You are eating healthy and balanced diet by including lots of veggies and fruits to manage your weight. You are including lots of veggies and fruits, assuming they are healthy to manage your body weight.
You are also exercising and keeping yourself active, but still you feel that something is missing. That something is “Protein” which you are not consuming in sufficient amounts and therefore your whole body is projecting its symptoms in form of fatigue, weakness, muscle soreness, brittle hair, dry skin etc. Decrease in protein intake or protein deficiency can greatly affect the immune system by reducing the number of white blood cells which are responsible for defending the body from infection.
What statistics says about protein deficiency?
According to a survey conducted by a market research firm IMRB on the protein consumption in diet by the adult Indians revealed that
- Only 25% respondents are aware of the ideal protein requirement
- 23% felt that their protein intake is adequate
- 85% respondents believed that higher protein intake would result into weight gain
- Only 5% of the people take protein supplements
In simple words, 9 out of 10 Indians consume inadequate protein every day and it includes 91 percent vegetarians and 85 percent non vegetarians of the population.
What are the common reasons of this protein deficiency?
We all know that amino acids (protein) are the building block of the body and it must be included in our daily diet. But HOW MUCH DO YOU REQUIRE?? Do you think that the protein requirement of your kids, parents, or your own-self is the same? Not at all!!
The protein requirement differs on the basis of age, sex and level of physical activity. The daily requirement of protein is calculated on the basis of ideal body weight in terms of grams per day for every kilogram of your weight.
Let’s understand this, if the weight of a healthy male is 60 kgs, then as per the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for Indian men, his daily requirements are 1.0g per kg body weight. So, his daily protein requirements are 60g per day.
- Child (1-3 years old) – 17g per day
- Child (4-6 years old) – 20g per day
- Child (7-9 years old) – 30g per day
- Boys (10-12 years old) – 40g per day
- Girls (10-12 years old) – 40g per day
- Boys (13-15 years old) – 54g per day
- Girls (13-15 years old) – 52g per day
- Boys (16-17 years old) – 62g per day
- Girls (16-17 years old) – 56g per day
- Men (>18 yrs) – 60g per day
- Women (>18 yrs) – 55g per day
Now, if you want to rectify your mistake of not consuming adequate amounts of protein, then you must include more protein in your diet to overcome the protein deficiency and its effects.
Some people tend to eat same kind of food with slight modifications on regular basis which includes cereals and few lentils. In addition, we tend to fill ourselves with different varieties of fruits while fasting which again provides low percentage of protein.
All this shows how the protein intake in our diet is neglected to an extreme level and its consequences can be dangerous to the body. Here are some changes which we can make in our daily diet to elevate the percentage of protein and also keep a check on your weight.
- Include more pulses, sprouts and low-fat dairy products in your diet.
- Include pulses in your diet twice a day.
- Have more traditional cereal pulse combination like daal-chawal, Rajma-chawal, fish curry-rice, curd rice and idli-sambhar etc.
- Include dairy and dairy products like dahi (curd), cottage cheese (paneer) etc. on regular basis.
- Millets, whole grains, mixed grains and nuts can also increase the protein percentage in the diet.
Use readymade options
Besides all these little modifications, one can also include protein powder by mixing it in milk on regular basis. A protein rich drink is beneficial for people of all age groups. It comes in several flavours, so you can include a protein drink in your diet which can easily take care of daily protein needs. For more information on best available options of protein drinks, just visitProtinex. Try to make these little changes in your life and always stay healthy!!