Whenever anyone becomes a pescetarian, vegetarian or any other form of non-meat eater, the most common question that is asked is, “where do you get protein from?”.
Personally, this is a question that I’m always asked. It’s as if people think that without meat, my body is going to shrivel up and die! The reality is that it’s not that tough at all to find high-protein sources that are meat free. In particular, pescetarian diets are a lot easier to get the protein that you need compared to fish-free vegetarian diets. Having said that, Laura and I eat a large amount of vegetarian meals that give us a ton of protein.
The GDA of protein for a male is 55g and 45g for a female [source]. Here’s some of the meat-free ingredients that we use within our recipes to ensure we get in our GDA of protein:
Non-Fish
- Nuts (I love cashews, almonds, walnuts and pine nuts) – roughly 4-7g of protein per serving.
- Seeds (sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds are usually top of our shopping list) – 5-10g of protein per serving.
- Edamame beans (soy beans) – 17g protein per serving.
- Lentils – 14g protein per serving.
- Beans (kidney and black beans are great) – 6-9g per serving.
- Quinoa – 8g protein per serving.
- Millet – 6g protein per serving.
- Amaranth – 9g per serving.
- Seitan – 20g per serving.
- Tofu – 9g protein per serving.
- Quorn (mince) – 10.9g protein per serving.
Seafood
Fish and seafood hold a huge amount of protein that will help you get in the daily recommended amount each day. The amount of protein within seafood/fish does vary, but the best fish to eat are usually the fairly fatty types.
In particular, fish like salmon, halibut, trout and tuna are really rich in protein. A 170g portion of tuna will hold around 40g of protein, whilst a 100g salmon portion will hold 27g – this is definitely going to get you all the protein that you need.
Alongside all of this, you can take protein supplements. Previously, when I was a meat-eater, I used to take protein supplements and I still do today so they really help me to get in all the protein I need.
