How Can We Increase the Protein in Our Smoothies?

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How can we increase the protein in our smoothies? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert and and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. SME Martinez from Instagram asks, how can we increase protein in the shakes if we need like 40 grams? Alright, let's talk protein, what we need, and how to make the most most powerful nutritious smoothie on the planet. I'll be right back with that answer. Stay with me.

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So one of the big questions I get asked all the time is how much protein should I, should I get? First of all, remember, protein is, is one of our essential macronutrients. We gotta have protein, we gotta have fat. FYI, we can live without carbohydrates, gotta have water. And I really like to throw in fiber there because of what it does for your gut microbiome. But today we're talking protein. Protein is super important for maintaining your body composition or building muscle and losing fat. It's thermic, it helps boost your metabolism and it's super satiating. So it's really someone who's trying to lose body fat. It's their best buddy. So how much should you have? Well, generally my rule of Thumb is about 1/2 to 3,4 gram of protein per pound of body weight. In the perfect world, you'd be testing your lean body mass and dosing your protein based on that. And I would say for lean body mass, somewhere from 3, 4 to 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. But if you don't have the access to that, you just go with the first one. Now here's the thing. If you are working out heavy, if you're recovering from an injury or an illness, if you're under a lot of stress, you need more protein, go to the higher amount and then you take that protein and you divide it into your meals. So you're having two to three meals a day. We're not smack snacking, remember. Not smacking either. We're not snacking. So it's two to three meals a day. So let's say that you come out of that and you go, okay, I need to eat 90 grams of protein a day. So that would get divided into 30 grams. Now the question was, how do I get 40 grams of protein in? And I will address that. But let me just talk to you about how you can get the most protein in your smoothie. First of all, really, really choose your protein powders wisely. Make sure they don't have, you know, added sugars. So especially no artificial ingredients. I always say, like mine has fruit and vegetable compounds, so there's one gram of sugar in there, but it's from that you don't want added sugars from crappy things and you really want it to be rich in a bioavailable protein. So if you're vegan, you'll use a plant based protein. If you're not a vegan, bone broth style proteins, like I have a bone broth style protein that's going to be a more bioavailable source. Now I'll tell you, I don't use whey because it can bump up insulin and also can cause some food intolerance responses. And I really look for a protein powder you can use day in, day out with no issues. So that's the first thing. And generally from your protein powder, remember, you can kick up your protein by just kicking up your protein powder. Two servings of my protein powder puts you at somewhere around 20, 21 grams of protein. If you want more protein, hey, the easiest thing is use a little more protein powder. But there's some other things that you can do too. But let's figure that you can easily get 20, 25 grams of protein from your protein powder alone. Then you could use a nut milk. Now there's a flax meal, flax milk that I use that's boosted with plant proteins and I think that gives you somewhere in the 8 grams. So let's say you did a protein powder and you did two heaping scoops that would take you more in the 25 grams. Then you added the nut milk with the boosted protein and now you're about like 32. And then maybe use some freshly ground flaxseed meal, some chia seeds, something like that, that'll take you to about 35, 36. So right there you've kicked it up. And again, if you want to kick it up higher than that, just use more protein powder. So that's the easiest way to do it. But look at all the other things that you're putting into your protein shake. Because remember, we want to have a protein, fat and fiber trifecta. Why? Good blood sugar balance, good satiety. So satiety because protein lowers your, slows down your stomach emptying, keeps ghrelin suppressed. Fiber works with that too. Fiber works for blood sugar balance. And fat triggers the release of chemicals in your small intestine to tell your brain you're full. So all those things together really are a trifecta for blood sugar balance, satiety, et cetera. And so not just don't just look at the protein you're putting into your smoothie. Also look at where you're getting some healthy fats and where you're getting some fiber that's where I love things like freshly done flaxseed meal or chia seeds because you get good fats and you get fiber along with it. All right. Or I'll use a little bit of a, you know, it's not super green, but a banana that's just turning from green to yellow so it's really rich in resistant starch. I freeze them that way. I use a little bit of that, like a quarter to a half of a banana. I freeze some avocado, do that too, throw that all in so I get healthy fats, fiber and protein. All right, hope that serves. If you've got questions, I've got answers. All you need to do is pop over to jj Virginette, Instagram, DM me, leave me a question and we will get it answered. And be sure that you subscribe to JJ.com so you never miss a daily dose.

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