The Best Foods with Lean Protein -
It's More Than Chicken and Fish
Finding the best foods with lean protein seemed liked it would be a challenge as I gave birth to a family of carnivores. When my son was 8 months old and had no teeth, he found a way to gum down small bites of steak. He wanted nothing to do with the jars of pulverized baby food chicken.
My middle daughter is a vegetarian who happens to like any kind of pork product, such as ham, sausage, or bacon. She wants nothing to do with regular chicken. My oldest daughter eats all the chicken that the other two children won’t touch.
If I could combine the three children, I would have a very balanced eater.
When I originally heard about feeding my family “lean proteins”, I thought that foods with lean protein only applied to chicken and fish.
Following that plan would mean that only one of my children would ever get any nutritional benefit from most of my meals.
I wanted my family to feel like they had a variety of foods with lean protein and I researched some acceptable alternatives. Bacon became turkey bacon, sausage became chicken sausage, and steak became cuts of tri-tip and flank steak. Ham remains ham, but I try to purchase sliced ham that has been trimmed of excess fat.
Best Foods with Lean Protein
• Skinless chicken breast
• Skinless turkey breast
• Fish
• Shellfish
• 29 cuts of lean beef
• Beans, such as black beans, kidney beans, chick peas, edamame beans or lentils
• Egg whites
• Non-fat/Low-fat milk and cottage cheese
• Protein powder
A longer list of healthy food can be found in the
shopping list.
Is Fish Safe to Eat?
When I was pregnant with my children, FDA warnings emerged telling us that it was not safe for pregnant women to eat swordfish, shark, or tilefish due to the high mercury content.
Let me see if I understand this. If you are pregnant, you should not eat certain fish because the mercury can harm you and your unborn child, but feel free to serve it to your family, your tyrant of a boss, and any obnoxious neighbors.
I always thought fish was part of a very healthy diet, and I struggled with the idea of eliminating it from what I ate. I learned that there is a wide array of conflicting opinions on fish safety, so I found an FDA chart that provided more detail on the level of mercury found in specific fish.
Click here to open a new window to see the FDA information.
Realizing I probably didn’t want to bring pages of the latest technical data with me to the grocery store, I found an easily readable wallet card from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Download PDF file here for the fish wallet card
What if You Don't Want to Eat Fish?
In searching for an alternative way to incorporate the lean protein of fish into my family’s diet, one of my girlfriends recommended Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil. Cod liver oil contains omega-3 fish oils, which is the beneficial oil your body gets when you eat fish. Omega-3 fish oil has recently been the subject of numerous medical studies, and I feel it has many potential advantages, including keeping my heart healthy. I am comfortable that I will benefit from a modest consumption of fish oil of one to two times a week.
I started with the liquid orange flavor of Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil and put a teaspoon into my family’s orange juice two times a week. It provided the alpha omega 3 that my family needed when we don’t eat fish. We drank it with straws because the cod liver oil floated on the top of the juice. My kids called it “sparkle juice”. I personally thought it looked like an oil slick, but we slurped it up because we could not taste the oil in the orange juice.
One day I was feeling creative and decided to put fish oil into my pancakes along with my wheat germ and flax. Not one of my better ideas. My family wasn’t very excited about eating fish cakes that had the unpleasant aroma of four day old fish. Since then I graduated to Nordic Naturals capsules that can be chewed or swallowed whole and now take them with water. I find this to be quick, easy, and painless. My children love Nordic Naturals Omega 3 Gummies and now we all love the Nordic Naturals Omega 3 Effervescent.
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