What protein does
Proteins are built from amino acids and make up your muscles, organs, skin, enzymes and hormones. Your body can make some amino acids itself; nine essential ones must come from food.
- Essential — your body can't make them, so they must come from food
- Semi-essential — your body makes them, but not always enough — in growth, illness or stress
- Non-essential — your body makes them itself
- Histidine (essential)
- Isoleucine (essential)
- Leucine (essential)
- Lysine (essential)
- Methionine (essential)
- Phenylalanine (essential)
- Threonine (essential)
- Tryptophan (essential)
- Valine (essential)
- Arginine (semi-essential)
- Cysteine (semi-essential)
- Glutamine (semi-essential)
- Glycine (semi-essential)
- Proline (semi-essential)
- Tyrosine (semi-essential)
- Alanine (non-essential)
- Asparagine (non-essential)
- Aspartic acid (non-essential)
- Glutamic acid (non-essential)
- Serine (non-essential)
How much
Adults need roughly 0.8 g per kg of body weight a day — about 55 g for a 70 kg person. Older adults, athletes and people recovering from illness may need more.
Pick a recommendation and set your body weight — how many portions of each food would cover a day's protein?
Plant sources
- Legumes — lentils, beans, chickpeas, peas.
- Soy — tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy milk.
- Seitan, whole grains, quinoa, nuts and seeds.
You don’t need to combine proteins at every meal: eating a variety of plant foods across the day gives you all the essential amino acids. Legumes are the key — they’re rich in lysine, the amino acid grains are low in.