Whole Food Protein Sources: After a Workout, During Pregnancy, & Brain Boosters

Protein shakes, energy bars, and supplements marketed to athletes sometimes feel like the worst offenders in the processed foods world. Between the odd chemicals claiming to boost muscle mass, increase energy, and extend endurance (creatine, anyone?) and the fact that most energy bars use soy protein, ignoring the fact that animal foods are the best source of usable protein available, that’s a whole category I’d like to stay away from.

(Unfermented soy, by the way, is sketchy because it is high in phytoestrogens that may be hormone disrupting, high in inflammatory omega-6 fats, and also incredibly high in phytates, which can hinder mineral absorption from the rest of the good food you eat. It also is simply a product of our century that anyone eats soy regularly without long fermenting it first – think miso, soy sauce. “New” foods in my traditional foods world equal “stay away.”) (top photo source)

We can get plenty of protein, even on the go, with exclusively real, whole foods and no packaged junk. You’ll love the list of high protein foods that readers and I put together for this post, so don’t forget to read all the way to the end for the practical goodies!

This post is sponsored by Radiant Life.

Why Protein After Exercise?

The fitness community does have some research backing up the recommendation to consume adequate protein, especially after a workout.

Consuming protein after working out helps to keep your net protein balance positive (whatever that means) which is necessary for muscle mass increase and to prevent muscle breakdown. This study, which I also don’t have the patience to understand fully, also found that there was no increase in benefit when consuming over 20 grams of protein (for a 190-pound, fit young man). ¹

Therefore, most sources recommend that an athlete should consume between 6-20 grams of protein within an hour after a workout to help with muscle building and recovery. After that time, the muscles will have already begun breaking down in the absence of protein to fuel them.

(photo source)

Throughout the day, it’s important to get enough protein, period, for optimal health and also for athletes to build and maintain muscle. Chad Landers, a certified strength and conditioning coach who also has a diploma in sports nutrition from the International Olympic Committee, contributed to CNN with this formula to determine your protein needs for the day:

• An optimal range of protein intake for an athlete trying to gain muscle is .72-.81 grams per pound per day.
• If your goal is to maintain muscle, the range is .54-.64 grams per pound per day.
• Livestrong says that “Most adults need to consume about 0.4g of protein per 1 lb. of body weight.”
• If overweight, calculate using your goal body weight.
• To calculate your requirements, simply multiply your weight times one of the figures above.

For me, ringing in at about 125 pounds, I would need between 67-100 grams per day to maintain or build muscle mass and a minimum of 50 grams using the Livestrong figure.

RELATED: Cutting weight for wrestling with real food.

Protein in Pregnancy

When I was expecting our first child, we took Bradley birth classes and were instructed to count protein grams, seeking 80-100 grams per day. Building a baby is much like building muscle, apparently!

Protein in pregnancy is vital for baby’s growth, placental health, increasing the blood volume in the mother, and preventing pre-eclampsia or toxemia. ³

Consuming regular protein also may help avoid nausea for the pregnant mom, so this list should be helpful for anyone with child to try to make sure she has protein always available, even when out and about shopping for baby clothes.

Protein for Brain Health

What about the rest of us?

In my stage of life, I’m neither pregnant nor exercising regularly, but clearly I still need to make sure I get adequate protein from whole foods sources. Maybe if I increase it, I will have the neurons to rub together to help me understand all those research studies like I referenced above…

This article by Jordan Rubin, author of The Maker’s Diet, demonstrates the important of protein for general brain health, energy, and even hindering the negative effect of sugar on the system.

RELATED: How much protein does a teen need in a day?

What Kind of Protein?

For some reason I guess there’s a trend lately to encourage athletes to drink chocolate milk after a workout for the protein boost.

This may shock you, but I will not be recommending chocolate milk.

We real foodies know that real protein is found best in animal products: red meat, chicken, sustainable seafood, raw milk, homemade yogurt in a crock pot, cheese, etc.

Even the CNN expert cited above recommends animal products:

Of course, recommending low fat foods and okaying creatine (in his next sentence at the article) don’t sit all that well with me for this “expert”…

Athletes are also told to consume some carbs with their protein:

This is where the chocolate milk recommendation comes in, I suppose. But the straight up white sugar or HFCS found in chocolate milk is simply unnecessary.

WebMD agrees:

I loved reading that recommendation for energy bars, since two small servings of my homemade quinoa oat protein bars would have 6.4 g protein plus carbs from naturally occurring sugars, and the grain-free quinoa bar recipe with whey powder from Radiant Life top the charts at nearly 12 g protein for the same amount!

Real Food On the Go Protein Sources

Certainly we can grill up a grassfed hamburger or some spicy Alaskan salmon, but what about getting that protein in within an hour after working out? And those pregnant mamas aren’t always near their kitchen to cook. With the help of the KS community on Facebook and Twitter, here’s a total brain dump of everything we could think of that would pack a protein punch, and also be packable itself:

• Homemade beef jerky (13-22g protein for a small piece)
  • 28 g of beef jerky has 13 g protein according to a calorie counter, but I figured if dehydrating foods makes them end up at about 25% of their starting weight/size, take a 3-oz. portion of ground beef the size of a deck of cards, mentally cut 1/4 off of that, and you’ve got a small to average sized chunk of beef jerky. That should have 22g protein if nothing is lost in the making of the jerky by pouring off the fat! Impressive! My homemade jerky uses ground beef, is easy to chew and easy to make. (Recipe can be found in the newly expanded Healthy Snacks to Go eBook along with over 45 real food snack recipes – click HERE to learn more.)
    
    
    
• Vital Whey protein powder (16 g protein in 1 scoop or 20 g)
  • This is quality whey protein, by the way, from grassfed, GMO-free, chemical-free raw milk. It is not denatured by high temp spray drying like most protein powders, nor is it pumped up with other random ingredients. It’s just whey. My husband has been really enjoying mixing it with raw milk after his P90X and Insanity workouts – he says he missed his protein drinks after we ran out of the “other stuff” and I wouldn’t buy any more. Tastewise, it’s right on par with any protein powder he’s tried and mixes into liquids just fine. It does need to be shaken well or whizzed in a blender to totally mix in though, just like any other whey powder.
  • UPDATE (4-2016)! We reviewed about a dozen natural protein powders and found the hands-down BEST option!
• High quality gelatin  (12 g protein in 1 Tbs.)
  • I’m thinking you could add this to any homemade bar, although I haven’t tried it. One Tablespoon of anything should just blend right in, right? 12 g of protein is impressive! This also means that homemade bone broth with good gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) should be an excellent source of protein, although not quite as easy on the go.
  • UPDATE: More on gelatin (and its easier-to-use cousin, collagen) in this new post.
• Green smoothies with yogurt, whole milk, some fruit, and maybe an egg yolk or two – add whey ice cubes for even more protein or the powder above.
• NEW! Making Protein Shakes without Protein Powder from Tiffany at Don’t Waste the Crumbs. Great ideas!
• Canned salmon (12 g protein in 1/4 cup, or about one salmon patty, which are great cold with Dijon mustard for dipping)
• Tuna fish (13 g protein in 2 ounces, which is less than half of a small can) I’m wondering the feasibility of dehydrating tuna fish or salmon for travel…
  • Note: Check out this article for information on finding tuna in non-BPA lined cans, including Vital Choice (salmon too), Wild Planet, or just go with tuna canned in glass.
• Whole milk – take in a thermos or insulated stainless steel water bottle (8 g protein in 8 ounces/1 cup)
• Whole milk yogurt(8 g protein in 6-8 ounces)
  • See my tutorial on dehydrating yogurt for travel, plus how adding gelatin to yogurt can not only boost the protein content but also make a thicker product!
• Nuts and seeds (range from 5-9g protein per 1/4 cup serving, with walnuts on the low end and peanuts on the high end)
  • Make trail mix!
• Cheese (7g protein in one ounce – picture a few slices or 1/8 of a regular 8-ounce package)
• A hard-boiled egg (6 g protein)
• Nutritional yeast(8 g protein in 1.5 Tbs.)
  • Anyone know if nutritional yeast is “real food approved” or not? I feel like I see it added to things like popcorn and such, right?
• Flax muffins

• The following from the Healthy Snacks to Go eBook:
  • Protein bars (4.7 g protein when 16 bars – those are small bars!)
  • Popeye bars (4.6g when cut into 16 bars)
  • Power bars/balls – reverse engineered Larabars (1.5 g protein each for Cinnamix balls, pictured above, 7.4 g for a simple “peanutty” bar, plus the carbs needed for energy – add Real Salt to replace electrolytes, too!)
    • You can see a video of how to make the power bars in the new snacks lesson at the Fundamentals II eCourse
  • Homemade coconut muffins (3.8 g protein per muffin)
  • Crispy roasted chickpeas (7 g in 1/2 cup) pictured below

• Peanut butter (9 g protein in 2 Tbs.)
  • Think about adding to homemade recipes, putting on apples or celery, or you know…just pack a spoon!
• Almond butter (7 g in 2 Tbs.)
• Pancakes, preferably made into a sandwich with a Tablespoon of peanut butter, seriously yummy:
  • Almond apple pancakes (2.6 g each when making 12 pancakes with one cup almonds)  pictured below
  • Grain-free banana Paleo pancakes (1.4 g each if there are 20 in a 3 banana recipe…)
  • Pumpkin Paleo pancakes (1.4 g w/coconut flour , 1.8 g with almond flour if 20 in recipe with 1 c. butternut squash.)
  • A single pancake sandwich with a Tbs. peanut butter, then, could have 8-10 g protein, and that would hardly even begin to fill you up. My son’s new favorite lunchtime food is a peanut butter pancake sandwich, thanks to this series!

• Black bean brownies (6.6 g protein in a 2×2″ piece) found in both Smart Sweets and The Everything Beans Book eBooks
  • What else with beans is travel worthy?
• Peas (5g in 2/3 cup) I eat them frozen, SO refreshing!
• Coconut macaroons (about 1.2 g each) found in Smart Sweets
• Chia seeds (3 g in 2 Tbs.) add to homemade bars for a little boost

We mamas have plenty to worry about, and when it comes to mercury levels in tuna, it feels pretty annoying. We really WANT that incredible source of quick, convenient protein and omega-3s, but we hate that tuna gets such bad press for mercury levels. Sigh. Especially when you’re pregnant, you worry more!

I’ve recently discovered Safe Catch tuna, the only brand to test every tuna (like actually every FISH, not every batch in the factory or every load off the ship). Their mercury standards are ten times stricter than the FDA’s limits, and Safe Catch rejects 1 in 4 fish for not passing purity standards. 😮

But how does it taste? I got to try some Safe Catch tuna and smoked trout, and I admit I was a little nervous about smoked trout! Then my husband reminded me I love smoked gouda, so I should give it a try. Light flavor and texture, not too fishy, and very lightly smoked flavor. I very much enjoy it! The tuna, admittedly, tastes like tuna fish. Safe Catch sells the standard style tuna with the texture you’d expect from a store brand can. I admit that although according to the website, I ought to be able to taste the difference, I really can’t.

You can also buy rigorously tested ahi tuna and albacore tuna if you prefer the firmer texture, but as usual, you’ll pay more. I have to be honest – Safe Catch is pricey. But if you have reasons to be very strict about mercury exposure, whether that’s pregnancy, metal poisoning, mold toxicity … then it’s worth it for the peace of mind. It’s refreshing to see a company do the right thing for the environment with sustainable fishing practices AND for the humans with extremely high mercury testing standards.

If your interest is piqued, it’s worth playing around with the fun flavors and variety of seafood. Bonus tip: you don’t have to drain the tuna; just stir in the healthy avocado or olive oils and power up your protein! And if you shop at Costco, you’ll likely find it there!

Try SafeCatch Now!

Remember to pair the protein with some carbs by grabbing a piece of whole fruit, dried fruits, or even a quinoa bar.

One reader shared: “[I like to bring] boiled eggs, at least when you can keep them cool (but it doesn’t take much, a small cooler bag would suffice) with sea salt and a banana. Eating bananas after a workout made a BIG difference in how I felt later. I also found it helpful to not eat grain in the morning before I work out (I work out in the a.m., just after I drop off the kids), but I’m sure that varies by person.”

Is anyone else totally hungry right now? I could really go for some protein snacks (heads to fridge for a piece of cheese and grain-free quinoa bar…the version with chocolate!)

What other packable protein snacks can we add?

Be sure to check out the rest of the Real Food Weight Loss and Exercise series!