Health Nutrition
Fruits
Vegetables and Pulses
Nuts and Seeds
Meat and Poultry
Fish and Seafood
Food For Health
Food For Weight Control
Food As Medicine
Food Tips
Food Charts
Protein
We need protein for growth. Enough intake of protein is essential to our health. Protein is needed for:
- Growth and development in child
- Cell maintenance and repair
- Regulation of body functions
- Various tasks that fat and carbohydrates can not do
Protein is consists of amino acids. Proteins from different types of foods contain different types of amino acids. These amino acids are used by our body to create protein that we need. Amino acids can be categorized into two broad types, non-essential amino acids and essential amino acids.
Essential amino acids are provided from our daily diets. Our body can not create these amino acids from other amino acids. Unlike essential amino acids, our body can make non-essential amino acids from other amino acids that we consume.
Good Sources of Protein
| Protein Type | Food | Protein (g) |
| Animal Protein | Chicken breast (without skin) | 42 |
| Ostrich / 100g | 39 | |
| Roasted lean beef /100g | 32 | |
| Cod / 175g | 31 | |
| Venison / 100g | 22 | |
| Prawn (peeled) 100g | 17 | |
| Plant Protein | Soya beans / 50g | 18 |
| Lentils / 50g | 12 | |
| Red kidney beans / 50g | 11 | |
| Baked potatoes / 225g | 8 | |
| Tofu / 100g | 8 | |
| Pasta / 50g | 6 |
How much protein should you eat?
The daily intake of protein can be up to 15% of the total nutrients we eat. One way to work out how much protein you need for a day is multiply your weight with 0.75 protein per day. So if you weight about 51kg, you need about 38g of protein a day. If you weight about 70kg, you need slightly more than 52g of protein a day.