Protein

This is a difficult question to answer. Protein is the main building blocks of our muscles, skin, organs, tendons and is needed to serve some important functions. There are also differences between animal proteins and plant proteins. Protein is made up of amino acids and animal produce tends to give us all the essential amino acids, where as plant-based protein tends to give us only some amino acids and therefore foods need to be eaten in combination. If you only eat plant-based proteins it may be necessary to eat more protein per day.

The reference intakes provide the lowest intake required to avoid deficiency and not the amounts needed for optimal health. Your daily requirement is individual to you. Factors that affect this include: age, health, type of activity (plus the intensity, frequency, duration etc.), muscle mass etc. If you are trying to lose weight is may be beneficial to eat a higher percentage of protein (25-30% of calories) to help boost your metabolism and reduce your appetite.