How Much Protein Is In My Lunch?

Are you someone who enjoys looking at data? How about crunching numbers or tracking trends? I get an immense amount of joy out it myself, which is partly why I became a dietitian. Food science and nutrition is all about numbers and I enjoy the orderly, informative nature of it.

This might be why I was so excited to share my last post about the calories in my bento lunch boxes, and why I’m continuing the adventure this week, only with protein this time. If you’ve been a vegetarian for long, you know protein is a topic that gets a lot of attention. If you’re not a vegetarian you may have noticed that protein gets a lot of attention, at least lately. It appears to be the nutrient darling of the month (OK, maybe of the year) among the media, food companies, and consumers.

While meat is often touted as the best and only source of protein for humans, that’s definitely not the whole, or accurate, story. Plant foods offer up a hefty dose of protein, as my meatless bento lunch photos will attest. For comparison, as your eyes scan through the numbers below, a daily protein target would be 46 g for women and 56 g for men*. (If you’re interested to know more about how much protein we need, check out this earlier protein-themed post and this in-depth New York Times article on getting too much protein.)

Peas and Pretzels Bento: 13 g protein

• 1/4 cup Trader Joe’s tomato and basil hummus dip
• 5 Kirkland cashew clusters
• 2 satsuma oranges
• 15 Trader Joe’s honey wheat pretzel sticks
• 1 cup snap peas
• 2 tablespoons Annie’s goddess dressing
• 605 calories, 78 g carbohydrate, 29 g fat

Crispbread and Cheese Bento with Fruit and Veggies: 19 g protein

• 1.3 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
• 2.5 ounces cucumber
• 7 black olives
• 1 tangerine (5 ounces)
• 2 Trader Joe’s whole grain crispbreads
• 480 calories, 36 g carbohydrate, 27 g fat

Chips and Cheese Bento: 19 g protein

• 0.75 ounces Lindt excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate bar
• 2 tablespoons Adam’s 100% natural creamy peanut butter
• 1 ounce sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 apple (4.8 ounces)
• 1 ounce tortilla chips
• 650 calories, 53 g carbohydrate, 41 g fat

Blueberry Bento: 20 g protein

• 0.65 ounces Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar with toffee, walnuts and pecans
• 1 carrot (4 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons Hope kale pesto hummus
• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 Trader Joe’s whole grain crispbreads
• 1.1 ounce sharp white cheddar cheese
• 630 calories, 58 g carbohydrate, 33 g fat

Fire Ants on a Log Bento: 20 g protein

• 1.15 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
• 10 Mary’s Gone Crackers original crackers
• 0.8 ounces Lindt excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate bar
• 2 Trader Joe’s sweetened dried orange slices (1 ounce)
• Fire Ants on a Log
  • 2 ounces celery
  • 1 ounce Adam’s 100% natural creamy peanut butter
  • 0.4 ounces Craisins original dried cranberries
• 1 cup grapes
• 795 calories, 92 g carbohydrate, 39 g fat

Finger Foods Bento with Tofu: 26 g protein

• 3 pieces Truffettes de France organic chocolate truffles
• 2.4 ounces Banh Mi tofu
• Peanut butter and honey sushi sandwich 
  • 1.5 tablespoons Adam’s 100% natural creamy peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 slice Dave’s Killer Bread 21 whole grains and seeds
• 2.5 ounces cucumber
• 2 tablespoons Sabra classic hummus
• 4 ounces grapes
• 1.3 ounces raspberries
• 755 calories, 76 g carbohydrate, 40 g fat

Pizza Please Bento: 30 g protein

• 5 Kirkland cashew clusters
• 1 tangerine (5 ounces)
• 4.3 ounces edamame
• 2.8 ounces thin crust cheese pizza
• 595 calories, 68 g carbohydrate, 24 g fat

Well, what did you notice? Fruit is low in protein. So are olives, cucumbers, carrots, and salad dressing. Nuts and seeds made a strong showing in the form of cashew clusters and crispbreads, and hummus in its various forms was responsible for a small contribution. The real protein powerhouses in my lunches were soy foods (tofu and edamame), cheese, and peanut butter. What’s missing in these photos is more types of beans, like pinto beans, chickpeas, or kidney beans which are more likely to show up when I bring dinner leftovers for my midday meal. I mean, come on: a cup of cooked lentils has 18 g of protein all by itself! Are you not impressed?

In case your detail-oriented mind is wondering about some of the numbers, I rounded values less than 0.5 g down to zero, and the cheese totals varied because the portions I carved off the brick each morning varied slightly. Over the week, my lunch protein intake ranged from 13 to 30 g with an average of 21 g. As a woman, with a goal of 46 g per day, getting about a third or a half of it at lunch makes perfect sense to me. Overall, I bet my breakfasts are slightly lower and my dinners a touch higher, and snacks would contribute to the day’s total as well.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling quite satisfied after my systematic review of the nutrient content of my neat and tidy compartmentalized lunches, and also quite satisfied with the adequacy of my protein intake. Nothing like a good analysis to make a dietitian’s heart happy, what with all the food and math colliding in one blog post. If you decide to search out this same kind of happiness by looking more closely at your lunches, I’d love to hear about it.

What surprised you about these pictures? Or did they confirm something you already knew about protein foods?

*The RDA, or Recommended Daily Allowance, suggests 46 g a day for women and 56 g a day for men. Some professional groups recommend a slightly higher intake for vegetarians because of differences in protein digestibility, however it’s mostly aimed at those folks choosing exclusively plant foods, like vegans. So, that would bump their targets to 58 g for women and 70 g for men. If you include cheese or eggs in your diet, the standard RDA is dandy.

Kristine Duncan, Registered Dietitian

I’m a Registered Dietitian, the author of Veg Girl RD, and a vegetarian who loves to eat. I’m a nutrition nerd who teaches at the University of Washington and Skagit Valley College. I also write about nutrition professionally for magazines and books. If you want to know more, check out my About page.