Every food commercial, advertisement, and packaging in the US is currently protein obsessed. I just bought 3 burritos, and the most noticeable thing on the entire package is its protein content. TV commercials about waffles are advertising that they have X amount of protein per serving. The products in my jobsite’s vending machine have protein all over every package.
Did America have a protein thing recently?
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This thread rightly points out all the excesses of capital-fueled social trends.
Less mentioned is that a higher protein breakfast ~20-30g vs traditional carb-heavy breakfast is actually helpful for more stable morning energy (less sugar crash), cognitive clarity, and reduced snack cravings especially later in the day. Search any of your reputable health sources and you’ll likely find something to that effect. I don’t believe it’s particularly disputed at this point.
Influencer slop. That’s literally it.
Sufficient protein intake is very important when it comes to gaining healthy weight, or retaining muscle mass as you either diet or age. Most people do not get enough protein intake their daily meals, and unlike other things like potassium, iron or vitamins, there’s no easy over the counter pill you can swallow to level that out. In the U.S. people that haven’t been intentional with their diets usually tend towards very carb-heavy diets.
Companies put what they think people care about on their packaging. In the 90’s it was “low fat”. It’s trendy right now in America to eat healthier (perhaps due to fast food abandoning Americans for unsustainable profits) and one of the first two things any American will learn when you start actually paying attention to what you eat is that 1. You’re probably eating too many calories, and 2. You’re not eating enough protein.
Reinforcing what another comment has already said: the idea that we don’t get enough protein is horse shit, we get way way more than we need. Which, and this is important, your body just has to filter out putting stress on vital organs.
I’ve heard this claim countless times, usually from people trying to shit on plant based eating, and it simply has no basis in fact. Even fully plant based eating gives you plenty of protein.
Something you don’t commonly see: people getting treated for protein deficiency.
Most Americans get significantly more protein than they need, men by ~30% and women by ~15%. Even if you look at the new wildly unscientific federal guidelines saying to get more protein (this is a top down “problem”) Americans tend to still get more than that, but it is closer. A huge problem is the over reliance on animal proteins causing the other issues and the huge lack of fiber Americans struggle with.
Preach. It’s upsetting how the system has either failed to properly inform or actively misinformed so many people on this topic.
Where did you learn that Americans don’t meet their protein needs?
“Sugar-Free” Candy will always amuse me.
they wouldn’t if you were diabetic.
or maybe they would, but differently than you’re implying.
Certainly tic-tacs, which are 100% sugar
A lot of Americans have been convinced lack of protein is why they keep gaining weight and aren’t muscular. Testosterone is in a similar position. These can be concerns for people who are low in them, or for people struggling at high levels of fitness. But it’s largely just influence from diet influencers repeating gym bro advice.
There’s also a straight line between bro culture, testosterone supplements, and fascism
I’d love to see the link between those cause you seem to be implying high testosterone = bro = fascist and I really hope that’s not what you think.
You don’t have to look far to find the far right’s obsession with testosterone (read: gender affirming care for cis men), whether it’s giving it to the military or Elon Mask’s weird cybertruck shaped body. Then look at who else is pushing that shit nonstop.
Though I did learn there’s a weak study that they like to cite, outlined by Vice here
It’s got what plants crave.
It’s the prevalence of drugs like Ozempic. They cause people to eat a negative calorie diet so it’s very important that they keep their protein intake at or above their requirements. If they don’t, they will lose muscle at a dangerous rate.
Pretty sure these drugs are just creating huge heart health problem we’ll see in the future.
You will also feel like shit without it
this is a question that someone who’s not getting enough protein would ask
Theyre already swallowing Trumps loads so why not?
It’s the entire world, no?
It turns out the answer is realy very long, but it’s a hell of a ride. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K35FtbuyTh4
TLDW:
It’s a right-wing grift. The Leftist Cooks argue that carnivore and “protein-maxxing” diets are not about health; they’re tied to masculinity, control, grift, and far-right politics. They use figures like Jordan Peterson and the Liver King to show how restrictive meat-heavy high protein diets can become symbols of power, identity, and pseudo-scientific authority.The broader argument is food is never just food. Dietary choices can carry cultural meaning, political signaling, and ideological pressure, and that high protein culture is part of a larger ecosystem that can normalize authoritarian, anti-science, and anti-egalitarian thinking.
The video is excellent though. It’s basically a miniseries on the various causes and effects of this and it’s incredibly well put together, even if it is 6 hours long. 😱
Haha I watched this a couple weeks ago.
Another really important point they make is that even among athletes, extra protein intake does not really help. Athletes only have higher protein intake because their overall caloric intake is higher. Studies show that increased protein intake is only associated with higher athletic performance when it is alongside increased intake of other nutrients (carbs). I was looking at a meta analysis a few days ago. I don’t have the link but I took this screenshot.
So a “protein shake” is not likely to help you unless you were already protein deficient, which as somebody else pointed out in this thread, is not likely for Americans who over consume meat.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert.
I came in here to link this video too! Its very good
There have been a bunch of great answers already, but I’m not seeing one important factor: soy farmers. Soy is one of the cheapest sources of protein, and there’s a lot of it grown, so the soy lobby is always trying to push new uses for it.
Meat and dairy are also heavily subsidized by corruption in government.
Soybeans are a complimentary crop for corn, and is farmed in rotation to fix nitrogen in the soil. The soybean lobby and the corn lobby are essentially the same thing in the US, and they have lots of clout.
Marketing & the obsession of a healthy lifestyle promoted by influencers.
If you want to build muscles you need proteins. => You need proteins to build muscle.
But also if you want to lose weight, you have to reduce carbs and eat more proteins. => Your body needs more energy to break down the proteines and convert it to energy than for carbs and fats=> You feel full longer & “burn” more calories when digesting.
Unfortunately, people don’t realize that fibers are more op than proteins. And just eating proteins how some influencers are promoting is kinda BS for your longterm digestive system. => TLDR eat beans over just meat. Also, look forward to the high fiber fad that is about to be started.
If you’re building muscle, you want your protein to have the right amino acids
Yeah dark leafy greens and lots of beans (with rice). They’re filling, nutritious, low calorie, and once your digestion acclimates you’ll feel great. Also non-fried potatoes are great as well
In the darkness they lurked, until their time to rise once again.
Waiting.
Watching.
Weight Watchers.
Lmfao at this whole thread of nonsense answers.
It’s not a weird obsession.
If you want to be muscular, then you need to eat a lot of protein.
If you want to be muscular and have a low body fat percentage, then you need to eat a lot of protein, and eat a lot of protein / calorie you eat.
If you’re old and want to slow down how quickly your muscles waste away to maintain your physical health, you need to eat a lot of protein.
And protein is generally one of the more expensive parts of food, so companies constantly try and cut back and replace it with carbs and sugar instead… All leading to people seeking out food with high protein content
If you want to be muscular, then you need to eat a lot of protein.
This statement is not supported by science. There are no shortcuts, if you want big muscles you have to exercise more.
If you want to be muscular, then you need to eat a lot of protein
But dumbasses think protein is only in meat. Internet thinks protein = meat.
https://www.greatveganathletes.com/athletes/sport/bodybuilders/
And let’s just ignore colon cancer rates in <30 coincident with the protein fad.
But dumbasses think protein is only in meat. Internet thinks protein = meat.
No, the vast majority of bodybuilders and gym bros use whey protein powder which is dairy based.
Also, if we’re talking normal food, you have to eat 6 full cans of beans to get the same protein as 1lb of chicken or fish. Meat is not the only way to get protein but the fact of the matter is that for most people (assuming they ignore the morals and ethics) it’s gonna be easier and tastier to get a substantial amount of protein from meat.
And let’s just ignore colon cancer rates in <30 coincident with the protein fad.
Lmfao thanks random internet person for your rough feeling of correlation. Glad no actual researcher would have ever possibly thought to check that in their study! /S
Lmfao thanks random internet person for your rough feeling of correlation. Glad no actual researcher would have ever possibly thought to check that in their study! /S
White meat certainly seems fine from everything I can find, but beef and red meat are 100% linked to colon cancer. The carnivore diet may not explicitly state to eat only red meat - but every single person I’ve met that pushes it IRL seems to immediately talk about eating steak or ground beef for every meal. Joe Rogan pushed it by suggesting he was ‘experimenting’ by eating only eggs, ground beef, and elk. Jordan Peterson literally only consumed beef, salt, and water.
To say this is a right-wing chud fad in recent years is not inaccurate - and to assume causation for the rise in colon cancer is also supported by science.
Yes you can probably do the carnivore diet on nothing but chicken and fish, that simply doesn’t match reality as far as most practioners of the carnivore diet are concerned.
Yeah there’s a huge difference between the powerlifters living off chicken, rice, and spinach and the modern adherents of the carnivore diet.
If you’re old and want to slow down how quickly your muscles waste away to maintain your physical health, you need to eat a lot of protein.
Btw, high protein intake lets you age quickly.
Agreed, although I’ll add a few things. Protein has a much higher thermic effect of food (TEF), meaning your body expends more energy processing it. Protein and carbs both contain around 4 calories/gram and fat around 9, but TEF is roughly 20–30% for protein, 5–10% for carbs and 0–3% for fat. In other words, your body burns roughly that percentage of the calories from each just processing them.
More importantly, protein supplies the amino acids your body needs to maintain and rebuild muscle; carbs can’t substitute for the essential amino acids you have to get from your diet. That’s particularly useful during a caloric deficit, when you’re trying to lose fat while preserving muscle, and as you get older and age-related muscle loss becomes a concern.
Protein also tends to be more satiating than carbs or fat and affects appetite hormones like ghrelin, GLP-1 and CCK. So while there’s no magic number of calories that adding protein will make you eat less, the evidence supports protein making it easier to feel satisfied on fewer calories.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32768415/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8878356/So protein helps you maintain muscle, makes you feel fuller per calorie, and costs your body more energy to process. There are pretty good reasons people trying to lose fat, build/maintain muscle, or stay healthy as they age to seek out higher-protein foods. The marketing obsession didn’t come out of nowhere, even if companies take advantage of it by plastering the protein content across the front of the package while leaving things like carbs, saturated fat, and total calories much less prominent.
It’s a weird obsession because people are trying to eat significantly more than they need.
People misunderstood grams per kilogram and just switched it to grams per pound without actually converting units
Lmfao, no they didn’t, you misunderstood the difference in recommended intakes for maintenance (/kg) vs gaining muscle / slowing it’s atrophy in old age (/lb).
Americans eat too much everything. Protein won’t fix that.
Actually one of the biggest problems that Americans and Europeans have when it comes to obesity is high carb diets. Compared to carbohydrates, protein helps keep you feeling fuller, longer. So higher protein diets would absolutely have an impact on fixing that problem.
People eat more than they need because modern society makes it incredibly easy to, and we’re removed from the survival conditions that made high-energy foods so attractive to us in the first place. The American lifestyle is particularly bad in this regard, with our car-dependent cities, sedentary lifestyles, abundance of cheap, calorie-dense food, and food companies that spend heavily on advertising and lobby politicians to keep regulations and labeling requirements favorable to them.
The “people are trying to eat significantly more than they need” was referring to protein
As in people are drinking 300 calorie protein shakes when they aren’t hungry so they can hit their “protein target”
I thought protein was last year and fiber was this year
Genuinely, fiber is always important. It’s something we actually don’t get enough of on average. Forget the trends and influencers, just make sure you’re eating plenty of fiber.
It goes back and forth. Fiber was also big in the 1990s, and protein big maybe like 2004-2016 because of the Atkins diet trend that ended when it turns out that’s not a great thing to do long term, and doesn’t prevent you blocking your arteries with cholesterol.
We’ve literally had this trend before, recently.
