The Best Dairy Proteins You Can Buy

Some of the foods with the highest amount of protein come from the dairy section of your local grocery store. So, if you’re someone who enjoys dairy products, you can easily get the amount of protein that your body needs.

Plus, the protein found in dairy products is good for your bones and other areas of your body in promoting good health. It’s been proven that dairy doesn’t hinder weight loss, either – in fact, it helps you shed pounds.

Why You Should Get Your Proteins from Dairy

Those who advocate cutting out dairy in your diet and avoiding getting your proteins from this food group are wrong. Recent studies have shown that you can’t replace the amount of calcium that your body uses on a daily basis with other foods as easily as you can with dairy foods.

If you’re a young person in your twenties, then calcium isn’t something you really have to worry about as much. The reason for this is because your body is so busy building your bone strength, that it can easily keep up with the calcium that’s used by your body.

However, if you’re 30 years of age or older, then your body can’t keep up production of bone as well as it once did. If you eliminate dairy from your diet, then your bones are left scrambling with a way to get calcium.

So what happens then is that your bones can weaken. They’ll fracture and break a lot easier. For those who think they can just up their calcium from other foods, that rarely works.

The reason for that is because you’ll have to eat a whole lot more of those other foods to even come close to the amount of calcium found in dairy products. And even then, you won’t get the same benefit regardless of how much calcium you eat because your body can’t draw in the calcium from those foods as easily as it can from dairy options.

This might help explain why the USDA advocates for people to consume more dairy foods, not less. Dairy products, such as milk, contain a good deal of potassium.

The reason that this ingredient is important has to do with your blood pressure. Most people, even those who are trying to concentrate on using protein to lose weight, have a tendency to still eat foods that have a high sodium content.

This sodium contributes to high blood pressure. Potassium is important in your diet because it gets rid of the sodium and lowers your blood pressure. So when you’re trying to lose weight and are looking for good proteins to help with that, make sure that you don’t overlook the choices available in the dairy section - especially in milk.

Milk

Milk is an extremely versatile dairy product. It’s used in the manufacture of the beverage itself as well as food items as well. So you can drink it or eat products containing it to get the protein that this food has to offer.

Milk comes in a variety of forms. You can buy whole, 2%, 1%, nonfat, evaporated, condensed and even powdered milk. The amount of protein in these products may just surprise you.

If you buy milk in the half gallon or gallon and you choose the 1%, you’ll end up getting 8 grams of protein for every 8-ounce cup of it that you drink or use to prepare meals.

If you choose to use 2% milk, you get the same amount of protein. Lowering or raising the fat content of milk doesn’t change the protein amount between the two.

Using milk that’s nonfat will also give you 8 grams of protein for every 8-ounce serving. Skim milk also contains the same amount of protein, but gives you fewer calories for each serving that you use.

Evaporated milk contains 9 grams of protein - but that’s for only half a cup. So if you use an entire cup of this, then you’re getting 18 grams of protein. That seems like a lot of protein just for a milk product, but there are some that contain even more protein than that amount.

Condensed milk is milk where all of the water content has been taken out. It’s loaded with vitamins and has an amazing 24 grams of protein for each cup. However, it is extremely high in calories.

Just using one cup of this gives you close to 1,000 calories in your recipes. Powdered milk is a better choice to use if you’re going to be making food dishes. This product is even higher in the amount of protein it offers per serving.

You get 34 grams of protein for every cup that you use. Though it’s still high in calories, it’s not as high as condensed milk. This one has just over 600 calories for every cup that you use.

There is a dairy product that’s high in protein that you might not be aware of. It’s whey protein. This food is made from separating the whey during the production of cheese. The whey then becomes a powdered protein.

The amount of protein in the product will depend on the brand that you buy. Most whey protein powders usually have at least 20 grams of protein, but many of them have a lot more than that. These products are usually pretty low in calories, depending on which one you buy.

Cheese

Cheese is a milk product that comes in different styles, brands and flavors. You can find mild, sharp and spicy cheeses. The amount of protein in each type of cheese is going to vary as well.

You can easily add to your protein intake by simply switching out a lower protein cheese for one that’s higher. Cream cheese is a tasty blend of milk and cream and is used on toast, crackers and in recipes. It has 5 grams of protein for a 3 ounce serving.

Cheddar cheese is one of the most commonly used cheeses on sandwiches. You can have a 1 ounce slice of this and get 7 grams of protein. If you choose to go with American cheese slices, which are also popular, then you only get 5 grams of protein for every slice that you use.

If you choose a slice of provolone instead, you get 7 grams of protein for a slice. Or if you use Swiss cheese, you get 8 grams of protein for every 1 ounce slice that you eat.

Some people like to use Gouda cheese and this kind of cheese also gives you the average 7 grams of protein for the ounce serving size. Parmesan cheese offers 1.9 grams of protein for every tablespoon that’s consumed.

Most people eat at least 10-12 grams of this cheese when they use the grated kind on top of a meal such as spaghetti. From there, the amount of protein that you can get from cheese goes much higher.

If you choose to eat a cup of ricotta cheese that’s made from whole milk, you’ll get 28 grams of protein. When you’re preparing a meal, if you use a cup of crumbled feta cheese, you gain 21 grams of protein.

Cottage cheese is a product that’s made from soured milk. For people who enjoy eating this dairy product, you can gain 25 grams of protein in just a cup of this type of product.

For years, cheese has developed a bad reputation as being too high in fat - but that’s not the case for all types of cheese. While some of them do have a high fat content, not all of them do.

If you eat ricotta cheese, you’ll get 32 grams of fat, which is pretty high for a cheese. Most cheese products have between 4-9 grams of fat per serving. If you’re concerned about the fat content, choose low fat cheese. 

You’ll still get a good amount of protein, plus all of the other benefits cheese can give your body. Cheese is packed with calcium and vitamins - including the important B vitamins.

Cultured Dairy Products

There are some dairy products that can give you a good amount of protein that are known as cultured dairy products. One form of this is the various yogurt products that you can buy.

Yogurt is packed with vitamins and minerals. It contains potassium, calcium, the B vitamins (especially the important B 12 one) and it contains vitamin D. More importantly, many types of yogurt contain probiotics.

If you consume yogurt that has a live, active cultures label on it, it means that the product is providing the good bacteria that your digestive tract needs in order to maintain a healthy balance.

Most regular yogurts have 8 grams of protein for every container of the product. Greek yogurt is a different from regular types of yogurt. In the process of making this kind, the whey is removed.

This is one reason that the yogurt is a lot thicker than regular yogurt is. It has more protein per container than regular yogurt does. In fact, Greek yogurt has 17 grams of protein.

But that’s not all it has more of. Greek yogurt has more fat than regular yogurt does. So if you want Greek yogurt, but you’re watching your fat content, you’re going to make sure you want to read the labels and find the one with the lowest amount of fat.

Though it does have a lot more fat than regular yogurt, it does cut down on the amount of sodium that you get. The reason that most people choose Greek yogurt is because it doesn’t contain as much sugar as the regular types of yogurt do.

So this means you end up with fewer carbohydrates as well as the additional protein. If you’re making recipes that include using sour cream, you can get almost 5 grams of protein for a cup of sour cream.

Using the sour cream that’s fat free will give you more grams of protein - with some brands offering 7 grams of protein per cup. If you like to eat dip with your vegetables, that can be a great way to get some additional protein added to your diet.

All you have to do is make the dip using some of the higher protein cheeses shredded and blended with Greek yogurt or even with sour cream, and you’ve upped your protein count for the day.

Altering your diet to contain a heavier amount of protein than you’re used to having takes a bit of strategizing. You need to make sure it’s the right kind of protein-carb balance, and space your intake over the course of a day.

But once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how much easier it is for your body to rev up its metabolism and burn fat as you shed pounds and reveal layers of lean, taut muscles.