This means consciously excluding meat in your daily lifestyle – or on a regular basis. It also means making sure you get enough protein to fill the protein gap.
The healthy plate
Balance is key to a healthy diet
Proteins are important for maintaining muscle and bones, and a high quality protein intake of minimum 0.8g/kg is recommended for an average, healthy adult. If you’re exercising, this increases up to 1.2 – 2.0 g/kg
Why worry about proteins?
Since your body doesn’t store protein, you need to get enough from your diet each day. This is especially true if you follow a flexitarian diet. Since meat, eggs, fish and milk are the primary protein sources for many people, getting enough proteins of the right quality can require an extra focus on what you’re eating.
Your daily dairy proteins
Dairy proteins provide you with many nutritional benefits. They are complete proteins with a constitution that matches your muscle. Whey protein powder, which is made from milk, is a concentrated and easy way to increase your protein intake. It is also easy to absorb and digest.
Protein quality can be measured
The quality of protein is often measured by the PDCAAS value, short for protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score. This tells you how well the protein source is absorbed into your body. Whey protein has a PDCAAS value of 1, which means it is easily absorbed and contains all the essential amino acids in the right proportions for your body.
- McEvoy, Claire T et al, 2012: “Vegetarian diets, low-meat diets and health: a review”
- McCluggage, Mary J, 2017: “Animal vs Plant Protein – What’s the difference?”
- Bhandari, Sneh, 2016: “PDCAAS – What’s This All About?”