I hope you’re sitting down because I’m about to share with you one of my favorite brain-boggling plant-based protein facts.

Whenever I teach this in a class, people’s minds are blown.

It’s just so counter to what popular diet culture says that there’s a juicy little moment of silence after I talk where people are trying to process what I just told them.

You know how white potatoes get a bad rap? Supposedly, they’re full of starch and “bad” carbs and are nutritionally void?

It’s not true.

White potatoes are full of essential nutrients and vitamins and are an excellent source of fiber. They also contain high-quality protein because of their superior amino acid composition and they play a vital role in muscle repair. 

Which is cool, but here’s the kicker!

Take a full inhale and exhale to get focused and jam with me on this little nugget:

A medium baked potato contains 160 calories and is an excellent source of protein. 

This means that if you ate enough potatoes to meet your daily calorie requirement, you would get more than 100% of your required daily protein (per the recommended daily allowance set by the US Dept. of Agriculture).

You could literally just eat baked white potatoes all day and as long as you eat enough calories to meet your daily calorie requirement, you will have eaten more protein than you need!

And the amino acid profile of a white potato scores higher than 90 percent lean beef.

Of course, I don’t think anyone should just eat white potatoes all day, but I do like to make the point that we can get amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein, from so many different sources.

I also use the potato as an example that getting plentiful protein in your diet, even if you avoid meat, isn’t hard at all!

However, it’s advised that women in post-menopause pay more attention to their protein consumption because of our declining estrogen levels which, in turn, affects our muscle mass.

After we turn 50, with no proactive intervention, our muscle loss is expected to be 1–2% per year.

Year-over-year, that adds up fast.

Which leads to the question: what am I supposed to do?

Maybe enjoy a healthy, white, delicious, protein-packed baked potato!