Happy New Year!

One of my family's new year traditions is to have ham and black eyed peas on New Year's day.  Why?  I don't know, but I do know that if you do not eat this food, you will have a bad year.  Strange as it seems, it's significantly better than the pork and sauerkraut tradition that permeates the area in which I live.

So, after church this morning, my 4 year old decides that we're going to have a picnic today.

"You mean an indoor picnic, right?"  No... an outdoor one, so we can blow bubbles.  Yay!


He wins this one.  To be fair, the weather so far this winter has been extremely mild, but still, it is winter and it is 40 degrees outside.  So, I figure that while I prepare the meal, I'll let him blow bubbles on the deck- maybe then he'll logically decide that eating on the deck wouldn't be as pleasant as he at first thought.

Last night before bed, I put a pound of dry black eyed peas in a pot with water and put a lid on it, so all I needed to do was boil them, add some ham, vegetables and seasoning and voila!

We had a pleasant meal... outside... I wore a coat and hat- my wife wore a hooded sweater with the hood up- my son wore flip flops and a short sleeved shirt (eventually, he wanted a blanket)...  I have to admit, it was kind of fun.  As I'm making this simple meal, I start to ponder protein...

Why?  Food is fuel, every bite of food should have a purpose- to fuel the body for activity.

How much protein do we actually need?  To be honest, I don't really know...  It depends on your gender, weight, and work out schedule.  I've seen as little as 56 grams per day recommended to 80 grams, I tend towards the 80 grams... but man that's a LOT of meat, and meat costs money, and you Mr. Blogger Read and Eat Simply man told me that a serving of meat was no bigger than a deck of cards...

Seriously though, it doesn't have to be that hard, and no, you don't have to eat meat to get all the protein you need.  There are cultures throughout this world that do not include meat anywhere in their diet and they are perfectly healthy, if not healthier than some of our top athletes.  The problem with the American diet is that we tend to want more meat than we need.  There are many sources of protein that we often overlook.  I can't possibly name them all, so I will comment only on my experience and any additional research I was able to do.

1.)  Meat, including fish- basically something that was living, but is now dead and we are eating its flesh... happy thoughts :-) one serving of meat (remember deck of cards) is about 21 grams of protein.

The issues that surround meat is the way animals are raised.  In a perfect world, fish would be free to be themselves, eating what they naturally eat;  cows would be free to roam on pastures, eating grass; chickens and turkeys would be free to roam and eat bugs and worms; pigs would forage.

This is not a perfect world.  It's all corn.

Cows are fed corn, which they are not naturally designed to eat, but they have been trained to eat it.  They're fed corn because corn produces a significant amount of fat very quickly in the beef, and since a good marbled cut of beef is what we are accustomed to wanting, the system perpetuates itself.  The only problem is the E Coli that is produced when a cow does not have time to chew its cud like its naturally designed to do.  Hence antibiotics and chemical washes in the production of meat.

Some cows are pastured... some chickens and turkeys are free range... and some pigs are raised properly; but because of government regulations, they are generally slaughtered in large corporate slaughter houses and the farmers can't always guarantee that the livestock they sent in is the same meat they get out.

Many fish are over harvested or, because of pollution, have too much mercury, or other harmful elements.  Farm raised fish lack many of the benefits of wild caught fish because they are often fed a limited diet but they can still contain the same harmful elements in wild fish.

AHHHH!  This is supposed to be SIMPLE!!  Believe me there is a lot more to meat than I'm putting here, but please understand I am only putting it here to make a point- eat less meat.

2.)  Beans/nuts/eggs/tofu/cheese- all good sources of protein, but not as much protein as in meat... about 7 grams per serving.

3.) Yogurt- a serving of greek yogurt can contain as much as 20 grams of protein; other yogurts are closer to 8 grams.

4.)  Whole grain foods also contain a smaller amount of protein, around 3 grams.  Oatmeal has as much as 11 grams per serving.

Ok, so how do I get 80 grams?! in a day!?

Let's think this through.  Well 4 servings of meat- but I just said less meat... hmmm.   Below is a sample meal plan for a typical day.

Breakfast
Oatmeal (real rolled oats, not instant) make with milk, 19 grams
Add nuts or berrys for more protein and/or nutrition

Lunch
Sandwich- peanut butter and jelly 7g + 3g + 3g = 13 grams (each slice of bread is a serving and if you make your own bread, there might even be more protein)
Fruit

Snack
Greek yogurt with nuts and berries 27 grams

Dinner
Serving of chicken 21 grams
Quinoa 6 grams
Vegetable

Total 86 grams of protein...

Any other snacks just add the protein on.

At the end of my last marathon one of the things we got was a bottle of chocolate milk- research has shown that chocolate milk is incredibly good to help in rebuilding muscles after a marathon because of the sugar content and the protein.

Adding protein to your diet doesn't have to be too hard, there are a whole lot more combinations.

Any additions or deletions are always appreciated, so please comment and share.

On my suggested readings list
The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules by Michael Pollan

Just started reading Why We Get Fat and What to do About it by Gary Taubes thanks to the suggestions by others.