Broccoli Has More Protein Than Steak?

I’ve seen this stated on numerous websites and featured in numerous memes. It seems incredible, which, I suppose is why it’s so often repeated: Broccoli has more protein than steak. Beyond meat, poultry, and fish, green veggies like broccoli don’t come to mind as protein-rich foods. Beans and other legumes would be a more likely choice, for instance. Broccoli does, of course, contain protein, but can it really be a better source of protein than steak?

The short answer first: NO. Of course, broccoli doesn’t contain more protein than steak. Broccoli is not the only vegetable food to be featured in these types of claims. It only takes a few minutes of research to uncover the truth, however.

steak and mushrooms with brocoli and potato — Skip the steak and get all your protein from broccoli?

The usual claim is that ‘calorie for calorie’ broccoli contains more protein. It is often possible to ‘cook’ protein or other macronutrient amounts by using odd bases of comparison. We don’t usually compare the nutrient content of foods based on calories, but based on a typical serving or the approximate amount of the food we usually eat.

For example, you should not compare broccoli and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on a calorie-per-calorie basis as the amount of broccoli you would be comparing to any reasonable amount of ice cream would be quite large.

How did Beef Jerky Get Its Name?

Taken from the average of many samples, the amount of protein in 100 grams of raw broccoli is 2.57 grams (steamed = 4 g). The amount of protein in 100 grams of T-bone steak is 27 grams. The protein amount in 100 grams of porterhouse steak is around 23 grams. Clearly, when equal amounts are compared, broccoli has barely any protein compared to steak.

On average, we could say that 100 grams of lean steak has 30 grams of protein while 100 grams of steamed broccoli has 4 grams of protein.

large amount of broccoli — How much broccoli are you willing to eat for protein?

More realistically, a cup of raw broccoli contains around 31 calories. Let’s say you want to eat enough broccoli to make 100 calories. That’s about 3.3 cups of broccoli. This should give you about 6.5 grams of protein.

The same amount of steak contains at least 10 grams OR MORE of protein. In fact, a very lean cut of beef, like eye of round, would yield over 18 grams of protein. So, it is not remotely true that broccoli has more protein on a calorie-for-calorie basis than steak.

So, where did these ‘facts’ come from? Well, if you search and search, you may be able to find a sample of broccoli that contained much more protein and a sample of beef that contained less. The internet claims never specify what kind of steak. The amount of fat in the sample will make a difference.

The most popular claim seems to be that broccoli contains 11.1 grams of protein per 100 calories while beef contains 6.4 grams per 100 calories. This is not impossible, it’s just completely atypical. Whoever came up with these numbers set out to find, most likely, ONE sample of each, broccoli and beef, that yielded the kinds of numbers they wanted. You can call that cherry-picking. I call it BS.

Beyond that, none of this is realistic. Instead of thinking about the relative amounts of protein by comparing like amounts, let’s think about our protein needs in general. It is generally recommended that we get around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. In American numbers, that means that a 150 lbs person needs around 54.5 grams of protein per day.

Again, taken from an average of many samples, a cup of raw broccoli contains about 1.95 grams of protein. That means a 150 lbs person would need 27 cups of broccoli. The yield cooked would be less, sure, but it’s still a ridiculously huge amount of broccoli.

And, you still wouldn’t be getting the right protein because broccoli is not a complete protein. On the other hand, you could reach your complete protein needs, plus more, with one decent porterhouse steak. This would supply all the essential amino acids.

Kate Churry at ThinkyBites spent a lot more time thinking about this than I did, including discussing the difference when you cook the broccoli and pack it into cups more densely:

Cooked, chopped frozen broccoli was found to have the most protein, beating out the 100 calorie portion of porterhouse steak and ground beef, but it also registers the most weight among the broccoli samples indicating that the 100 calorie, 2 cup sample is more densely packed than the other broccoli samples. If you’ve ever cooked with frozen broccoli, you know that the consistency is different than that of freshly cooked broccoli. ¹

I’ll buy that. She goes on to reiterate what I’ve already said. You’d have to eat SO MUCH broccoli, whether frozen or fresh, to get a decent amount of protein into your body. If you’d like to get deeper into all this I’d recommend you visit her link, above.

If our numbers differ in some respects (and they will), that’s either because I’m bad at math or our sources were slightly different. I used the newer version of the USDA Food Nutrient Database, now called Food Data Central.

It all comes down to the same basic facts. Broccoli does not contain more protein than beef, normally or on any practical basis, and you’d have to eat loads of broccoli and other vegetables to reach your protein needs.