8 Ways to meet your daily protein needs that you can apply

Protein has various important functions in the body. One of them supports the growth and repair of damaged body tissue. On this basis, protein intake from daily food must always be sufficient to support various body functions. So, how easy is it to meet your daily protein needs?

How much protein is needed in a day?

Based on the Nutrition Adequacy Figures from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia through the Minister of Health Regulation No. 75 in 2013, the protein needs of each age are different. Apart from age, other factors such as gender and daily level of physical activity also determine daily protein requirements.

Before finding out how to meet your protein needs in a day, first identify the amount that must be met. Here are the body's protein needs per day for each age:

• Age 0-6 months: 12 grams (gr) per day
• Age 7-11 months: 18 grams per day
• 1-3 years old: 26 grams per day
• 4-6 years old: 35 grams per day
• 7-9 years old: 49 grams per day

When a person is 10 years old, protein needs will be differentiated based on sex, thus affecting how to meet their intake.

Man

• Age 10-12 years: 56 grams per day
• Age 13-15 years: 72 grams per day
• Age 16-18 years: 66 grams per day
• Age 19-29 years: 62 grams per day
• 30-49 years old: 65 grams per day
• Age 50-64 years: 65 grams per day
• Age 65-80 years: 62 grams per day
• Age 80 years and over: 60 grams per day

Women

• Age 10-12 years: 60 grams per day
• Age 13-15 years: 69 grams per day
• Age 16-18 years: 59 grams per day
• 19-29 years old: 56 grams per day
• 30-49 years old: 57 grams per day
• Age 50-64 years: 57 grams per day
• Age 65-80 years: 56 grams per day
• Age 80 years and over: 55 grams per day

Important to note. This amount of daily protein intake can be used as an average reference, but is not an absolute value. The reason is, the level of your daily physical activity will affect the amount of protein needed.

The easy way to meet your daily protein needs

In order for protein needs to be fulfilled properly, here are some ways you can meet their intake:

1. Try to eat protein source foods first

One way to help meet protein needs is to eat protein source foods at the beginning, then continue with other foods. This is because protein foods can increase the production of the hormone PYY.

PYY is a hormone that is in the intestines and is responsible for making the body feel full. So when you start to feel full, protein intake has entered the body and automatically helps meet their needs.

In addition, protein can also reduce levels of the hormone ghrelin, which triggers hunger, and accelerates the body's metabolism. Especially after eating and during sleep.

2. Eat a variety of plant protein sources

Various different food sources, of course, contain and different amounts of essential amino acids. Indeed, compared to animal protein sources, the content of essential amino acids in vegetable protein sources is not very complete.

However, don't worry. The reason is, you can still meet your daily protein needs by eating a variety of vegetable protein sources. Especially for those of you who are on a vegan diet, and so don't eat animal food sources.

Various food sources of vegetable protein can be obtained through nuts, seeds, wheat, tofu, tempeh, oncom, and others.

3. Don't forget to eat animal protein sources

In addition to eating plant-based protein sources, don't forget to include animal protein sources in your daily diet. Combining these two groups of protein sources together can be a way to meet daily protein needs.

Various food sources with high animal protein content include poultry, red meat, eggs, and fish. Products that are processed from these ingredients also generally have good animal protein content.

However, don't forget to pay attention to the type of meat you eat. Because red meat and poultry usually have a high enough fat content. To be safer, you can select and process only the meat part, and remove the skin and fat from the meat.

4. Try consuming protein milk

Have you ever tried drinking protein milk or protein shakes? Apparently, this protein milk can be a way to meet your daily protein needs, you know. Indeed, this protein milk is more often consumed by athletes or people who want to build muscle mass.

However, for those of you who are looking to increase your daily protein intake, this type of milk can help. You can drink protein milk directly like milk in general, or mix it with various fruits, seeds, or yogurt.

To be safer, it would be nice to consult a doctor or nutritionist before drinking protein milk. Your doctor or dietitian can help determine your daily protein needs, as well as how much to increase your intake.

5. Include high-protein foods at every meal

If you want to ensure that your daily protein needs are met properly, try to include high protein food sources at every meal. That is, not at breakfast, or lunch, or dinner alone.

However, at every meal, provide a source of protein, including for snacks in his spare time. Besides being a way to meet daily protein needs, this trick also helps make the body feel fuller for longer.

As mentioned earlier, this is because protein sources reduce the hormone ghrelin which triggers hunger.

6. Make cheese as a snack

Snacks or snacks between main meals are an easy way to meet protein needs. With a note, you have to be smart in choosing the right type of snack food.

Instead of eating over-the-counter potato chips, junk food, and other less healthy ones, you can snacking a loaf of bread tucked in cheese. Alternatively, you can add a slice of cheese to a bowl of fruit or vegetable salad.

Besides being rich in protein content, cheese is not too risky to increase cholesterol levels for those of you who have high cholesterol. This one food ingredient is also considered good for helping maintain heart health.

7. Replace cereal with eggs

If you are used to eating breakfast with cereal, there is no occasion to replace the cereal with an egg or two. This is because the protein content in eggs is higher than cereal.

Moreover, eating eggs in the morning is believed to make the body feel fuller for longer for the next few hours. This can prevent you from eating or snacking excess in the future.

8. Choose greek yogurt

Greek yogurt is one of several types of yogurt that comes with a myriad of good benefits, including being rich in protein. In one serving of greek yogurt or about 240 grams, it contains approximately 17-20 grams of protein.

When compared to the usual types of yogurt, greek yogurt has twice the protein content. On this basis, greek yogurt can be a good choice of food sources as a way to meet protein needs.

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