What is Lean Protein?
Lean protein is any high-protein source that’s naturally lower in saturated fats and calories. It has a lot of important jobs to do in your body. It helps to build and repair muscles, build healthy hormones and cells, keep your hair, skin, and nails healthy, stabilize blood sugar, and it helps you to feel full.
Choosing leaner protein options helps to reduce saturated fat intake. This can help to promote heart health and better cholesterol levels. Also, choosing lean protein means you get more bang for your buck. In every portion of lean protein, you get more of that protein, and less fat. For example, if you buy a pound of 80/20 ground turkey, essentially, this is 80% lean protein, and 20% fat. If you buy 93/7, this is 93% lean turkey, and 7% fat. So, if you think about it, in a pound (16 ounces) of 80/20 ground turkey, you get about 12.8 ounces of lean protein. In a pound (16 ounces) of 93/7 ground turkey, you actually get 14.88 ounces of lean ground turkey – less wasted fat, and more useful protein.
Examples of Lean Protein
There is a big variety of lean protein to choose from! Check out the list below to expand your menu:
- Poultry (like skinless chicken and turkey, or lean ground chicken or turkey)
- Lean cuts of beef and pork (choose cuts from the loin, tenderloin, or round, and the leanest ground meats you can afford)
- Fish and seafood (all kinds, like salmon, cod, halibut, tilapia, sardines, herring, catfish, crab, clams)
- Eggs
- Low-fat or fat-free dairy like cheese, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, ricotta
- Beans (like soybeans/edamame, lentils, pinto, and kidney)
- Tofu, seitan, and tempeh
- And others – rabbit, venison, bison
Keep it Lean
When cooking lean protein, aim to keep it lean! Cook your protein with a “lean” cooking method, like grilling, air-frying, baking, roasting, or sautéing. With cooking methods like these, we don’t add much fat or calories in the cooking process. Avoid deep fat frying foods as much as possible, as this adds unnecessary calories, and unhealthy fat. If you notice fat separating from your meat while cooking do your best to skim the fat off as much as possible, or spoon it out of your pan/pot.
