My wife is tracking her protein intake and the back of an almond butter container says 6g of protein is 4%DV. We both feel like this is way off. Or are we just eating way too little protein every day?
The daily value of protein is 50g. While 50g of egg, dairy, or meat protein is 100% DV, 50g of most plant protein that isn’t a powdered protein isolate is less than 100%. That’s not because it isn’t a complete protein, most plant proteins are complete proteins. It’s because of DIAAS and PDCAAS, which try to score how easily digested the protein is. Almond protein is only ranked around 40% by these scores. And while soy protein isolate usually ranks around 90+%, tofu only ranks around 60%. This means you would need a lot more whole plant foods to get the same amount of digested protein.
I would suggest taking your body weight and using that to determine protein intake. If you are very active/ lift weights/ etc set it at about body weight. For example I am 130 lbs and when I’m training hard I aim for 130 G protein daily. If you are more sedentary and just looking for more health conscious options you can go a little lower. Same example on me when I’m not training I still aim for about 100 g! Tried to simplify as much as possible ☺️
I really consider daily values to fluctuate from person to person. But I suppose with a traditional “2000 calories per day” diet, 150 grams of protein would be 600 of those calories coming from protein which would fit a 33%/33%/33% split between carbs, fats, and proteins per day, which is a healthy balance.
Doesn’t seem off at all. With those calculations, 150g would be 100% DV which isn’t bad depending on your goals. If you’re looking to maintain and aren’t super active, I’d say about .75-1g of protein per pound of body weight is good. If you’re looking to build muscle and/or lose fat, I’d say 1-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight is better. So, 150g isn’t bad for someone who’s 100lbs looking to build muscle or someone who’s 150lbs looking to maintain.
I think that must be an error on the label. The current “daily value” set by the FDA for protein is only 50g. See here: https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/daily-value-new-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels
I’m not well enough informed, but I can try: I don’t know that there is a recommended DV for protein. It doesn’t seem to be required. But some labels show one. The values are inconsistent.
Some proteins are incomplete, as others are saying, and soaking might help absorption, or at least break down some antinutrients (phytate), but also some protein is useless. I learned this from pork rinds. But to the point, I’d call 150 too high except for athletes. Plant proteins are less bioavailable than most animal parts, but I don’t know that it is a real big deal