Worried your child isn't getting enough protein?
Protein is a hot topic in recent years. We are told we need a lot of it, and we know we can find it in meat and protein powders. We also know it's something we worry about.
So why does your child need protein? And how do you get them to eat more?
Protein is one of the three macronutrients that we receive from food. The others are carbohydrates and fats. Protein is used as a building block by the body. I often talk about lego when describing protein, as it's used to build structures in the body.
If we are thinking about protein as lego, let's look deeper. Protein is actually made up of amino acids. These are the individual lego bricks, that fit together to make protein. There are many types of amino acids, and 9 of them are 'essential.' This means that they can't be made from fitting other amino acids together. They need to be sourced from food.
So why is protein so important?
Protein is important for growth and development. For children, this is especially important as they are growing so quickly. But protein is also used to build neurotransmitters, the chemicals in the brain that communicate between cells and affect mood, behaviour and focus. It's also used to make enzymes. I like to describe enzymes as a lollipop lady. They are responsible for a reaction to happen (the children safely crossing the road) but they don't change themselves. For our children, enzymes are involved in all aspects of the body, an important one being the formation of neurotransmitters. Enzymes are also involved in digestion, which is vital to get those lovely nutrients from the plate to the brain. Protein is also used to build some of our hormones, with the rest build from fats.
This is a small snapshot of what protein gets up to inside your child's body, but let's look at the parts you can see.
Protein helps to increase the neurotransmitters that bring feelings of alertness. This may show up as your child being more engaged at school, or more responsive to questions. It also helps to balance blood sugar levels, which may show up as a more balanced mood and calmer reactions. Protein also helps bring feels of satiety, or fullness. So rather than eating a large sugary carbohydrate filled breakfast then feeling hungry again soon after, protein will fill your child with energy for the day.
So where do you find the right protein?
There are great sources of protein everywhere you look, so let's look beyond meat. If we look at tryptophan, the essential amino acid that is responsible for making our happy neurotransmitter serotonin, it's found in milk, cheese, oats, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate and banana.
Some other little known sources of essential amino acids are fish, quinoa, eggs, mushrooms, peas, chickpeas (hummus is a good one!), edamame and black beans. And let's not forget meat, fish and seafood, which are excellent sources of protein too. Thinking about breakfasts, here are some suggestions to encourage your child to eat protein:
A soft boiled egg with bread soldiers to dip
Toast with nut butter
A cheesy frittata
Cottage cheese with fruit
Porridge with banana
Nut butter muffins
A smoothie with a big dollop of nut butter
Yogurt with fruit
Consider looking beyond the traditional 'breakfast foods' for what to serve your child in the mornings. There is no reason they need to eat a food that has been labelled as a breakfast food. One of my most common recommendations to the families I work with is to serve dinner for breakfast. It's quick, its nutritious, and it's more likely to contain protein - just keep leftovers from the night before. This technique is especially helpful if you have a picky or selective eater.
For non breakfast food breakfasts, try a ham and cheese sandwich, hummus with vegetable sticks or breadsticks, apple slices dipped in nut butter, a glass of milk with a selection of nuts and fruit, a hard boiled egg, a shredded chicken wrap, some edamame in their pods (kids love to pop them out), a cup of frozen peas (my son's favourite), or energy balls made with peanut butter. These breakfasts are especially good for children who tend to graze rather than sitting for a meal, or kids who are only hungry once you leave for school.
Are you worried your child isn't getting enough protein?
Children up to age 8 need 19g of protein per day, children from 10 to 13 need 34g and teens need between 46g to 52g depending on gender. But if you look at a peanut butter sandwich... it's roughly 7 grams of protein, a glass of milk is another 3g, a small cube of cheese is about 7g and and it's around 20g of protein in a serving of chicken. So rather than focusing on the amount of protein at each meal, think about slowly adding in new sources and experimenting with combinations. You never know what might become a family favourite!
Tired of doing it alone? Book a free call so we can chat about what's going on for your child. I have several options to help and I'll be cheering you on every step of the way!
