Nuts, seeds and grains
Buckwheat on a GLP-1: protein, portions and how to actually eat it
About 3.4 g of protein per 100 g (3.5 oz), cooked groats, for around 90 calories. A cup, cooked, about 150 g (5.3 oz), gives roughly 5 g of protein for 135 calories.
To reach 30 g of protein from buckwheat alone you would need about 882 g (31.1 oz). On a small appetite that is often more than one sitting allows, which is why we pair it rather than chase the whole target from one food.
How buckwheat sits on a GLP-1
Buckwheat is not wheat and has no gluten; it is a seed cooked like a grain, with a soft, slightly earthy grain and more lysine than any true grain, which makes its protein unusually complete. Cooked, it is about 3.4 g per 100 g (3.5 oz), so a cup is 5 g. On a GLP-1 its most useful form is soba noodles in a broth, which is warm, wet and soft, and the second is a small bowl of kasha under an egg.
When your appetite is small
Use it as the soft base under something with protein rather than as the meal. Half a cup of cooked groats, about 75 g (2.6 oz), with two poached eggs and a little butter is about 16 g; a small bowl of soba in miso broth with an egg and some tofu is about 20 g and goes down like soup.
Three ways to prepare it
Soba noodles in a miso broth with an egg
Cook the noodles, drop them into hot miso broth with silken tofu and an egg stirred through. Warm, slippery and easy on a queasy day.
Kasha with butter and two eggs
Toasted groats simmered in stock until soft, a knob of butter, two fried eggs on top. Eastern Europe's comfort breakfast at about 16 g.
Buckwheat porridge on milk with milk powder
Groats cooked on milk with a spoon of milk powder and cinnamon. A soft, nutty change from oats, at about 14 g a bowl.
What to eat it with
Eggs, butter, mushrooms, smoked fish, miso, tofu. Buckwheat is nutty and earthy, so it suits savoury toppings, and the protein has to come from those toppings.
How it compares
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Energy per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buckwheat | about 3.4 g | 90 kcal | this page |
| Quinoa | about 4.4 g | 120 kcal | See the page |
| Brown rice | about 2.6 g | 120 kcal | See the page |
| Amaranth | about 3.8 g | 100 kcal | See the page |
All figures are typical values for the food as eaten, cooked groats, not laboratory figures for a particular brand.
Australian, US and UK names
Buckwheat groats in all three countries; kasha for the toasted version in the US and Eastern Europe. Soba are Japanese buckwheat noodles, often cut with wheat flour, so check the percentage. Buckwheat flour makes the savoury galettes of Brittany and is in most supermarkets.
Questions people ask
Is buckwheat high in protein?
Dry, about 13 g per 100 g (3.5 oz); cooked, about 3.4 g, because it takes up so much water. Its protein is better balanced than wheat or rice, but a cup is still only 5 g, so it is a base for eggs, tofu or fish rather than a source.
Your number comes first
Knowing what is in a food only helps once you know how much you are aiming for. The target is 1.2 to 1.6 g of protein per kg of your goal weight, not your current weight, which for most people is 90 to 140 g a day.
Work out your protein targetMore on eating well when your appetite is small: high protein foods for a small appetite, how much protein on a GLP-1, and every food we have written up. The whole system in five documents is the Keep Muscle Kit, A$47 / US$29 / £23.
EverStrong provides nutrition and strength coaching and education. It is not medical advice and does not replace your prescribing doctor.