Kids, and food with added protein

[Anonymous]

Parent of a vegetarian athlete here.

Our first choice is always natural proteins. Beans, lentils, nuts, seed, yogurt, cheese, eggs, tofu. Also certain fruits and vegetables are higher in protein (peas were a surprise).

Second choice is to augment with foods that maybe aren't ideal but aren't hyper-processed and can add a protein boost. Some of these are surprises. Croissants are weirdly high in protein (all that butter?) so we use those for sandwiches sometimes. Actually a lot of enriched breads are too. Again, not our usual bread preference but if your kid needs a filling meal to deal with long practices or games, we will add it.

Last choice is supplementing with protein powder in a shake, or protein enriched waffles or something. We don't want it to be the primary source but it's better than nothing. My kid is a picky eater (that's why she's vegetarian, there are now some politics around it but originally it was just because she did not like the smell or texture of meat and started avoiding it) so we can't be too militant about this. We always have protein powder and Kodiak mix on hand for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a teen athlete and we are vegetarian. I’m all for following what our bodies tell us as far as when we’re hungry/full but I don’t think our bodies tell us what we need to eat to stay healthy. Even if they did we are so bombarded by marketing that it’s a struggle for our brains to process anyway.

Pasta is a processed food. If you’re having pasta for dinner anyway, trying a higher protein kind isn’t a bad swap.
Having a tofu nugget instead of a chicken nugget, also not a bad swap.
Bars full of sugar, and powders, are crap imo. We avoid those.
I tend to sort of track daily but there are some days it’s lower and I know at the end of the week it’s balanced out.
My kid loves smoothies. Use a high protein yogurt, frozen fruit, almond milk ( more calcium than soy, but if you’re not worried about calcium you can use soy). I also put chia seeds in. This is a snack in our house 3-4x a week and has about 18-26 grams of protein depending on the yogurt/milk you use.

[Anonymous]

OP-why did you even post if you are just planning on rejecting everyone’s information and suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a vegetarian athlete here.

Our first choice is always natural proteins. Beans, lentils, nuts, seed, yogurt, cheese, eggs, tofu. Also certain fruits and vegetables are higher in protein (peas were a surprise).

Second choice is to augment with foods that maybe aren't ideal but aren't hyper-processed and can add a protein boost. Some of these are surprises. Croissants are weirdly high in protein (all that butter?) so we use those for sandwiches sometimes. Actually a lot of enriched breads are too. Again, not our usual bread preference but if your kid needs a filling meal to deal with long practices or games, we will add it.

Last choice is supplementing with protein powder in a shake, or protein enriched waffles or something. We don't want it to be the primary source but it's better than nothing. My kid is a picky eater (that's why she's vegetarian, there are now some politics around it but originally it was just because she did not like the smell or texture of meat and started avoiding it) so we can't be too militant about this. We always have protein powder and Kodiak mix on hand for this reason.

Thanks! That's helpful. Can I ask how you decide that what is enough, or when it makes sense to supplement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a teen athlete and we are vegetarian. I’m all for following what our bodies tell us as far as when we’re hungry/full but I don’t think our bodies tell us what we need to eat to stay healthy. Even if they did we are so bombarded by marketing that it’s a struggle for our brains to process anyway.

Pasta is a processed food. If you’re having pasta for dinner anyway, trying a higher protein kind isn’t a bad swap.
Having a tofu nugget instead of a chicken nugget, also not a bad swap.
Bars full of sugar, and powders, are crap imo. We avoid those.
I tend to sort of track daily but there are some days it’s lower and I know at the end of the week it’s balanced out.
My kid loves smoothies. Use a high protein yogurt, frozen fruit, almond milk ( more calcium than soy, but if you’re not worried about calcium you can use soy). I also put chia seeds in. This is a snack in our house 3-4x a week and has about 18-26 grams of protein depending on the yogurt/milk you use.

OP here,

To be clear, I'm not saying that I trust my small children to go running off to 7 11 and make perfect choices.

But in my experience, if you offer a few healthy choices that the kid likes, with varied nutrients at each meal, they'll end up choosing a variety that meats their needs, at least in terms of macros. That doesn't mean that every meal will refect some ideal balance, but that over time that balance will be there.

With my older kid, I can see differences in how he chooses food, based on how fast he's growing, or how active he is. For example, he's working an active job, and playing a demanding sport right now, so he's eating both more volume and calories, and more protein as a percent of his diet, than he was during the school year, when he might be active 3 hours a day instead of his current 11.

Because of that, and because the dietician we used for a different issue felt very strongly about it, I would be very hesitant to start imposing some kind of set macros on him.

But no, just because I feel like I can put Greek yogurt, a few kinds of fruit, and some whole grain toast and a jar of peanut butter on the table, and feel confident that my kids will assemble a breakfast that meets their needs, I'm aware that if I added donuts and poptarts and sweet tea to the options it would make the same outcome less likely.

I like your smoothie recipe. Ours is a little different, but similarly whole food based.

[Anonymous]

Whole less processed franken foods over more protein always. The obsession with protein is ridiculous. A balanced diet, without obsessing over protein, is what we should all be eating.

[Anonymous]

I have two teens athletes, while they aren’t vegetarian, one skews to not eat much meat. As do I.

We stick to whole foods majority of the time. I do not buy the “high protein” marketed products that contain pea protein complexes, or whey protein and such. There are studies that these powders and additives are high in heavy metals such as lead.

You can add pasturized egg whites from the carton into smoothies for extra protein. You can taste them and they are safe raw. Or you can add them to oatmeal (temper it) or add it to whole egg omelets and frittatas for a protein boost.

[Anonymous]

I'm also worried about thin but like heavy metals in protein powders.

[Anonymous]

Greek Yogurt is a good way to add protein. Same with cottage cheese. Don't forget beans.

An easy to make food with great macros? Cowboy caviar or similar bean salads.

There are some social media types that share some high protein/high fiber recipes, you do have to screen for quacks.

[Anonymous]

The trend of adding protein to everything is just that - a trend. Do you remember fat free wow potato chips with olestra, 100 cal snack wells that were almost 100% sugar? We cannot exist without a nutrition trend to glom onto. People are mistakenly categorizing food nearly into carb and protein categories without realizing that wheat and other grains contain protein. One slice of wheat toast has more protein than a slice of bacon, but people will instinctively reach for bacon with its saturated fats and nitrates, instead of a humble piece of toast.

The consensus is that the body can utilize 20-40 g of protein in one meal for muscle synthesis. Ingesting 80 g of protein at once is not beneficial. I predict a rise in kidney stones as people continue to pile on the protein.

I have swimmers and we give them a balanced diet, 30-40 g protein at dinner, lunch is at school so I’m not sure what they have there, post practice recovery with a mix of carbs, fats, and proteins, and many many many carbs before races or hard practices. Energy comes from carbs, primarily and secondarily. The body only utilizes protein for energy after exhausting carb and fat reserves, ie in starvation. Read about

[Anonymous]

Added protein is fine. "Processing" is not poison. Cooking is processing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a teenage boy athlete, and a younger daughter, also athletic, who has decided to be a vegetarian, so I'm asking these questions both perspectives. We are having disagreement about this between the co-parents.

How do we feel about ingredients that have been specifically modified to increase protein? Protein powder, high protein tortillas, chickpea pasta, kodiak waffles, impossible "meats", etc . . . One parent thinks that adding protein is always a benefit. The other thinks that it's another form of processing and so not ideal.

Also, do you monitor how much protein in is meals, or how much your kid is eating, or figure that given a variety of healthy choices, your kid will get what their body tells them they need?

Finally, for the vegetarian kid, do you worry if your kid is relying a lot on dairy to meet their protein needs? Is variety important?

Parents are on different "sides" on all these issues, and I think it would be better if we parented consistently.

Foods marketed with that are usually low quality harmful proteins like soy or rice.

Some protein powders are good though, if they are not soy based, and don't have fake sweeteners like sucralose, stevia, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thought: if you're going to eat a store-bought tortilla, that is already a processed food. So getting the one with protein added is not really negatively changing the equation. Similarly, protein-enriched pasta is usually pasta with chickpea flour added - its just as processed as the non-enriched stuff, but could benefit your athletic kids.

Second thought: I've been getting serious about increasing protein in my own diet, and find that adding mashed lentils/chickpeas as a thickening agent to sauces and curries rarely impacts the taste. That would be a less processed way of incorporating more protein in the foods you might already be eating. Similarly, I sub greek yogurt as the base for any creamy sauce (just don't cook with it, it'll separate in some weird way that sour cream doesn't).

OP here,

I don’t get this logic. I am a busy working mom of multiple kids. I also believe that denying kids things can lead to them craving things, so my kids definitely eat processed food both away from home, where I don’t police at all, and at home where I sometimes choose processed food for convenience.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t or shouldn’t make choices that move us in the unprocessed direction when that works for our family.

So, for example, one thing that is a hit with my vegetarian kid is quesadilla with refried beans. The first time we made them, I used canned refried beans, pre shredded cheese, store bought tortillas, and store bought salsa. When it turned out they were an easy thing for her to make that she loved, I thought how can we make this less processed, I looked at all the ingredients and decided to do some things. I learned how to make and freeze my own refried beans, I switched to whole wheat tortillas, I read all the labels on the store bought salsa and found one that seemed healthier, and I started serving them with a side of veggies which lead to her automatically going the same. Now if she makes dinner, for the family we are still eating a hybrid of processed (shredded cheese, store bought tortillas, store bought salsa) and home made things, but it’s still healthier than it was. The fact that the tortillas are still processed doesn’t negate the rest of the changes.

This week, I went to the grocery store, and they were out of the brand of whole wheat tortillas I usually buy, which has an ingredient list that starts with water and whole wheat flour, and includes other things I generally recognize, so I grabbed another brand of whole wheat tortillas. When I got home I realized that they were low carb, and the first ingredient were water and modified wheat starch. We were already home so we used them, no one objected.

DH and I had two different reactions. One of us said “ooh these have more protein! Protein is good for our kids! We should serve these every time!” The other said “I would rather serve my kids whole wheat flour, an ingredient I recognize. The meal already had beans and cheese. That’s plenty of protein.”

I don’t know who is right or wrong, which is why I am posting.

…ok? Its still a tortilla which is a processed food. Not sure what you want from us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whole less processed franken foods over more protein always. The obsession with protein is ridiculous. A balanced diet, without obsessing over protein, is what we should all be eating.

The balance has been out of wack for decades due to the food pyramid. Too many carbs, not enough fat and protein.

People have figured out the protein part, but still haven't caught on to the fat part being good.

[Anonymous]

My son is an athlete and loves the chobani protein yogurt drinks (the blue bottle).