce what you shouldn't be eating.

If you really want to get crazy, copy all the labels on the canned, frozen or packaged foods that you eat and figure out how much sugar, sodium and fat you are ingesting, too. If you eat out, you can easily get the nutrition information from fast foods online.

Now compare your weekly intake with a look at a balanced diet chart. Notice that you should eat the least of the following: fats, oils, salt, sugar and alcohol. After these the next grouping includes meats and dairy products. If you eat more of the foods that you should, like fruits, vegetables and whole grains, you will find that you don't need to copy any labels to see what you are eating, because what you are eating is what you are buying with no added preservatives. Even if you don't buy organic, fresh produce with its pesticides are better than canned and processed equivalents.

Add up your totals and try to compare them to a balanced diet. Is yours heavy on the protein or meat side? Do you have eggs and bacon for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch and steak and potato for dinner? Where are the whole grains (also a good source of protein), fruits and vegetables? If you must have meat, fish and poultry are better for you. But if you are going for the protein, beans and nuts are the best and they are as filling as meat, too.

Most immigrants to America in its first 300 years of settlement preferred pork and chicken to beef. It wasn't until the Civil War, when these two meats became scarce, that beef got the upper hand. Today we eat on average about 75 grams of protein each day. For a person weighing about 160 pounds you should have about 58 grams. That overindulgence might be justified if you eat more meat in order to replace or cut back on pop, white bread or sweets, however.

A diet of moderation usually provides us with all the protein we need. If you must have meat, then try to focus on those that are most lean and less processed (that means avoid the lunchmeats, sausages and hotdogs.) The fact that about 80% of all antibiotics sold every year are used in animal production that we end up eating is enough to give you pause.

Do yourself a big favor by eating out less and choosing salads or beans more when you do eat out. It not only will thin your waistline, it will fatten your pocketbook. Perhaps that is why we don't keep track of what we are eating. It might just turn us all into garden growing, chicken raising, canning and food dehydrating paranoids!