August 18, 2013
There is a tendency to think of protein as ‘meat’ and vegetarians as having a hard time getting enough protein in their diets. Actually, most vegetables have some protein. Even corn has some protein. The challenge in getting protein from vegetables is to know how much protein we need and how much protein a given vegetable has in it.
Taking corn, for example, you can get between 3 and 5 grams of protein, depending on whether the corn is fresh or cooked, in one cup of corn [see http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/much-protein-corn-7969.html]. That is about 3-9% of what we need in terms of protein in a day for a diet based on 1,800 calories.
There are different types of protein as well. So it is not just a matter of deciding to have 10 cups of corn to add up to your daily protein needs.
