Protein is an essential part to our necessary daily nutrition, but why and what is it exactly?
By weight, our human bodies are comprised of 20% protein. Protein is an important building block material for the cell composition to our bodies, including for our bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, hair, and blood. Our bodies not only use protein to help build, but to repair as well. It’s also needed to make enzymes, antibodies, and hormones. Essentially, protein is vital to keeping us alive and well. The question then becomes, from where do we get protein?
Protein in our diet comes from two different places: animal sources and vegetable sources. Animal sources (such as meat, eggs, and milk) are considered complete proteins, meaning that they contain all of the essential amino acids (protein is actually a chain of amino acids). While vegetable sources are lower than animal sources in terms of being complete in amino acids, some are fairly high, overall, in protein content.
Healthy Little Cooks wants to keep you informed on one such vegetable source for our necessary daily protein: the bean. Below is a list of protein-packed beans (and legumes) and how much protein is found in each.
| Type of Bean or Legume (in boiled form, without salt) | Grams of Protein per Cup | Percent of Protein per Cup |
| Soybeans | 28.6 | 17% |
| White Beans | 17.4 | 10% |
| Lentils | 17.9 | 9% |
| Pinto Beans | 15.4 | 9% |
| Black Beans | 15.2 | 9% |
| Chickpeas | 14.5 | 9% |
| Kidney Beans | 15.3 | 9% |
| Split Peas | 16.3 | 8% |
| Great Northern Beans | 14.7 | 8% |
| Navy Beans | 15.0 | 8% |
| Tofu (firm) | 21.0 | 8% |
| Lima Beans | 14.6 | 8% |
| Fava Beans | 12.9 | 8% |
| Adzuki Beans | 17.3 | 8% |
| Mung Beans | 14.2 | 7% |
