SMART Goals for Healthy Living
YMCA OF GREATER WAUKESHA COUNTY
PAY ATTENTION TO PROTEIN
Friday, April 23, 2021
SOURCE: MYPLATE.GOV
Varying your protein food choices can provide you with a range of nutrients designed to keep your body functioning well. Vegetarian protein sources include eggs, beans, peas, and lentils, nuts and seeds, and soy products (tofu, tempeh). Due to their high nutrient content, consuming beans, peas, and lentils is recommended for everyone, including people who also regularly eat meat, poultry, and seafood.
Beans, peas, and lentils belong to a group of vegetables called “pulses.” This group includes all beans, peas, and lentils cooked from dry, canned, or frozen, such as kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), split peas, and lentils.
You can choose to count beans, peas, and lentils as part of the vegetable group or the protein foods group depending on how they fit into your overall eating pattern. They are excellent sources of dietary fiber and nutrients such as folate and potassium, similar to vegetables. They are also excellent sources of plant protein and provide other nutrients such as iron and zinc, similar to protein foods.
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