Getting The Nutrients You Need
It’s important to make sure you’re getting enough protein.
These foods are all good sources, so try to include a mixture of these in your diet each day, and vary the types you choose:
- pulses (such as lentils and beans)
- nuts and seeds
- eggs
- soya and soya products such as tofu
- mycoprotein, sold as Quorn™
- wheat proteins, such as cereals, bread, rice and maize
- milk and dairy products
Protein is made of amino acids, some of which are known as ‘essential amino acids’ because the body can’t make them itself.
It’s important to get some of each of these essential amino acids at the same time. Soya and quinoa are the only vegetarian sources of the complete mix of essential amino acids. (The complete mix is also found in meat, poultry, fish and eggs.)
Although it sounds complicated, it’s actually easy to get all the essential amino acids you need by eating different types of protein foods at the same time, in fact you will often being doing this already, for example by having:
- beans on your toast
- milk with your breakfast cereal
- rice with lentil dhal
- a rice and bean salad
- vegetable chilli (with kidney beans) served with rice or tortillas
- bread and cheese
- soup made with lentils, beans or split peas with a chunk of bread
- houmous and pitta bread
It’s also not a good idea to rely on one type of protein because you might be missing out on nutrients. And, if for example you rely on cheese as your source of protein, you might be having too much saturated fat.
If you don’t eat milk and dairy products, choose soya, rice or oat drinks fortified with calcium instead.
