Your body needs many different proteins for various purposes. It makes them from about 20 'building blocks' called amino acids. Nine of these are essential amino acid, which means you must get them from food. The others are nonessential. This does not mean you do not need them. You just do not have to eat them because your body can produce them.
It is easiest to get protein from meat, chicken, turkey, fish and dairy foods. Cooked meat is about 15 to 40 percent protein. Foods from animal sources provide complete protein, which means they contain all the essential amino acids.
Next to meat, legumes – beans, peas and peanuts – have the most protein. But they are called incomplete proteins because they are lacking some essential amino acids. You can get complete protein if you combine them with plant foods from one of these categories – grains, seeds and nuts, and vegetables. Eat any two or more of these plant foods, with or without beans, and you get complete protein.
You do not have to eat these foods in the same dish, or even in the same meal. But many cultures have created combinations that work well – like corn and beans in Mexico, or rice and split peas in India.
So it's not all about quantity, but quality counts!
