What are the Plant based sources of protein?

What is protein? Why are we always running after it? Look, protein is a building block for our body. Its job is to build. Build muscles, build tissue, build cells. It's essential for people who need this building - for example athletes (because their muscles are going through constant wear and tear) and kids (if their height is growing). But most adults are already fully built and don't need much protein.

An average human being needs about 50 g of protein per day, which is easily met by eating vegetables, grains, greens, nuts, coconut, fruits. Excess of protein is a much bigger problem than not getting enough. In fact, many diseases in today's day and age such as Thyroid, Obesity, PCOD, Cancer are caused due to a protein overdose.

Look at some of the world’s strongest animals - Gorillas, buffaloes, elephants, ox - they never ask "Where will I get my protein from?" or "Where will I get my calcium from?". They simply eat their food - plants and grasses. Yet, they are much healthier than us and are not suffering from the hundreds of health problems that we humans are. So don't worry about these man-manufactured terms like protein, calcium, etc. Simply eat what Mother Nature has given, in its whole form, and Nature herself will take care of you.

If you are an athlete, bodybuilder or child whose height is growing, you can fulfil your protein requirement by adding the following foods to your diet -

1. Sprouts (of mung, chickpeas, chana, alfalfa, clover, radish, fenugreek). You can add these sprouts to your salad. Your salad can consist of 30% sprouts.

2. Millets (such as jowar, bajra, raagi)

3. Quinoa

4. Green Vegetables (such as broccoli, spinach, peas)

5. Coconut (you can eat coconut slices as a snack or drink coconut milk in the form of a smoothie)

6. Nuts & Seeds (such as almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, flaxseeds).

Always make sure you eat them soaked. We do not recommend soybean, tofu, tempeh or seitan, as they are inferior sources of protein and very difficult to digest.