Healthy, homemade meals offer the chance put the perfect ‘blend’ of foods into our bodies leaving them running in the most healthy and efficient way. By eating a diet based around plant based foods we are providing our bodies with the opportunity to utilise all the nutrients that are locked inside fresh foods.
In this series of posts, I will unlock some of the mysteries around the different food groups and help you to understand exactly why you need them.
Our bodies need 20 amino acids for good health. Proteins provide these amino acids, however, our bodies are only able to make 11 of them and so we need to get the remaining 9 from the food we eat. They are called essential amino acids. If a food contains all 9 of them, it is known as being a complete protein.
Before we dive into where we can access the 9 essential amino acids, let’s have a quick reminder of the types of food that contain complete proteins.
- Dairy – milk, cheese, yoghurt
- Meat – steak, roast beef, gammon, pork chop, lamb burger
- Poultry – chicken or turkey
- Eggs
As complete proteins, they contain the 9 essential amino acids our bodies need. But, as you will notice from the list, all these foods are animal based proteins and so this makes it difficult for vegans and vegetarians to access the 9 essential amino acids. So, the question is, how can a vegan or vegetarian access complete proteins?
It’s actually quite simple. Simply put, we need to combine our foods. Once you study the list below, you will soon realise, that if you eat a vegetarian or vegan based diet, you are already eating many of the food combinations on the list.
- Peanut butter on wholemeal toast – combining the protein in the nuts with wholegrains.
- Vegetable chilli with rice – combining the beans/pulses with wholegrains.
- Hummus & pitta bread – this also combines beans/pulse with wholegrains.
- Chickpea salad with sunflower seeds – combining beans with nuts or seeds.
Luckily, there are also some plant based ingredients that are also complete proteins. These include –
- Quinoa
- Soy beans (this could include tofu as it is made from soy beans)
- Buckwheat (buckwheat flour is delicious in cakes & muffins)
- Tempeh
- Edamame beans
- Chia seeds
When choosing what to eat on a daily basis, it’s always vital that your diet contains a variety of healthy foods. By making homemade meals with fresh, plant based ingredients, you are feeding and renewing every cell in your body and so providing strength to combat illness and disease.
Proteins are just one of the food groups our bodies need to maintain optimum health. In the next part of this series, I will discuss carbohydrates and try to explain the role they play in our health.
I hope this has clarified some of the mystery around proteins and helped you to realise just how crucial it is to obtain the 9 essential amino acids to achieve optimum health.
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Laura x
