Easy ways to help you have enough protein throughout your day

author

Joanna is a Nutrition & Regulatory Lead at Fonterra and holds a Masters of Dairy Science & Technology

Typically, we tend to eat the majority of our protein at our evening meal. However, we may actually get more bang for our buck by spreading our protein intake throughout the day. Including an adequate amount of protein (around 20-30g) at breakfast, lunch and dinner can help your body to use protein more effectively. While adding more protein throughout your day may sound easy, thinking of creative and tasty ways to incorporate protein into meals that are often carbohydrate-dense can be hard. So here are a few high protein breakfast, lunch and snack suggestions to get you started!  

Typically, we tend to eat the majority of our protein at our evening meal. However, we may actually get more bang for our buck by spreading our protein intake throughout the day.

High protein meal ideas

Breakfast

Many breakfast foods, such as cereal and bread, tend to be carbohydrate-dense. While the body does need carbohydrates for energy, you can easily boost the protein content of a classic breakfast by including milk, cheese and yoghurt, legumes, eggs or nuts and seeds. This can be as easy as adding a slice of Anchor cheese to your wholemeal bread and serve it with a glass of milk.

If you love toast, there are a number of different toppers, tweaks or additions that can help to ensure you are getting around 20g of protein in your morning meal. Picking a wholegrain toast will already give you a head start – 2 slices of wholemeal bread can provide around 4g protein alone!

Add one slice of Anchor cheese and avocado to your wholemeal toast, along with one cup of milk.

Lunch

Liven up your lunchtime salad or sandwich by adding chickpeas, cheese, quinoa, nuts, seeds, fish, meat, yoghurt or egg. Have a look at the table below to get an idea as to how much protein they can add to a meal. Also check out the delicious recipes for stuffed cheesy eggplant, Anchor cheese pinwheel and cheesy baked fingers with tuna topping for some more inspiration!

   Serve size                 
 Protein per serve    
 Almonds
 10 Almonds
 3.1g
 Eggs
 2 eggs
 11.8g
 Cashew nuts
 10 nuts
 3.6g
 Cheddar cheese
 1 slice 
 3.9g
 Chicken breast
 1/2 cup
 24.1g
 Chickpeas
 1 cup, cooked
  37.9g
 Catfish
 1 whole, small
 13.4g
 Mackarel, Indian
 1 whole, medium
 13.6g
 Fresh Milk
 1 cup (250ml)
 8.2g
 Beef
 ½ cup
 27.8g
 Prawn
 5 whole, medium
 5.6g


Snacks

Some of the protein snacks include:

· A few handfuls of nuts

· Crackers with tuna or a few slices of cheese

So choosing higher protein foods throughout the day can be easy once you’re equipped with the right knowledge and inspiration!