Speaker 1: My favorite breakfast is avocado toast, but avocado has no protein.
Speaker 1: I have maybe like one gram. I'll give it a
Speaker 1: little bit one gram of protein, which isn't enough for
Speaker 1: a breakfast. So to jazz that up so we can
Speaker 1: fit into like a nice balanced breakfast, I like to
Speaker 1: take the avocado and mash in atamame or sometimes even
Speaker 1: green peas into the avocado, and now it becomes a
Speaker 1: much more rich source of protein. So you're not just
Speaker 1: getting avocado by itself. It's delicious, but not super protein rich.
Speaker 1: Put on some wheat bread, sprinkle some nutritional yeast, maybe
Speaker 1: some hemp seeds. I also do like to add a
Speaker 1: tempe bacon on top of it. So just like really
Speaker 1: loading up those plant based proteins, and that's a perfect
Speaker 1: way to start your day.
Speaker 2: You are listening to the Plant Based Diet podcast where
Speaker 2: we talk about all things plant based. I'm Ester Garf
Speaker 2: and the host of this show and founder of Alternative
Speaker 2: Food Network. Join me in my amazing array of guests
Speaker 2: who are a mix of healthcare professionals, industry executives, and
Speaker 2: people with an interesting story to tell about their plant
Speaker 2: based journey. Let us help you with your journey wherever
Speaker 2: you're at to learn the what, why, and how to
Speaker 2: eat plant based Hello, welcome back to the show. Today,
Speaker 2: we're talking about protein, specifically plant based protein, which is
Speaker 2: a popular topic among those wanting to eat a plant
Speaker 2: forward diet but who aren't quite sure how you eat
Speaker 2: a plant based diet and get enough protein? And if
Speaker 2: you hang on till later in the episode, you'll also
Speaker 2: get some practical plant based meal ideas from my guest.
Speaker 2: My guest today is Ryanne Geiger, otherwise known as the
Speaker 2: Phoenix Vegan Dietitian. Ryane is an award winning plant based
Speaker 2: dietitian who helps people enjoy more plant based foods through
Speaker 2: media channels and writing. She's the author of Vegan Slow
Speaker 2: Cooking for two and has been featured in various magazines
Speaker 2: and has appeared on local Arizona news channels. Ryanne graduated
Speaker 2: from Arizona State University with a BS and dietetics and
Speaker 2: completed her dietetic internship at Georgia Southern University. Welcome to
Speaker 2: the show, Ryan, How are you so nice to meet you?
Speaker 1: Yes, I am so happy to be here and talking
Speaker 1: about a very hot topic that I know a lot
Speaker 1: of plant based eaters come across.
Speaker 2: Yes. Absolutely. But before we get into this, I just
Speaker 2: want to say I was on your website today and
Speaker 2: I saw part of your team. You have a picture
Speaker 2: of your dog Leonard.
Speaker 1: I do, yes.
Speaker 2: It was so cute.
Speaker 1: I was just talking to I talk about my dog
Speaker 1: all times. I can't say I was just talking about
Speaker 1: to someone because I talk about him to everyone. But
Speaker 1: he is a puggle. I'm such a pug person. He
Speaker 1: is the cutest little boy and the best coworker or
Speaker 1: teammate that I could ask for.
Speaker 2: I love dogs. I have also my Lola. She usually
Speaker 2: is actually in the room recording with me, but she's
Speaker 2: not here right now. Hopefully she will like scratch on
Speaker 2: the door and come in and make noise mine too.
Speaker 2: But it was very cute, so I just wanted to
Speaker 2: tell you that before we start. But now onto protein.
Speaker 2: So the reason this episode came about a friend of
Speaker 2: mine Sset. I'm really interested in trying this plant forward diet,
Speaker 2: but I get stuck with protein, so I decided, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do an episode on it. So I wanted
Speaker 2: to ask you first off, can a person get enough
Speaker 2: protein on a plant based diet?
Speaker 1: Yes? End of episode No I'm just kidding. Yeah, wait,
Speaker 1: there are so many plant based foods that have protein
Speaker 1: in them, great plant based protein sources. It is, I
Speaker 1: like to say, it's kind of how we're raised. Like
Speaker 1: I'm from the Midwest, so protein to me was only meat, potatoes, corn.
Speaker 1: That was like how you structure a plate. So the
Speaker 1: protein was meat. And then I was like, all, nothing
Speaker 1: else has protein because I'm so used to just meat
Speaker 1: being the protein. So that's kind of where I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the misconception comes from, is just thinking
Speaker 1: meat is the only source of protein. But there are
Speaker 1: so many plant based sources of protein.
Speaker 2: And you're a dietitian, So from the words of a dietitian,
Speaker 2: how much protein does one need in a day?
Speaker 1: So to find the amount of protein that you should use,
Speaker 1: you take your weight in pounds, and you need to
Speaker 1: convert it to kilograms, and once you have it in kilograms,
Speaker 1: you do that by dividing by two point two. Once
Speaker 1: you have it in kilograms, then you're going to multiply
Speaker 1: by point nine or one, and that's going to give
Speaker 1: you your baseline, and then you'll skew it up if
Speaker 1: you're doing more exercise or if your protein needs are
Speaker 1: a little bit higher, but that's where you're going to
Speaker 1: start from.
Speaker 2: Okay. And I know when we had our little pre
Speaker 2: call you were talking about the importance of amino acids
Speaker 2: in all of this, so I've wondered if you could
Speaker 2: explain to our listeners what amino acids are and what
Speaker 2: plant based foods have them.
Speaker 1: Yes, amino acids are going to be the building blocks
Speaker 1: of all proteins. There are twenty amino acids. There are
Speaker 1: nine that are essential, which means essential amino acids means
Speaker 1: your body can't make them, so you have to get
Speaker 1: them from food sources. And examples of that in plant
Speaker 1: based foods are going to be soy products, at AmAm
Speaker 1: tofu tempe, things of that nature are going to have
Speaker 1: all nine. But it is important to note that you
Speaker 1: don't have to have them all in one meal. That
Speaker 1: has been debunked. Lucky for us, it's been debunked. So
Speaker 1: now it's just trying to get all nine throughout the day,
Speaker 1: so you have a more wide range of options and
Speaker 1: variety throughout the day that can help you reach all
Speaker 1: of those nine essential amino acids. And if you want
Speaker 1: a quick way to do it, you could use those
Speaker 1: soy products. Other things like quin wat also have all
Speaker 1: of the n I essential amino acids. But even stacking
Speaker 1: things like beans and rice together, when you put them together,
Speaker 1: then you have a complete protein. So you say you
Speaker 1: have like beans at lunch and then rice at dinner,
Speaker 1: you've hit your essentials for the day. So it's not
Speaker 1: as hard to do as what it once with thought.
Speaker 2: And then there's also some unexpected plant based sources of protein.
Speaker 2: Can we go through some of those which I learned
Speaker 2: recently as well, And I'm just curious to know what
Speaker 2: sources you can share with us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So one of my favorites is nutritional yeast, I
Speaker 1: know as plant based edaters were always dumping that on
Speaker 1: literally anything that has five grams of protein, So it's
Speaker 1: a protein booster as I like to call them. So
Speaker 1: you can add it on to literally anything and it
Speaker 1: adds five grams. Another cool one. Nuts and seeds of
Speaker 1: course are great protein boosters. And then surprisingly some grains,
Speaker 1: so we usually think of grains as carbohydrate, but they
Speaker 1: also have a little bit of protein in them too,
Speaker 1: like quinoa specifically as a great plant based source of protein.
Speaker 2: So what I was referring to earlier what I just
Speaker 2: learned about. We have another show called Culinary Medicine Recipe,
Speaker 2: and in that show we interviewed the founder of an
Speaker 2: iron corn company, and iron corn is an ancient grain
Speaker 2: that has protein. It's a protein source. So that's when
Speaker 2: I learned that there are grains and other products that
Speaker 2: we think of as carbs which are actually which actually
Speaker 2: have protein in them. I don't think people think like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, for plant based eating. When I speak to
Speaker 1: my patients, it makes it confusing because they can be carbohydrates,
Speaker 1: but they also have proteins. And a lot of plant
Speaker 1: based foods are like that where they're not just like
Speaker 1: one thing. There are two things, sometimes three things. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of the beauty of plant based eating because
Speaker 1: they're not just one category of food. You're getting so
Speaker 1: many different nutrients and they're very vast.
Speaker 2: Well that that should help, you know, for those who
Speaker 2: are stuck in this well what I don't know where
Speaker 2: to get plant based protein from, that that should help
Speaker 2: a lot because that expands your options.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many, so many actions, and everything has
Speaker 1: a little bit of protein. It's mostly like finding something
Speaker 1: that has it's like a good solid plant based protein
Speaker 1: like tofu or like beans like lentils, and fun, fun
Speaker 1: fact for everyone listening, the new Dietary Guidelines from twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five to twenty thirty are coming out, and they've
Speaker 1: moved beans and lentils from the vegetable category into the proteins.
Speaker 1: So they're like even our dietary guideline governing bodies are recognizing, like,
Speaker 1: oh hey, there's something great about the legumes. Let's put
Speaker 1: them into the plant based proteins instead of viewing them
Speaker 1: as a vegetable. Vegetables are great, but they're more protein
Speaker 1: than they are vegetable, so it's okay, amazing. I would
Speaker 1: say that's great, all right.
Speaker 2: And then I promised people in my introduction that at
Speaker 2: some point in the episode we would be talking about
Speaker 2: practical meal ideas. So maybe now that people have an
Speaker 2: idea of where they can source their plant based proteins,
Speaker 2: could you give us some examples of maybe like a breakfast, lunch, dinner,
Speaker 2: snack so they get an idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so my favorite breakfast is avocado toast, but avocado
Speaker 1: has no protein. I has maybe like one gram. I'll
Speaker 1: give it a little bit one gram of protein, which
Speaker 1: isn't enough for a breakfast, so so dazz that up
Speaker 1: so it can fit into like a nice balance breakfast.
Speaker 1: I like to take the avocado and mash in at
Speaker 1: amami or sometimes even green peas into the avocado, and
Speaker 1: now it becomes a much more rich source of protein,
Speaker 1: so you're not just getting avocado by itself. It's delicious,
Speaker 1: but not super protein rich. Put it on some wheat bread,
Speaker 1: sprinkle some nutritional yeast, maybe some hemp seeds. I also
Speaker 1: do like to add a tempe bacon on top of it.
Speaker 1: So just like really loading up those plant based proteins,
Speaker 1: and that's a perfect way to start your day. It
Speaker 1: has a great amount of protein. You've got healthy fats
Speaker 1: and a whole grain. So that's where I start with breakfast.
Speaker 2: Can I just ask you, it might sound like a
Speaker 2: dem question, is there such a thing as too much protein?
Speaker 2: Like you just said, you loaded that avocada toast up.
Speaker 2: Can you have too much protein on there?
Speaker 1: You could? With the research is a little bit fuzzy,
Speaker 1: and how much protein is too much protein for a
Speaker 1: generally healthy person if you have like chronic kidney disease
Speaker 1: or some chronic condition where protein should be limited you
Speaker 1: can definitely overdo it much more easily than like if
Speaker 1: you were a healthy adult. If you get too much protein,
Speaker 1: the only thing that would come from that is potentially
Speaker 1: having too many calories per day, which can lead to
Speaker 1: weight gain or your body just not using it as
Speaker 1: effectively as a smaller amount of protein. But that number
Speaker 1: is different for every single person, and there's a specific
Speaker 1: equation for it, but I can't remember off the top
Speaker 1: of my head what it is. But you can get
Speaker 1: too much, but the repercussions of that aren't anything to
Speaker 1: be worried about unless you have a chronic condition.
Speaker 2: Okay, great, that's very helpful.
Speaker 1: All right, Lunch, Okay, lunch. I love a good bowl,
Speaker 1: a good dump everything into something to make a meal.
Speaker 1: So I use my vegan plate, which is like making
Speaker 1: fifty percent of your meal some type of fruit or vegetable,
Speaker 1: A quarter of it is protein, a quarter of it
Speaker 1: is a whole grain. So I kind of just pick
Speaker 1: one from each category and put it in a bowl,
Speaker 1: add a little bit of sauce to it, and call
Speaker 1: it a day and go. And that helps create a
Speaker 1: lot of great balance with the meal too, and helps
Speaker 1: hit those dietary guidelines. For vegetables and grains and all
Speaker 1: of those items. So I would say, like just a bowl.
Speaker 1: I love a bowl with like tinois and sweet potatoes.
Speaker 1: I love avocado. I'm in Phoenix, so like avocados, right,
Speaker 1: something that I eat, probably almost too much, but I
Speaker 1: love it. There's a lot of healthy fats, So that's
Speaker 1: kind of what my typical lunch recommendation would be. Something quick.
Speaker 1: We usually are all at work or you know, busy
Speaker 1: at launch period, but making time for it by just
Speaker 1: throwing them all together. And dinner, dinner, Oh, dinner. I
Speaker 1: love dinner. I love cooking dinner. I love, you know,
Speaker 1: like just being in the kitchen for dinner. I like
Speaker 1: a nice meal. I'm very much like prep ahead type
Speaker 1: of person too, So if I can throw everything in
Speaker 1: like a slow cooker, crop pot into the pot, air fryer, done,
Speaker 1: I just love doing that. So that's what I recommend too.
Speaker 1: For dinner, maybe making like a chili or tofu pad
Speaker 1: to so good, having like the brown rice noodles. You've
Speaker 1: got a little bit of brown rice. They're adding tofu
Speaker 1: to it, a peanut sauce. For healthy fats, you can
Speaker 1: add at amami as well if you wanted to toss
Speaker 1: that in there. Lots of veggies can be hidden as well.
Speaker 2: Would you make but okay, what would you make in
Speaker 2: a slow cooker? I have a slow cooker and I
Speaker 2: like it when I use it, But what would you
Speaker 2: make in there?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You can make anything in there. I have a book,
Speaker 1: my first cookbook. It came out in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: It's Vegan slow Cooking for two and there are eighty
Speaker 1: five different recipes, so so many things you can do.
Speaker 1: My favorite is making a tofu pad tie in there
Speaker 1: as well because it's quick and easy. But chili soup,
Speaker 1: French toast recipes, an overnight oatmeal in a crock pot
Speaker 1: so good. That's one of my favorites from the book.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's so many things that you could use
Speaker 1: your slow cooker for.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to tofu, I'm gonna guess you're
Speaker 2: using a firm or extra firm tofu.
Speaker 1: Or firm okay, yeah, the firm.
Speaker 2: One, yeah, because otherwise we'll get al mushy. I would guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sometimes I will do the base of the recipe
Speaker 1: and then airfry the tofu. But if you like it
Speaker 1: more crunchy, that's a great way to still make it
Speaker 1: fast because that texture is really important. So I feel
Speaker 1: like I want something that's got a little bit more
Speaker 1: bite to it. You could just throw it in an
Speaker 1: air fryer, put it on a pan really quick.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, that's a great suggestion. And what about snacks
Speaker 2: that are you know, not full of like not processed food,
Speaker 2: snacks that are actually good for us?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so snacks, my general guideline is at least two
Speaker 1: food groups, so picking either protein plus fat, protein plus carbohydrate,
Speaker 1: fat plus protein, and that helps create a nice balance
Speaker 1: snack that helps keep you feeling full for longer. And
Speaker 1: my favorite that fits that is so boring, but it's
Speaker 1: so good. It's just an apple and peanut butter with
Speaker 1: a little bit of cinnamon on it. I just love it.
Speaker 2: You know. I recently made these. I guess they're protein
Speaker 2: balls because it was the recipe called for a peanut butter,
Speaker 2: but I actually used an almond butter and I thought
Speaker 2: they might fall apart, but it was okay. And it
Speaker 2: was with oats and dates like a date paste, So
Speaker 2: that's probably combining everything you just said into one. But
Speaker 2: they're really good. So if anyone you know has a
Speaker 2: recipe for these energy balls. You should try it everyone.
Speaker 2: If my family liked it, my friends liked it. I
Speaker 2: think it's a big hit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well I love ball recipes and that one sounds
Speaker 1: really good, especially with dates. Dates are just I f
Speaker 1: like dates make everything taste better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I threw in some mini chocolate chips
Speaker 2: classic souse. You know I love chocolate too, and any
Speaker 2: other good recipe tips for people.
Speaker 1: I think with plant based eating, just trying a new recipes.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things to do is finding an
Speaker 1: old recipe that's not vegan and trying to make it vegan.
Speaker 1: I just think that's so fun and it allows creativity,
Speaker 1: and then it also allows like if you want something
Speaker 1: and you're like, I really I'm keeping it plant based,
Speaker 1: but I really miss XYZ. It gives you that creative
Speaker 1: freedom in the kitchen to find a new way to
Speaker 1: make something or maybe it's a whole new recipe that
Speaker 1: you've got to come up with to make it taste
Speaker 1: the right way, And things like that just become really fun.
Speaker 2: And what would you say to the person who is
Speaker 2: new to this and they're just worrying about their protein
Speaker 2: and take what would you tell them.
Speaker 1: I would say, this is always my go to recommendation
Speaker 1: is just do a food recall. That would be they
Speaker 1: could also be a catalog of your food. Do a
Speaker 1: food recall to see how much protein you're actually getting
Speaker 1: and how far off you are from what your goals
Speaker 1: would be, because sometimes you'd be surprised at how close
Speaker 1: you actually are to your protein intake with the foods
Speaker 1: you're eating, and if you find that you are low,
Speaker 1: you'll know how many grams you're off by and then
Speaker 1: you can make appropriate adjustments. It's kind of hard if
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I don't know if I'm getting enough protein,
Speaker 1: and then just almost shooting in the dark of like
Speaker 1: I don't know how many grams of protein I'm getting,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to add this, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: add that, and then it just becomes more confusing. Whereas
Speaker 1: if you take the information put it into the calculator.
Speaker 1: Now there's so many apps or sites that you can
Speaker 1: use just to see what your baseline is and then
Speaker 1: build off of that is where I start.
Speaker 2: And then should people then have a scale? How do
Speaker 2: you know when you do that calculation that you mentioned earlier. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you get a number of how much protein you
Speaker 2: should have in a day, let's say, But how does
Speaker 2: that translate? Do you need a scale?
Speaker 1: You don't have to have a scale. You could use
Speaker 1: a scale for like weighing. But I just take the app,
Speaker 1: any type of app, and to scan the barcodes and
Speaker 1: put the serving size. I had to get a rough
Speaker 1: idea of how much protein would be in that product.
Speaker 1: So if it's tofu, I would take my phone with
Speaker 1: the app some type of nutrition tracking app, scan the barcode,
Speaker 1: say I had one serving or two servings, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and it will auto calculate based on the nutrition fackspanel
Speaker 1: how much protein I had already. So then it adds
Speaker 1: it up for me and I can see at the
Speaker 1: end of the day how much protein I had versus
Speaker 1: how much that calculation told me I needed and what
Speaker 1: I'm off by.
Speaker 2: So then if you're having beans, you take the can
Speaker 2: and scan it as that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's how I would recommend doing it because
Speaker 1: then you don't have to do it by hand.
Speaker 2: But what if your source is keen wi Let's say, right,
Speaker 2: you've cooked the keen one and then you know it expands,
Speaker 2: so you're you know, you might cook a cup of
Speaker 2: quine lop, but then you get more than that, like
Speaker 2: how are you measuring all of that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I still use the nutrition fax panel and the
Speaker 1: apps have a robust database so it can pull from it,
Speaker 1: so you can say, like you had half a cup cooked,
Speaker 1: and it will pull the data from usually the USDA database,
Speaker 1: which is almost the source of truth for all nutrition
Speaker 1: information like nutrition facts, and it pulls from there to
Speaker 1: give you a pretty accurate reading.
Speaker 2: If someone wants to get an app, what what should
Speaker 2: they be researching? Like what should they be looking at?
Speaker 1: They will look up just nutrition calculator or uh there
Speaker 1: is sometimes they're classified as like calorie counters, but we're
Speaker 1: not really looking at calories. It's more for the protein.
Speaker 1: But that entering that, there's like two to three top
Speaker 1: options that pop up that would work perfectly fine.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, hopefully we've helped people with the whole protein question.
Speaker 2: And if anyone has more questions or wants to find you,
Speaker 2: where where can they do that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They can find me on Instagram at phx Vegan
Speaker 1: Dietitian or my website is www dot phx vegandietitian dot com.
Speaker 2: Wonderful, Well, thank you so much for being on the
Speaker 2: show today. It was great information and it was a
Speaker 2: pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1: Likewise, thanks so much for having me, and I hope
Speaker 1: that this was so helpful for anyone with questions about
Speaker 1: plant based protein.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it was. Thank you. I hope you found
Speaker 2: this episode helpful. Please share, rate, leave a review, and
Speaker 2: follow Plant Based Diet on your favorite podcast listening platform
Speaker 2: and on the Alternative Food Network YouTube channel, where you
Speaker 2: can also find recipe videos. If you're on social media,
Speaker 2: please follow us on Instagram at Alternative Food Network. We
Speaker 2: also publish a monthly newsletter that includes plant based recipes,
Speaker 2: our latest podcasts, and the occasional giveaway. You can sign
Speaker 2: up by going on our website at Alternativefoodnetwork dot com
Speaker 2: and click the newsletter sign up button. Until next time,
Speaker 2: thanks for listening. All content provided or opinions expressed in
Speaker 2: this podcast or for informational purposes only, and are not
Speaker 2: a substitute for professional medical advice. Please seek advice from
Speaker 2: your doctor or other qualified healthcare practitioner.