Protein in food
Where the protein actually is
Reference numbers for everyday foods, the portions people really eat, powders and shakes, and how to hit a target without meat, without dairy or around an allergy.
11 articles
- Cheap protein: the foods that cost least per 20 gEggs, dried legumes, tinned fish, milk, and own-brand whey do most of the work. The comparison that matters is cost per 20 g of protein rather than cost per kilo of food, because the second one flatters anything with a lot of water in it and hides how little protein some cheap foods carry.
High protein breakfast: fixing the meal where the shortfall livesOne that carries 25 to 30 g rather than the 5 to 12 g a typical breakfast holds. Greek yoghurt, eggs, cottage cheese, skyr and milk do most of the work; cereal, toast, pastries and fruit do almost none. Fixing this one meal is usually the largest single change available to anyone short on protein.
High protein snacks that are actually high in proteinGreek yoghurt, cottage cheese, a tin of tuna, boiled eggs, edamame and a shake are the ones that carry 15 g or more. Nuts, hummus, cheese crackers and most protein bars land under 10 g, which makes them snacks that contain protein rather than snacks that fix a shortfall.
Hitting a protein target without animal foodsSoy first: tofu, tempeh, edamame and soy milk carry the most usable protein per portion. Then legumes, seitan, and higher-protein grains. The practical difficulty is volume rather than choice, because plant sources bring more water and fibre per gram of protein, so a plant-based day involves more food and more entries.
How much protein is in a chicken breast?About 31 g per 100 g of cooked skinless breast. The catch is that a breast is not a fixed size: they run from about 120 g to 250 g raw, so a single breast is anywhere from 30 g to 65 g of protein. Weighing one breast once tells you more than any table.
How much protein is in an egg?About 6 g in a large egg, roughly 4 g of it in the white and 2 g in the yolk. That makes eggs a good protein food rather than a dense one: two eggs is 12 g, which is a third of a main meal target. Three or four, or eggs plus something else, is what gets a meal there.
How much protein is in Greek yoghurt?About 10 g per 100 g, so a 170 g pot is roughly 17 g. Ordinary yoghurt is about 4 g per 100 g, which makes this one of the few swaps that doubles the protein for the same amount of food, the same price bracket and the same shelf.
Is protein powder worth it?Only if you are struggling to reach your target from food. Powder is convenient protein with nothing special about it: in the trials, supplementation adds muscle and strength during training, and the benefit stops once total intake reaches about 1.6 g per kilogram a day. It solves a logistics problem, not a nutritional one.
Whey, casein or plant protein: which to buyWhey concentrate for most people: it scores highest on quality measures and is the cheapest per gram of protein. Isolate if lactose is a problem, casein if you want it slower, and soy or a pea and rice blend if you avoid dairy. The differences are real and smaller than whether you drink it.
High protein foods, and how much they actually containPer 100 g cooked, the densest everyday sources are chicken breast at about 31 g, tuna at about 29 g, lean beef at about 26 g and salmon at about 25 g. Greek yoghurt carries about 10 g per 100 g, lentils about 9 g, and eggs about 6 g each.
What 30 grams of protein actually looks likeAbout 100 g of cooked chicken breast, one can of tuna, 170 g of Greek yoghurt plus a handful of almonds, five large eggs, or 300 g of cottage cheese. In plant foods it is roughly 350 g of cooked lentils or 375 g of firm tofu, which is why plant-based days need more total volume.