I was given samples of a snack food at Expo West that caught my attention given how much I am talking about more protein with all of you. It is a good illustration of why so many of you are confused. While this may be a perfectly good snack for someone not prone to insulin resistance, for the readers of this blog, it may be troublesome.
Here is why. (If you click on the photo it will enlarge).
I agree, as stated on the left, lentils are a high protein legume. However, the amount of protein that is in this snack, compared to the amount of carbohydrate, is not so high.
If you analyze your diet using the www.nutritiondata.com website I mentioned a few days ago, by the end of the day, 25-30% of your calories should be protein, and 35-40% of your calories should be carbohydrate. It is not at all possible to look at every food and assign a"eat" or"can't eat" rule based on this…but all the foods you eat over the course of a day should total these percentages. Foods that are a long way away from that are foods that have more potential to throw off your daily total.
Snack foods in general have the greatest potential for throwing off your total, especially if you believe it is good for you and do what many people, eat more of it because that is what you believe.
If a food is truly high protein, it should be comparable to meat and milk. Meat has 7 grams of protein per once, and milk has 8 grams of protein per cup. A serving of these chips has 3 grams. Less than half the protein. Big difference. Multiply the grams of protein by 1.33; that number represents the upper limit of carbohydrate grams you would want to have the ratios I suggest above. Here, if you multiply 3 times 1.33, your carbohydrates should be no higher than 4 grams. They are, in actuality, 17. Working in reverse, if you divide 17 by 1.33, you will need to eat 15 grams of protein with a serving of this chip in order to have the protein ratio be sufficient. Twelve of those grams of protein will need to come from some other source, and if you choose milk, you still have carbohydrates to account for. You will need to include a pure protein source such as 2 ounces of cheese or deli meat to make up the difference, which could add up to 200 calories to that snack.
Yes it contains protein. But not enough to be a therapeutic protein source for managing insulin resistance.
Be a smart consumer. inCYST on transparency and labeling claims that are not confusing.