by jaybob

Created on: October 08, 2008   Last Updated: October 14, 2008

One of the most important parts of a healthy diet is to get in those two daily servings of meat or protein without overdoing it with the saturated fats, calories, and cholesterol. Most people already know that a lean chicken breast is far better for you than a cheeseburger or a grizzle-thick steak, but what you may not know is how many different sources of fat-free diet-friendly protein are out there. Considering just how important protein is to a healthy diet, it never hurts to experiment with different nutritious, protein rich foods to find what can taste great and still be low in saturated fats.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are the non-essential fatty-acids that give much of our meats the taste and texture that we enjoy. Unfortunately, saturated fats are also essentially carbon chains of nothing but calories and cholesterol. While they may taste good, saturated fats have over twice the calories of either equal amounts of protein or carbohydrates. At the very most, no more than 45% of your daily calorie intake should be made up of fats. In the average American diet, however, a significantly greater percentage of calorie intake is fat (i.e. burgers & fries, fried chicken, chips, etc.). When so much of one's diet is composed of either saturated or trans fats, instances of not only obesity, but also cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke increase as well. It's for this reason that people who are actively choosing to have a healthy, balanced diet should also know how to get nutritious sources of protein with the lowest amounts of saturated fats.

Best Sources of Diet-Friendly Protein

Chicken Although chicken is a fantastic means of getting your daily requirement of protein while still staying very low in calories and saturated fats, there are still some foods that would rank higher in the diet-friendly protein list. Still, lean chicken far outdoes any beef or pork loin in the protein-to-calorie ratio. Lean chicken breast offers 18 grams of protein per 100 calories at about 2 ounces. Essentially, a single "deck of cards" serving of chicken breast has around 36 grams of protein with only 200 calories to show for it. All in all, chicken is an absolutely great way of to get your daily requirement of protein in with a minimum of saturated fats

Egg Whites Egg whites are a funny sort of food that people hear about but wouldn't expect to see in a list of great sources of protein. After shedding the calorie and saturated fat heavy yoke, a single large

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