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    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners: Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Meals
    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners: Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Meals
    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners: Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Meals
    Ebook341 pages2 hours

    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners: Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Meals

    By Maya A. Howard and Ariel Warren, RDN, CD, CDCES

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    About this ebook

    An essential guide to optimal whole-food, plant-based protein sources, prep and cooking tips, and a 4-week meal plan for a manageable transition.
     

    Embarking on their journey, people who are beginners to plant-based eating often find themselves asking, "But where will I get my protein from now?" The simple answer is: from plants! Plants are optimal protein sources, and yes, it is entirely possible to get your daily protein requirements exclusively from plants.
     
    In High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners, wellness leader and coach Maya A. Howard offers an invaluable guide that breaks down which plants have the highest protein content, shows you how to combine ingredients for complete protein meals, and features delicious everyday recipes that use a variety of high-protein whole-food plants, like vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and even fruit! 
     
    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners features:


       • A beginner's guide to plant protein, including a handy chart showing the highest-protein plant foods and a short tutorial on how to pair ingredients for a complete protein meal. 

       • Quick and easy recipes featuring high-protein options for every meal of the day (even snacks and desserts!), like Banana Oatmeal Bake, Sweet Potato Chia Pancakes, Chickpea Tortilla Soup, Kale Pesto Zucchini Linguini, Pineapple Fried Rice, Watermelon Poke Bowl, and Black Bean Fudge Brownies. 

       • An easy-to-follow 4-week meal plan, complete with helpful grocery lists and step-by-step prepping instructions that takes the guesswork out of your first four weeks.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZeitgeist
    Release dateSep 7, 2021
    ISBN9780593196915
    High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners: Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Meals

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      Book preview

      High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners - Maya A. Howard

      Introduction

      My earliest childhood memories include playing a game of Guess What Herb This Is? with my dad. We would stand in the backyard-turned-urban-garden, surrounded by an abundance of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Barefoot and skin warm from the sunlight, I would rub an unidentified plant between my thumb and index finger, releasing the undeniable fragrance of sage.

      My dad is a vegan and multifaceted intellectual who previously had dreadlocks down his back. My mom is a soft-spoken yet fierce educator with a heart of humility. He taught me how to live with fire and passion. She taught me grace and grounding. Together, they showed me the value of holistic well-being.

      I wish I could say my beginnings as a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) foodie continued into adulthood, or that I’ve been a picture of perfect health. As a teen, I slowly adopted the standard American diet. By my early twenties, I’d unintentionally gained unhealthy weight and had a prediabetic diagnosis, bouts of iron-deficient anemia, and exercise-induced asthma. So I went back to my roots.

      My diet transformation ignited the spark to study nutrition. Over the past decade, I’ve gained incomparable experience as a personal trainer, yoga teacher, and dietetics student. I’ve helped clients of all ages, cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds achieve their health goals through basic nutrition education.

      Transitioning to a WFPB diet is life-changing—and making the switch is challenging for anybody. One of the biggest struggles beginners face is learning which plant foods provide the adequate amount of protein the body needs to sustain and thrive. Many beginners find it helpful to have a plan that takes the guesswork out of knowing what to eat as they learn their individual needs and preferences.

      Plant foods provide an abundance of nutrients essential for our survival and disease prevention. While animal-based foods offer high amounts of protein, regular consumption of them, especially processed versions, has been linked to increased risk of chronic inflammation, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and multiple types of cancer, along with foodborne infections and illnesses. With mindful planning and preparation, you can build a high-protein plant-based diet that provides a full spectrum of nutrition while reducing risk factors for developing diet-related disease.

      Throughout this book, you’ll be equipped with the tools you need to make the transition manageable and stress-free, such as:

      A beginner’s guide to a wide variety of the most optimal plant-based protein sources

      A kitchen and pantry makeover, featuring everyday ingredients with the essential kitchen tools and eliminating what’s not part of a plant-based kitchen

      A beginner’s tutorial on how to cook high-protein plant foods

      Step-by-step high-protein recipes using whole-food ingredients

      A 4-week meal plan designed to teach you how to meet daily protein requirements

      My hope is that after reading this book you’ll walk away more confident about your lifestyle and dietary choices, maintaining optimal health while eating WFPB and achieving wellness with modest resources.

      When I was growing up, my family didn’t have overwhelming financial resources, but we had an abundance of love, laughter, and food that reflected all that was beautiful in the world. That abundance is what I hope to pass on to you with this cookbook.

      Chapter 1

      The Beginner’s Guide

      To be successful, it’s important to be clear on the unique lifestyle and dietary factors that make centering plant foods so beneficial to your well-being. Let’s start building your foundation!

      Understanding the Diet

      A high-protein WFPB diet is not a diet in the traditional sense of the word. The term diet is often associated with a short-term pattern of eating that requires users to follow strict guidelines to achieve a goal, such as weight loss or lowered cholesterol. These diets are often restrictive, create unhealthy eating behaviors, and may lead users to frequent bingeing and restricting in an effort to control their eating.

      Although a WFPB diet does come with its own guidelines, it’s a long-term strategy that encourages users to consume health-optimizing foods in abundance. A high-protein WFPB style of eating removes animal-based foods while encouraging the consumption of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. WFPB differs from a vegan diet in that heavily processed plant foods are also excluded as more emphasis is placed on consuming foods closest to their natural state.

      When you adopt a WFPB diet, it’s important to eat a wide variety of plants to get adequate amounts of essential nutrients. This guide teaches you how to create a nutritionally balanced plate that includes:

      Dietary fiber and prebiotics to support digestive health

      Energizing simple sugars and starches

      Tissue- and muscle-building quality proteins

      Antioxidants that protect cells from damage

      Omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids

      Health-promoting phytonutrients

      Lots of flavor without the heavy reliance on added sugars, oils, and salt

      Garnering the Benefits of a High-Protein Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet

      Consuming a high-protein WFPB diet optimizes our well-being and has positive environmental impact for the planet. Here are some key benefits to know as you embark on this journey:

      Balances nutritional needs: High-protein plant-based foods naturally contain significant amounts of carbohydrates and fats. Focusing on building your plate around protein-rich sources will lead to a successful lifestyle transition.

      reduces environmental impact: The processing of plant-based protein sources produces significantly less greenhouse gas emissions than processing animal-based protein sources.

      Improves blood sugar management: The American Diabetes Association recommends carbohydrate sources that are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and low in added sugars, sodium, and saturated/trans fats that increase insulin sensitivity to support optimal blood sugar levels.

      Increases grocery savings: Unprocessed plant-based foods are often available at a lower cost per serving than animal-based and heavily processed vegan foods.

      Maintains muscle tissue: Consuming high-protein plant foods ensures that you get adequate essential amino acids based on your needs.

      Promotes heart health: Because this diet is low in saturated fat and devoid of added cholesterol, eating plant-based may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases.

      Understanding Plant-Based Protein

      Along with carbohydrates and fats, protein is considered an essential macronutrient. It’s important to consume these foods daily in adequate amounts to meet the body’s needs. A protein is made up of smaller subunits called amino acids. Proteins serve a variety of important roles within the body, providing structure to cell membranes, being a major component of muscle and organ tissues, and serving as a precursor to DNA, hormones, immune cells, and red blood cells. Of the twenty amino acids, nine are essential and must be consumed from food, since they are not synthesized by the body.

      Research comparing the quality of protein-rich food sources often emphasizes the high-quality nature of animal proteins: one animal-based protein contains all nine essential amino acids. However, the fact that these foods include components that directly contribute to cardiovascular disease and may increase mortality rates cannot be ignored. When determining the quality of our protein sources, it’s important to look at the entire profile of the food, including understanding what the food gives us beyond protein.

      Plant-based protein sources come with an abundance of health-promoting nutrients, such as dietary fiber, beneficial phytochemicals, prebiotics, and antioxidants, and reduce risk factors for lifestyle-related diseases, including high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and imbalanced blood lipid levels.

      A WFPB diet that provides adequate plant protein and nutrient-dense carbohydrates is beneficial for optimizing athletic performance and recovery as well. The numerous components within plant foods support lean muscle growth, decrease inflammation, and sustain energy.

      It is possible to get adequate protein by eating a variety of vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds in amounts that meet your daily recommended requirements, and it is possible to do so without meticulously tracking your food.

      How Much Protein

      The standard Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein consumption by healthy adults is a minimum 0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight. Other evidence-based recommendations list a range of 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg based on an individual’s physical activity level. The Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges recommend that protein should contribute 10−35 percent of total energy intake throughout the day, fats should contribute 20−35 percent of energy, and carbohydrates should contribute 45−65 percent of energy.

      This may sound complicated, but it’s easy to figure out your needed protein amount with some simple calculations:

      Your weight in pounds ÷ 2.2 = XX.

      Multiply the result by 0.8 for your RDA of protein.

      So,

      1. If you weigh 130 pounds:

      130 ÷ 2.2 = 59

      59 × 0.8 = 47.27

      Your RDA minimum protein is about 47 grams per day.

      2. If you weigh 180 pounds:

      180 ÷ 2.2 = 81.8

      81.8 × 0.8 = 65.44

      Your RDA minimum protein is about 65 grams per day.

      For those who are more physically active, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend 1.2 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram. The more training an athlete does, the higher the multiplier number to determine the daily protein amount. These levels can easily be reached while eating a plant-based diet with a little prep and attention to the high-protein plants to power meals.

      So,

      1. If you weigh 130 pounds and are an athlete, your range wo uld be:

      130 ÷ 2.2 = 59

      59 × 1.2 to 2.0 = 70.9 to 118

      Your recommended protein range would be 71 to 118 grams p er day.

      2. If you weigh 180 pounds and are an at hlete, your range wo uld be:

      180 ÷ 2.2 = 81.8

      81.8 × 1.2 to 2.0 = 98.2 to 163.6

      Your recommended protein range wo uld be 98 to 164 grams p er day.

      Here are a few practical ways to meet your daily protein requirements in balance with essential carbohydrates and fats:

      Choose a main plant-based protein source and create a meal around it.

      Include healthy unsaturated fats such as avocado, plant oils, nuts, and seeds within meals.

      Add nut-based milks and nut butters to smoothies.

      Choose whole-grain and sprouted-grain bread products as much as possible.

      Use high-protein sauces and dressings to increase the protein and fat content of salads and nourish bowls.

      High-Protein Plant-Based Sources

      Note: The protein content of some foods can vary based on the brand and the preparation method used.

      *(per 100-g [about 3-ounce] serving)

      Complete and Complementary Proteins

      Several complete plant

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