31 - Why Everyone's Talking About Protein (& Why It Matters)

In this episode of the Nourished Living Podcast, we’re talking all things protein, what it does in your body, how to know if you’re eating enough, simple ways to add more into your meals, and what to look for when choosing a protein powder that actually supports your health goals.

You’ll learn:

•  Why so many breakfasts (and lunches!) are low in protein — and how that affects your hunger and energy all day long
•  How to know if your meal has enough protein — without counting calories or tracking macros
•  Quick, easy, high-protein food and snack ideas
•  My go-to trick for checking if a food is truly high in protein
•  What I look for in a protein powder — and the brands I personally love

Whether you’re tired of feeling hungry all day, struggling with energy crashes, or just want to make smarter nutrition choices, this episode will help you build balanced, protein-rich meals that keep you full, satisfied, and thriving.

Protein Powders Mentioned in This Episode:

• Vital Proteins Collagen
• Ka’chava
• 1st Phorm
• Garden of Life
• Heart & Soil

Connect with Courtney: 

• If you’re ready to take your health to the next level, grab my ebook Glow From Within — your guide to nourishing your body with real food, balancing blood sugar, supporting your metabolism, and feeling your best from the inside out. Get Your Copy Here!
• Follow Courtney on Instagram: @healthywithcourtneyy

If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you:

•  Subscribe to the show
•  Leave a 5-star review
•  Share it with a friend who’s always asking what to eat for more energy

Let’s keep nourishing our bodies and living well — together.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Nourished Living Podcast, where we go beyond diets and quick fixes, and reconnect with what it really means to feel good in your body. I am Courtney Podany, nutritional therapist, personal trainer, energy worker, type one diabetic, and mom here to guide you toward health that feels simple, sustainable, and aligned. Each episode will explore how to nourish your body. Balance your energy and strengthen your intuition so you can thrive and actually understand what your body is telling you. So grab your favorite drink. Take a deep breath, and let's jump into your new nourished life. Hello and welcome back to the Nourished Living Podcast. I am your host, Courtney Podany.. Danny. I hope everyone has started settling into the coziness of fall and embraced slowing down a bit. I can't believe that in just a few short days, once Halloween wraps up, the hype and magic of Christmas is going to start. I feel like it was just summer and I actually think we have a few 80 degree days headed our way this week. So it seems weird that we. Will be listening to Christmas music soon, but I'm also kind of excited. Anyway, this episode had originally started out as how to pick the right protein powder for you, because let's be real, there's 1 million brands out there and it can be overwhelming trying to pick out the right one for you. But before I had actually started compiling info for this episode, I had a client inquire about good sources of protein. And then a little bit after that, I saw a comment on someone else's Instagram post asking Why are Americans so obsessed with protein? So this episode just kept growing and growing and growing and is now filled with tons of information, but it is all regarding protein, protein, and more protein. Once I saw that comment about Americans being obsessed with protein, I got an idea for an Instagram reel. You might have seen it, but, this is a good way to start the episode. I had said, want to know why we harp on protein, protein, protein so much? Because these are the low protein breakfasts. We start our day with bagels, muffins, croissants, donuts, cereal, oatmeal. Pancakes and waffles just to name a few. These foods are what we find at coffee shops and grocery stores that are easy to just grab and go and eat on the way to school or work. But when we start our day without enough protein, there can be some side effects. I know for me, if I don't have enough protein with my breakfast, I will literally feel hungry all day long, and it doesn't matter how much protein I eat later on, I cannot fill that hole in my stomach. It feels like I have or I will get ravenously hungry. Very quickly, Like normally when it approaches lunchtime, I start to feel a little hungry and it just kind of eases up on me where I know I have, like 30 minutes to 60 minutes to get some food in me and I'll be fine and can just go on my way. But when I don't have enough protein. I will go from not hungry at all to, oh my goodness, I need food immediately, or I will starve and die right now. Just to paint the picture. And there are some other symptoms you might encounter from not eating enough protein, like fatigue, dry skin, brittle hair and nails, swelling or edema in the limbs. Regular infections and weakness, and this just kind of seems like a recurring theme with a lot of meals that are served here, that there is not enough protein. And everyone will need different amounts of protein based on your size, age, medical history, activity levels, et cetera. So you might need to play around with it a little bit. But think about common lunches as well. You've got pasta with garlic bread, pizza sandwich, and chips. Even with salads, sometimes the macronutrients are not proportionate. You know, there will be some type of protein in there, but it might not be enough compared to the carbs ratio. Let's take a look at a sandwich. You might have like three Turkey slices on there. Try to compete with two slices of bread and a bag of chips. It's just not enough. I think when we are not aware of these things, protein can definitely be lacking, which isn't necessarily our fault because if we are eating out, we aren't in charge of the portion sizes. So anyway, after that long introduction, I wanted to include in this episode good sources of protein. How to know if a food has protein in it. How to become aware if you are consuming enough ways to incorporate more protein into your diet. And then of course, what this episode was going to be based on how to pick out the right protein shake for you. But first, why is protein important? Well, proteins are the foundation behind enzymes, which assist with our metabolism and cell growth. Proteins defend against pathogens and pathogens that can cause infections, proteins build muscles and help with muscle contraction. They are involved in cell to cell communication. And we have trillions of cells circulating through our bloodstream at any given time, and they are important for our hormones, and that is just to name a few. Good sources of proteins are, well, we will start with animal proteins, so there's beef, bison, chicken, Turkey, pork, eggs, seafood and fish, Greek yogurt and cheese for plant-based proteins. We have beans, lentils, edamame, soy, tofu, Tempeh. Quinoa, almonds, cashews, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and some vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. A great way to personally gauge if you are eating enough protein at meals is how long you stay full afterwards. This is something you can just notice the next time you are hungry after you eat, and it doesn't involve you tracking anything or counting macros or calories. If you eat a meal with enough protein, you should stay full for at least four to five hours afterwards. If you eat lunch at 12:00 PM and you are hungry again by one 30 or 2:00 PM you did not have enough protein with your meal. If you cook for yourself or eat the same meals frequently, you can easily adjust your protein intake the next time you eat that, just by adding more protein. If you do eat your meal at 12:00 PM and don't get hungry until 4:00 PM or later, then it seems like you had a lovely, well balanced meal that included enough protein. That is a quick test you can perform for yourself. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms that I mentioned earlier, like fatigue, brittle hair and nails, flaky, skin edema, infections, sick often, and anemia, I would probably try to start incorporating more protein into your day. So here are some easy ways to do that. You could add collagen protein into your morning coffee or tea. There's lots of unflavored. Versions like vital Proteins you can add so you don't even taste it. Or you could get a vanilla flavor or something and just use that as your flavoring in your coffee. Swap your regular yogurt for Greek yogurt. Make sure you bring protein rich snacks with you, like a protein shake, string cheese, meat sticks, or beef or Turkey jerky, roasted chickpeas, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, almonds, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds. You could even do like a can of chicken or can of tuna with some crackers. There are also some good protein bars that I am a fan of, like perfect bars. Those will be found in your refrigerated section. And with these, if you are really wanting the protein benefits from a bar, I would just check that there are more grams of protein than grams of carbs, so we don't jack up our blood sugar. And beware of marketing here. When my kids started eating solids and I was doing lots of research and looking for healthy snacks for them, there was this bar that literally states on the box on each individual bar. That it's high in protein and fiber, but when you look at the nutrition facts, there was only one gram of protein for the whole entire bar. So even if it says something about having lots of protein, just double check with the nutrition facts there. So these are simple, easy ways to incorporate more protein throughout your day. Which seems like a great segue into how to tell if a food is high in protein. When you look at the nutrition facts, you are going to compare the amount of grams of protein verse the calories for one serving. So for this example, I am looking at a can of chicken from Costco, which let's just go into it knowing this is going to be high protein. There are 13 grams of protein per serving and 60 calories per serving. You will take the 13 and if that number is bigger than just the first number in the calories, it is a good source of protein. It here, 13 is larger than the six from 60 calories, meaning this food is high in protein. Then we are going to look at a slice of cheese. This cheese has five grams of protein per serving and 70 calories per serving. In this case, the five from five grams of protein is less than the seven in 70 calories, meaning this is not a source of high protein. That doesn't make this a bad food. It just means that it is either higher in carbs or higher in fat than protein. So there is another trick for you if you are wondering if you're eating a high amount of protein or if something has more carbs or fat in it. For protein shakes, even though a lot of them are advertised as meal replacements, I never really recommend them to actually replace your meals. I like protein shakes as a snack when you know you need some more protein in your day. One protein shake alone only ranges from about 200 to 400 calories. That is not even enough calories for a toddler for one meal, which is why I think it's best as a snack. There are many different providers out there, so I just wanted to let you know what I look for so you can try and choose the best fit. First, I look at the actual protein amount. Just because it's a protein powder doesn't necessarily mean. There's a lot of protein in it, and I also look at the carb amount. If there are more carbs than protein, I will not get it because to me, the point of the protein is protein, not the carbs, again, I'm not saying that carbs are bad. I am just looking for protein. When it comes to protein shakes, an ideal protein powder will have at least 20 grams of protein per serving or more. Then I look if there is any added sugar. I prefer no sugar. If there was a high amount of carbs listed on the nutrition facts, it might be because there is added sugar, so just something to be aware of. Some will also include a probiotic blend, which I would say is not necessary. If you take a probiotic supplement or you eat probiotic rich foods regularly, like yogurt, sauerkraut, pickle vegetables, miso, things like that, but it could be a plus. If you don't think you are getting your necessary probiotics, then you absolutely could get that and then it becomes, you know, more bang for your buck. And of course you wanna look at what the protein is actually made of. If you are vegan, vegetarian, or even sensitive to dairy, there are pea protein options or plant-based. I usually get proteins that are derived from animals like whey protein or collagen peptides. And whey protein is known as a complete protein because it contains all nine of the essential amino acids our bodies need. If you hear the term incomplete protein, that just means that the protein does not contain all nine of the essential amino acids In regards to food sources of protein, most animal proteins will be complete like beef, fish, chicken, and eggs. However, some of the plant proteins are incomplete like beans and nuts, so if you are vegan or vegetarian to consume complete proteins, you just need to pair a couple plant-based proteins together, like I always say anyway, variety is key. A few examples would be rice and beans together. Or peanut butter on a whole wheat toast. But anyway, back to the protein powders. Some brands I like as far as taste and that include all of my prerequisites are KA'chava, first phorm, heart and Soil Vital Proteins and Garden of Life. Those will be listed out in the show notes for you. So to sum it all up, protein really is one of the most important nutrients we can focus on. It keeps you fuller for longer. Stabilizes blood sugar, supports your hair, skin and nails, and helps you build and maintain lean muscle when you start your day. And every meal with enough protein, you're setting yourself up for steady energy, balanced hormones, and fewer cravings throughout the day. If there is one takeaway from today's episode, it would be to take notice of how long you stay full after eating. This simple awareness can tell you so much more than any tracker or app ever could. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Nourished Living Podcast. If you loved today's episode, it would mean the world if you hit subscribe, left a quick review or rating and passed it along to a friend who might need to hear this message. And if you're ready to take the next step toward glowing from the inside out, grab my ebook, glow from Within. It's your guide to nourishing your body with real foods, balancing your blood sugar, and supporting your metabolism to feel your absolute best without dieting. That will be linked in the show notes below. And until next time, keep nourishing your body, honoring your hunger, and living your most vibrant life. Thanks for hanging out with me today and tuning into the Nourished Living Podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and found something you can start implementing right away to kickstart your nourished transformation. If you loved this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from these insights. Until next time, stay nourished.