Note that when I say “calories,” I’m referring to the product’s kilocalories (kcal), which are actually 1,000 calories of energy, but are often referred to as “calories.” I have rounded the numbers for comparison purposes.
My results were generally reassuring. It’s quite possible to buy vegan foods that are at least as protein-rich as animal products — and often cheaper. I find it surprising and very popular that the basic vegan options, as well as the fancy new meat substitutes that have begun to dominate our supermarket aisle sections, are doing so well.
I also found that the Huel powder I bought (see below)—the dark version of the chocolate flavor—was no more expensive than regular food when looking at the protein you were getting, and the protein-to-calorie ratio was at a different level. But if you really want superfoods, you should rely on what vegans have been saying since the word “vegan” was first invented: Lentils are great.
stocking
The local co-op’s dried red lentils turned out to be the cheapest protein-rich food I’ve found in the everyday store. By my calculations, you get 69g of protein for every £1 you spend.
The closest runner-up is again basic old-fashioned vegan food. Whole Earth’s Crunchy Organic Peanut Butter contains 26 grams of protein per pound. When it comes to vegan foods, Batchelor’s Original Mushy Peas and Heinz Beanz are close behind at 22 grams.
Vegans who know what they’re doing won’t be surprised that lentils, peas, and peanuts are high in protein. They are all beans. Beans also include those used in chickpeas, soybeans, and baked beans. I now remember someone saying that as a vegan I should eat more beans, but since there is no section with that name in the supermarket, I guess that suggestion seems too abstract to my busy mind.
Although not purchased locally, one product I included in this brief survey was Huel, a relatively new “nutritiously complete powdered food.” Huel is stored as a drink in the Co-op, but I buy it directly from the company in powder form in two bulky, expensive 1.5kg packs. I eat it for breakfast. What this study showed me is that Huel is actually cheaper than pork, chicken and fish when it comes to buying protein – £1 21g.
Then, the alliance of high-protein and low-cost foods is dominated by animals. I’ve found that co-brand organic fresh semi-skimmed milk has 24g of protein per pound of product. The Co-op’s British Chicken Breast Fillets offers 21 grams, Mackerel Fillets in Tomato Sauce (canned) has 18 grams, and Richmond Thick Pork Sausage offers 16 grams. Fresh fish – in this case co-op farmed salmon fillets – are more expensive at less than 9 grams.
supermarket
This doesn’t make sense because animals eat far more protein — usually beans — than they produce in meat. This use of natural resources should be reflected in prices.
But thanks to brutal factory farming, misguided subsidies and economies of scale, the cost of making animal protein has dropped dramatically. If anyone reading this believes in free markets, you need to start lobbying for massive government support for the meat industry to stop now.
However, I am surprised that meat is not significantly better than vegan food in terms of protein intake cost. Bog Standard Co-op Easy Cook Long Grain Brown Rice packs 16 grams of protein into 1 pound of produce. This is pretty much the same as Richmond thick pork sausage. When you think of protein, do you think of rice? Of course I don’t. Chickpeas are also great – they weigh less than 16 grams.
Tofu, something vegans are often told to eat for protein, can get you 15g of protein for just £1 on The Tofoo Co’s basic product. Then we pack less, but it’s still worth buying products like Co-op Houmous, eight grams; Co-op Closed Cup Mushrooms for less than 3 grams of protein per £1.
There are also newer, more processed vegan products that are specially formulated to have a high protein content. These have been made to taste and look like meat. These days, supermarkets often place them next to beef burgers and pork sausages. These products are a great option for vegetarians, but also appeal to meat eaters who don’t want to include high-fat, high-calorie products in their or their children’s meals.
protein
Products stocked by the Bournemouth Co-op include The Incredible Burger, which has 15g of protein per £1 spent; Better Naked Evolution Burgers comes very close to 11g, while Alpro’s plain yogurt alternative can get you the same price 10 grams of protein.
Surprisingly, according to my data, Quorn vegan smoked ham slices have less than 6 grams of protein for every £1 spent. Quorn aims to be a scientific breakthrough, creating an entirely new protein from fungi. But as we’ve seen, when it comes to how much Quorn products cost at the checkout, they’re just a little more than double the protein content of your “regular or garden” mushrooms.
For a healthy vegan diet, it needs to have enough protein — but not too much fat and sugar. Protein produces calories, and excess protein is converted by our body into sugar and stored as fat. The problem is that cheap foods usually contain some protein, but more fat and carbohydrates (starches and sugars). Therefore, increasing protein in your diet can also mean increasing calories to unhealthy levels.
This Harvard School of Public Health Discusses the fact that foods eaten for protein always contain other things — including varying amounts of fat. Its experts suggest that the nature of this “protein package” determines your health outcomes. It’s also worth noting that in the U.S. and other highly industrialized countries, most people eat too much meat — and therefore actually eat too much protein.
In my study, the staple of the high-protein and low-calorie meals was Co-op British Chicken Breast Fillets, which by my calculations provided 0.23 grams of protein per calorie. Next is Quorn vegan smoked ham slices, which have 0.14 grams of protein per calorie, but less than half the calories.
ratio
It’s followed by mighty mushrooms, with 0.13 grams of protein per calorie. The next three things on my list are all vegan: Naked Vegan Tofu by The Tofoo Co., 0.1g, then Black Label Huel and Heinz Beanz, both slightly lower but rounded to 0.1g.
This first discovery proved to me that vegan food can provide protein without being unhealthy. This goes for old-fashioned beans and other vegetables, as well as more recently processed vegan alternatives.
I found that fresh salmon fillets have 0.08 grams of protein per calorie, and mackerel, although canned, is about the same. Alpro’s plain yogurt alternative and Better Naked’s Evolution Burgers (recently added to vegan options) are close behind at less than 0.08 grams.
That’s higher than both semi-skimmed milk (0.07g) and pork sausage (0.05g), and surprisingly low on our list. Rice, hummus and gluten-free bread came last. The fact that the ranking list ends with gluten-free bread is not surprising, since gluten is a protein.
The differences between these products are minimal. The real lesson here is that old-fashioned vegetarian options can have a high protein-to-calorie ratio—better than meat indeed. This has always been the case.
organic
The severity of the cost of living crisis will mean that many parents will focus on making sure their children get enough calories, or at least the ones families can afford. For the affluent 10% of the UK population who will not face fuel poverty in the coming months, avoiding fat and sugar may be a luxury.
Vegan food can buy you some calories at a low cost. Interestingly enough, the lentils are doing great again. In fact, 1 pound can buy 971 calories. So lentils still seem to be the cheapest, protein-rich and healthiest food I can find while running around the nearest supermarket.
Vegan food — old and new — is cheaper in calories than animal products. Brown rice provides 631 calories for 1 pound. Crunchy peanut butter — something most kids already love — gives you 562 calories. So jars may be expensive, but worth the money.
Likewise, a can of mushy peas gives you 326 calories, while Co-op Chick Peas in Water gives you 316 calories per pound. Among the more “invented” vegan options, Huel Powder provides 209 calories for the same price, Incredible Burger has 207 calories, Evolution Burgers has 148 calories, and Quorn slices have 42 calories.
How does this compare to meat and animal products? Well, organic semi-skimmed milk is number five on my list, with 344 calories for every £1 spent. We can assume “whole” milk has more calories and non-organic milk will be cheaper. Next up is the pork sausage, which has 328 calories per pound.
anarchism
Before you get to the next item, there are plenty of vegetarian options on the list—mackerel fillets in tomato sauce provide 210 calories. This is above Huel. The tastier, lower-fat meats – salmon and chicken breast – provide just 104 and 91 calories, respectively, per £1 spent. Vegan foods are cheaper per calorie than high-end options in the meat market.
The results of this small study are clear. Due to the cost of living crisis, there is no need to abandon a vegan diet. Some people may find that they need to forgo healthier meat options because of rising prices, and they are advised to opt for a high-protein vegetarian diet instead of cheap fillers.
As a final methodological note, it is worth mentioning that there are different kinds of proteins, with different kinds of amino acids. The body needs more than 20 different amino acids, and to be able to make 13 of them, we need to get the rest from our diet. The small survey did not look at the type of protein in the product – in fact, this information is not on food labels in the UK.
Vegetarians can rest assured that quinoa, soy, buckwheat, and many other products are complete in terms of protein, but they may want to do further research to ensure that their diets are not deficient in specific nutrients. But more importantly, vegans need to find ways to go beyond food choices in which they can create a world habitable for humans and other animals.
But in any case, personal shopping options won’t get us and our families out of this crisis. The rise in prices is due to the war in Ukraine and the end of cheap fossil fuel supplies in Russia; fraud and price increases by major oil companies and other industries; and damage to crops and supply chains from climate collapse. The root cause of all these problems is capitalism: a profit-seeking anarchy that cares little about the actual welfare and nutrition of the world’s population.
How to calculate the cost of protein and calories in food.
Calories per pound:
Calories per 100 grams divided by 100 = Calories per gram
Calories per gram multiplied by grams per pack = calories per pack
Calories per pack divided by penny pack cost = calories per penny
Calories per penny times 100 = calories per pound
Protein per pound:
per 100 grams of protein divided by 100 = per gram of protein
Protein per gram multiplied by grams per package = protein per package
Protein per pack divided by penny pack cost = protein per penny
Protein per penny multiplied by 100 = protein per pound
Protein Per Calorie:
Protein per 100 grams divided by calories per 100 grams
this author
Brendan Montague is the editor ecologist. Helen Banks fact-checked this article.
