Day 14 Where do you get your protien?

D's friend asked him today how he will live without any protien.  "Where will you get protien from if you don't eat meat?"  It's a common question I have gotten from people who have been raised thinking meat=protien and milk=calcuim (we'll tackle dairy another day).  

I did a little research and the recommended daily allowance of protien for children is between 24 and 28 grams per day.  So here was our kids' protien rundown today:

Breakfast:

Toaster Pastries (yeah, yeah, they were on sale) 3g

OJ 2g

Banana 1g

Lunch:

Peanut Butter 7g

Bread 8g

carrots 1g

Cutie oranges 2g

Veggie Stix 1g

Dinner:

Gardein Crispy Tenders 8g

Quinoa 6g

Lettuce/Spinach mix 2g

Oven Fries 2g

Plantain 2g (but they only had a few bites so I won't count it)

Grand total: 43 grams of protien

So...there is no lack of protien whatsoever.  According a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007-2008 (that I found on Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong website), the typical high fat, animal based American diet provides a net protein intake of over 101 grams per day.  I think it is safe to say that Americans eat WAY too much protien.  We justify eating high fat junk food by labeling it "high in protien" but it is protien we really don't need.

Here's the kids dinner.  There was not going to be enough for everyone so I made Gardein's Patties with some white wine, lemon and capers for mom and dad.  It was all delicious and we ate every bit!