Written By: Vegan Out The Mud
Protein is an essential nutrient in the body that is responsible for building tissue and muscle. Whether you are vegan or not, the average male needs at least 50-60g of protein per day while women need 50-55g. These numbers will obviously change depending on your overall goals but at minimum, you should aim to achieve these daily recommendations. The daily minimum is not any harder to reach on a plant based diet and actually opens up the choices of sources you have to pick from.
Beans, seeds, nuts & nut butters are the main go to sources for vegans but fruits and vegetables also contain protein. 1 cup of garbanzo beans is equal to about 15g of protein. That’s 25% of a man’s daily recommendation in 1 sitting. Coupling that with 1/2 cup of brown rice that adds another 8g, leaving you with 23g total or 38% of the daily recommendation. Snacking on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with 1/4 cup of peanut butter gives you 15g.
Most Americans are deficient in some vitamin or mineral because of our limited views on diets but for vegans protein is always highlighted. Once we understand all protein that is created comes from plants and expand our sourcing of it, along with every essential nutrient, we can give our bodies everything they need to run at its best.