How to spread your protein requirements out across the day
Typically, we’ve been a country that tends 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 not only help your body to use protein more effectively, but it may also help to keep you feeling satisfied. 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 ideas to get you started!
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 and dairy products, legumes, eggs, nuts and seeds. This can be as easy as adding some Anchor Protein+ smoothie booster and a nut butter to a smoothie, or a dollop of Greek-style yoghurt, and a sprinkle of nuts or seeds to your bowl of cereal. For something that requires a bit more prep, such as overnight oats or Bircher, mix 35g oats with ½ cup milk and 1 cup high protein yoghurt, and refrigerate overnight.
If you’re a fan of 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 wholegrain bread can provide around 8g protein alone!
- Add 40-50g cottage cheese and avocado to your toast, along with a coffee made with Anchor Protein+ milk on the side
- Spread 2 tablespoons of Peanut Butter to your toast and top with ½ a banana, and 4 tablespoons of chia seeds
- Scramble 2 eggs with Anchor Protein+ milk and serve on toast with wilted spinach and a sprinkle of cheese
For a more gourmet option, which might be a bit out of the ordinary, take a look at our Anchor Protein + recipes for more inspiration. We’ve got banana choc smoothie bowls or oaty protein pancakes to get you started!
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 spicy roast vegetable pizza for some other inspiration!