Did someone ask if you eat enough proteins for your growing baby? Or are you wondering how much protein you really need as a pregnant vegan? It is not much I can tell, it is also easy to get all your protein from a whole foods plant-based diet. In this article I dive in on how much protein you have to eat, and where to get it from!
Pregnant women need an extra calorie intake of 340 kcal in the second trimester and 450 kcal in the third trimester. When you eat more calories, you will automatically eat more protein as a result of consuming more calories when eating a whole foods plant-based diet. Try to aim for an average of 70 gram of protein per day. It’s not hard to meet that requirement when you eat a variety of plant-based foods such as lentils, beans, quinoa, vegetables, tofu, tempeh and whole grains.
In this article we will discuss how much protein you need as a pregnant vegan, where do you get this protein from, and what are amino acids and complete proteins.
Do you want a high protein recipe idea? I’ve written a whole recipe article about my Cool Vegan Quinoa Salad that you can read here!
How Much Protein do I Need as a Pregnant Vegan?
When you are pregnant your protein needs go up. Making extra blood, bones, cells, hair, nails, skin, organs and more (!) demands extra nutritional needs. Many women are in doubt if their protein needs are met, especially during pregnancy. Luckily a protein deficiency is not something that happens easily.
If we take the United States as an example country, men and women eat protein more than enough according to this study. Women need an average of 46 grams total and eat an average of 70 grams total (men need 56 grams on average and eat 102 grams on average).
Pregnant women need slightly more protein. Approximately 0.8 grams per total kg body weight. For pounds divide body weight by 2.2. See calculated examples below.
- Kilogram (kg) example 0.8 * 65 kg = 52 gram of protein per day
- Pounds (lbs) example 0.8 * (143 lbs / 2.2) = 52 gram of protein per day
We have seen in the study mentioned above that women eat an average of 70 grams of protein per day, pregnant or non-pregnant. 70 grams of protein is what you should aim for as a pregnant woman, and it’s what women eat on average (in the United States). That doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want, you should always aim for a whole food plant-based diet if possible.
If you are at whatever point in doubt about your protein needs, consult with a dietitian to get the guidance you need.
Alternatively you can keep a food diary for a few days in an app that calculates different nutrients at the same time. This way you can see after a couple of days how much protein you’re getting on average per day.
Pregnant women need an extra calorie intake of 340 kcal in the second trimester and 450 kcal in the third trimester. When you eat more calories, you will eat more protein as a result of consuming more calories.
Try to aim for an average of 70 gram of protein per day. It’s not hard to meet that requirement when you eat a variety of plant-based foods such as lentils, beans, quinoa, vegetables, tofu, tempeh and whole grains.
Best Vegan Protein Sources during Pregnancy
The best vegan protein sources when you are pregnant differ from legumes, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, even some fruits and grains and pseudo grains. So let’s go into it and find out what are the best protein sources for pregnancy. Depending on your preference you might want to eat more whole foods and less processed or the other way around.
What vegan foods contain protein?
- Leafy Greens
- Lentils
- Quinoa
- Hemp Seeds
- Beans
- Tofu, Tempeh, Edamame
- Whole Wheat Grains
- Spelt
- Whole Grain Rice
- Nuts or Nut-butter
- Chia Seeds
- Seitan
- Vegetables
- Avocado
- Fruit
See the infographic I’ve made below to get an idea of how much protein you get from what food when you eat one portion or a cup of a particular food.
Even in my vegan raw cheesecake recipe you get proteins as it is made of cashews and pecan nuts. You can find this delicious vegan cheesecake recipe here!
What Are Complete Protein Profiles?
There is this hyper focus going on various websites, articles, news papers and the like about complete proteins. We all have that one person in our community that talks about ‘healthy’ food. At some point he or she will focus on complete proteins, its importance and how to get it all out of 1 ingredient, for example meat or fish.
But what are complete proteins anyway? Let’s find out.
It all has to do with amino acids. Amino acids are also called the building blocks of protein and play a critical role in your body. They are categorised as essential, conditionally essential, or nonessential.
Our bodies need 20 different amino acids to function properly. 9 of these 20 amino acids are so-called essential amino acids that our bodies cannot make on its own. Our bodies can make 11 amino acids by itself. So the other 9 amino acids should be consumed by eating the right foods.
When a particular food has all the “9 essential” amino acids people say that the food is a “complete protein.” This is why people are so focused on the one ingredient that contains – all – the 9 essential amino acids.
When we eat a variety of foods though, we also get – all – 9 essential amino acids. Although we might not get all 9 amino acids in a 1-ingredient food package, we eat different amino acids during the day.
We eat different foods together, we eat different foods at different times during a day so at the end of the day we ate a variety of foods which together contain all 9 essential amino acids. Getting al 9 essential amino acids through diet is completely doable by eating a well-planned Whole Foods Plant-Based diet.
Getting al 9 essential amino acids through diet is completely doable by eating a well-planned Whole Foods Plant-Based diet.