Marika Day: How to sneak protein into your diet

ARTICLE

1 April 2024

3 mins read

AIA Eat Well ambassador and Accredited Practising Dietitian Marika Day shares her go-to tricks for making sure she gets enough protein in her diet, especially when she can’t be bothered with all the prep.

If you’re like me, you could live purely on carbs and fats and quite happily never cook, cut, or clean up after a piece of meat or protein-rich food again.

Unfortunately, protein is really important for a healthy, well-working body – especially if we’re trying to meet fitness or strength goals or find our feet after injury or illness¹. Protein helps our bodies grow and repair muscles, fight infections, digest food, and balance our hormones².

So how can we get enough protein if we’re someone who’d happily live without it (and all the time-consuming preparation)? Luckily for you, I’ve been working on this challenge for the better part of my adulthood.

What foods are high in protein?

Often, we think getting enough protein means reaching first for animal-based foods like eggs, meat, and salmon. These are terrific, high-quality complete sources (containing all the essential amino acids) of protein, but if you’re vegan or vegetarian, you’ll be glad to know that soy products, quinoa, and amaranth are complete sources of plant-based protein too.

Nuts, legumes, beans, lentils, and wholegrains like rice and oats also contain protein, but they don’t each have all the essential amino acids. This doesn’t mean they’re not worth eating – it just means they can be combined in lots of interesting, yummy ways to create a complete source of protein.

The good news is that if you follow a healthy, balanced diet as recommended by the Australian guide to healthy eating³, you can get enough protein. But if you’re a preparation-avoider like me, or simply curious about how to get your protein from different foods, here are some of the ways I manage to sneak a good dose of protein into my diet every day.

Boost your meals

Find a protein powder you actually enjoy and add it to your choice of milk for your breakfast cereal (choose soy milk or cow’s milk to keep things protein-rich).
Add extra egg whites to your scrambled eggs in the morning – for example, if you cook two whole eggs, add a third egg white.
Opt for pulse pasta – a great way to make vegetarian pasta dishes far higher in protein (and fibre!).
Replace sourdough or white bread with a bread that’s higher in protein, like 100% wholegrain or whole-wheat bread.
Find a tinned tuna or salmon flavour you like and add it to salads, enjoy it on crackers, or eat it on its own.
Add edamame to salads or stir-frys.
Add tofu, tempeh, or textured vegetable protein (sometimes called ‘TVP’) to vegetarian or vegan meals.

Substitute richer alternatives

Choose higher-protein yoghurts or skyr – personally, I love the Chobani whole milk plain yoghurt. The Vitasoy Greek Style soy yoghurt is a fab plant-based alternative (in fact, Greek yoghurt typically contains about twice the amount of protein as regular yoghurt[1] – a great option to include in your peaches and cream overnight oats).
Use cow’s milk or soy milk instead of almond or oat milk, which don’t contain all the essential amino acids. If you can find it conveniently, you could also choose a high-protein milk – I like FitMilk from Rokeby Farms, which has 50% more protein.
Switch out rice for quinoa. You don’t need to do it every time, but it’s a good option if you feel you need a little more protein.

Get protein snacky

Snack on almonds, cashews, or roasted fava beans (my favourite) to up your intake of nuts and legumes.
Sprinkle a pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seed mixture over boiled eggs, or dip the eggs into a bit of soy sauce.
Spread cottage cheese on crackers or toast – a great snack, or a tasty light meal!

Prepare smarter, not harder

As I’ve said, one of the reasons I don’t really enjoy protein-rich foods is because of all the cutting, the cooking, and the cleaning. So choosing convenient sources of protein works really well for me. This might mean I opt for pre-sliced or marinated meats, or even frozen meals or microwave meals that don’t require anything but heating.

But I also find that preparing my protein – whether it’s grilled tofu, poached chicken, or pan-fried salmon – on the weekend means I am far more likely to enjoy a high-protein, balanced meal during the week.

Just enough preparation always wins.

Footnotes

¹https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8746600/

²https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/protein

³https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-guide-healthy-eating

⁴https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/greek-yogurt-vs-yogurt#nutrients

Marika Day

Marika Day is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist with over 10 years' experience in a variety of clinical and non-clinical areas. Her expertise and interests include gastrointestinal nutrition, which is influenced by her personal experience with coeliac disease. Additionally, she focuses on women’s health and the complexities of disordered and emotional eating. In addition to her clinical expertise, Marika regularly works in recipe development, helping people make nutritious choices every day. Her approach to nutrition is balanced, practical and empathetic and aims to help people enjoy food and live a healthy balanced life.

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