My wife has lately taken to eating more nuts and seeds than before. Personally, I like nuts, but dislike the high calorie values. Today, as we perused the mark-down counter as usual, we spied sunflower seeds, as well as pumpkin seeds. She bought the sunflower. They are evidently roasted in oil, according to the ingredient label. Looking closely at the label, at home, I almost fell over: 1 cup provides just under
1,000 calories! The "serving size" is 1/3 cup, 330 calories, fat 250, protein 10g, not too bad on that, but a 50 calorie helping of canned tuna provides 11 g. protein, so it's twice as effective on protein, comparatively.
I am of the personal opinion that folks leaning heavily towards vegetables may often be protein-deficient; as I've taken to eating a bucketful of veggies daily, I watch my protein intake. Fish is good, as is poultry or any meat, of course. I finally found a most suitable site to instantly check nutritional values, you might like it:
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/
I just tried this site. No general listing for nuts & seeds, so entered "seeds" on search bar: figures were close to our package of sunflower seeds! Learned something else: pumpkin seeds calories = 1/3 sunflower! imp
I'm a vegan imp and my protein levels are anything but deficient. A list of my foods daily would go something like this:
1/2 cup of combo. oatmeal, sunflower seeds, quinoa flakes, pumpkin seeds for breakfast
1 cup of lentil stew with mixed veggies in it, for lunch
2 cups of a vegan protein shake made with 1/2 soy milk, 1/2 water for an afternoon snack
quinoa pasta or chick peas, or quinoa (served like rice) or quinoa/potato patties, or beans done all kinds of ways......and accompanied with veggies of all sorts, for supper
nuts, blueberries, watermelon, pineapple - any one of these or even several for snacks in the evening.
Remember there are 'proteins' in pretty much every food, including fruits and veggies. Horses, elephants, cattle.....all herbivores and they get huge and strong. I also use quinoa a lot because it is one of the few plant foods that has a complete range of the necessary proteins. But even without that, your body has an amazing ability to match up the enzymes from a varied diet so that you do get all the protein enzymes that are required for health and fitness. The misinformation that YOU have to make sure that you 'match' foods to that end has been discounted years ago.
The secret is variety and then exercise. I do a half hour of interval training plus a short yoga workout two or three times a week. I'm up to 40 full body push ups now and recently bought myself a 15 lb. kettle bell to add weight when I do squats. Last time I checked, 118 pounds on 5'4" frame which is about the same that I weighed just before I got pregnant in my 20's and the only difference is that now I have real, visible muscles. As a 60 year old, I don't worry about my weight at all, I don't count calories and I eat lots of nuts.
Ameriscot mentioned B12 and that's something that you can get from a little supplement every day. Keep in mind that even animals don't naturally have B12 as part of their physiology any more than you do. They source it from eating off the ground, drinking dirty water, etc., as it's a bacteria that is present in the dirt. In fact, I even read somewhere that the hens that are hatched in sterile hatcheries and then go direct into those awful barns that they're locked into, have B12 added to their feed. And considering how so many meat eaters are actually deficient in B12 and go for B12 shots as they age especially, the idea of one little tablet that dissolves under your tongue shouldn't be an issue.
So if you think that being a vegetarian means a shortage of protein, that's only the case if you've given up meat for Twinkies (or some other crap like that).
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