My body is a temple! What are you eating? This can represent the mind, body, and/or spirit. Today, I want to talk about the physical body. I have a previous post discussing health and sickness called Let’s Talk: Sickness and Diet. In that piece, I pinpointed when I started paying attention to the food that can heal us or make us sick. How are we feeding ourselves out of sickness? Most of my medications are plant-based vitamins. For the moment, so is my protein.
Let’s talk about protein. What is it? According to Britannica, a protein is a naturally occurring, extremely complex substance that consists of amino acid residues joined by peptide bonds. Proteins are present in all living organisms and include many essential biological compounds such as enzymes, hormones, and antibodies. Are you getting enough, too little, or too much protein?
Proteins are important for growth, cell reproduction, and repair. Where can we get protein from? Meats, legumes( peas and beans), vegetables, and fruits. In the order listed is protein from greatest to least in value. Meat has the most protein eg. A chicken leg (quarter) with skin has 62grams of protein which is 124% of the daily value of a 2000 calorie diet according to MyFooddata.com. Legumes starting with tofu can range from 43.5 grams in a serving to 20 grams of protein. Other beans red, navy, etc. can range from 19 grams down. Vegetables can range from 13 grams down. Last and least are fruit ranging from 5.2 grams of protein down.
Looking at this information, I know the majority of us are eating a very unbalanced diet. Just looking at our social media pages and inside my own home. My children don’t measure their food; they eat until full and snack until satisfied. Women that are not very active are supposed to intake 46 grams of protein and Men 58 grams. Increasing protein can help you gain muscle but in most cases, we are eating way more than recommend and not working out.
I do strive to raise health-conscious individuals, but I usually have to lead by example. In my last post, I spoke about Lymphedema and how the most successful way, I have found to treat it was by not eating meat. I ate seafood but not daily. I still ate cheese, eggs, and ice cream. I don’t believe in cow’s milk, subject for a whole other blog. But for about a month, I ate no meat and doubled up on veggies, and monitored the amount of grain and carbohydrates. I didn’t lose weight but there was a lot less swelling. I did eat meat substitutes during this journey. I love burgers, so I tried the Beyond Burger. Chiiiillllle, Let me tell you something, I didn’t miss eating beef. I also made a vegetable burger using eggplant as my patty. I didn’t like the Beyond crumble though, it was shaped like pellets and had a chewy texture, it did work well in pasta sauce. I did love the morning star crumble, the taste and texture were on point.
I do plan to still eat meat, I will try to be as organic and proportioned as possible. I want to lose weight, next and to continue to work on my endurance. What are you working on? What foods have helped you through your sickness?
Let’s talk about your eating habits and how you have progressed to true and total wellness.
LIVE LIFE in COLOR!
Tani’s World
Listen the crumble are good for sloppy Joe or spaghetti. I dont really miss beef but I do miss bacon and pork tenderloins. If I crave fried chicken I fry some mushrooms and beef please i love me a black bean burger….You can’t fake pork tho lol
Which crumble brand do you use? And yes, bacon is one of a kind. thank you for the comment.