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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I thought protein was last year and fiber was this year
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
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
It’s the fad of the day (decade).
If you look closely, you might start seeing “high in fiber!” creeping in. You know how the last ten years there were articles about how Americans don’t eat enough fiber? Well, now fiber is the new selling point…
Because you can slap on a ‘30g protein’ label on junk food and charge double for it
Its another fad/advertising thing.
At another point, when the Keto Diet was everywhere, there was a restaurant near me that proudly announced that 100% of its menu was “Keto Diet”. There where Keto diet snacks and Keto diet frozen meals etc.
Then there was the fat free phase, I dunno if you remember the fat free cookies that you could buy, or fat free salad dressing, or fat free bread etc.
This trend seems to come from the rise of fitness influencers, and in this case its based in some kind of truth. You need protein if you are working out a lot, you cant built real muscle without it. And so fitness influencers started making videos about the food they ate, and the big thing about it was how much protein it had because that’s what they cared about.
And since influencer driven sales are huge now, you see a lot of companies wanting to cash in on the protein craze, so the packaging shifts towards showing off the protein content, because thats what everyone (or enough people) are tracking right now.
Macho culture -> bulking-> protein
Congratulations, you’ve discovered the nature of advertising.
A while back during the gluten-free craze my laundry detergent proudly had “gluten-free” on the packaging.
EDIT: I learned it’s possible for plant-based detergents to have contact with gluten, so for those with zero tolerance it can be a concern.
From Celiac.org
Do I have to use special gluten-free soaps, shampoos and lotions if I have celiac disease? Can gluten be absorbed through the skin?
No. Gluten cannot be absorbed through your scalp or skin. It must be ingested to affect those with Celiac disease.
https://celiac.org/2016/05/20/9-questions-about-celiac-disease-answered/
I drink my laundry detergent so this is important for me.
GMO free water is my favourite
I would very much like to know if that’s true. Removing every pollutant from water isn’t easy.
My dog shampoo proudly states that it has not been tested on captive animals… so I’m left wondering if they’ve tested it on free animals, or if I should think twice about using it on my dogs.
I always thought this meant “this specific product was not tested on animals but the research it is based on maybe probably involved animal testing.” Like there’s some foundational knowledge that forms the basis of “how to make a shampoo”, and that knowledge may be gotten through some unethical means.
I just had a great mental picture of some scientists chasing down and tackling a wild dog to try and shampoo it.
Animal testing typically involves injecting chemicals or rubbing directly into purpose-made abrasions or the eyes of animals. It is MUCH more brutal than it sounds.
Im sure they washed dogs with the final formula.
Animal testing typically involves injecting chemicals or rubbing directly into purpose-made abrasions or the eyes of animals
Man…why are we like this…
Animal testing doesn’t even guarantee that it’ll react the same way in/on humans. We have so many other options and yet we continue cruel practices because tradition. Ugh.
Or they’re taking the approach of software companies nowadays: don’t test, just make the users test in production
Although my dogs have protested loudly about being bathed with this shampoo, I can confirm that they survived and were cleaner as a result.
So while it sounds insane for detergent to label itself gluten-free, for people with severe gluten sensitivity toiletries, cosmetics, and other non-consumable items can still cause them symptoms with exposure, or so I’ve been told by someone I know with gluten intolerance. Whether this is an exaggerated concern or not, there is demand (albeit small) for such products.
I only just found out that I have a severe gluten intolerance, but not coeliac.
My wife and I used to make fun of all the random products that had GF labels, but now we understand the reason for them. There’s so many household items that just contain gluten as a thickening or binding agent and the labels are actually a huge help.
I stand corrected.
The detergent I used was supposed to be eco-friendly so its target audience might be looking at plant-based cleaners.
my laundry detergent proudly had “gluten-free” on the packaging.
I wonder if this has anything to do with Tide Pods and tiktok… Lmao
Is that even a concern for people with celiac disease? I know you’re not supposed to spend a lot of time in a bakery just because of airborne flour, but how much fucking gluten were they putting in detergent to begin with??
We’re idiots
As a vegan, it’s annoying. This obsession makes everyone concerned “where I get my protein.”
But no one seems to track their fiber, sodium, iron, riboflavin, etc. and would be miffed if I constantly asked people about it.
People’s diets generally consists of meat and carbs so they think a vegan will eat the same minus the meat.
Wouldn’t you get most of the other nutrients fairly easily as long as you eat a varied diet? Accounting proteins/carbs/fats (and their sub-category types) seems harder
A varied diet provides protein as well.
Science time! Proteins are made up of amino acids. Certain chains of amino acids form “complete proteins,” which are what most people think of as “protein.” However, the constituent amino acids connect with each other in our bodies even if they’re obtained from different sources. So two sources of “incomplete” proteins can still provide “complete proteins” if both are consumed. Which means it’s a lot easier to get your protein from a varied, vegan diet than most people might think.
Beans. The answer to all of the above is beans.
Its not because of obsession, it’s because it’s literally the starting point for nutrition knowledge, and it’s the most obvious thing that would be lacking in a vegan diet. When people think substantial protein they think meat first and dairy and eggs second.
“Oh, I’m good on protein intake. Thank you. But now that you mention it: I have been wondering how to bring up my concern for your possible riboflavin deficiency…”
Fiber was the latest crazy a long time ago.
Remember Colon Blow? https://youtu.be/Ku42Iszh9KM
Interesting question and answers here. The GLP1 stuff makes sense.
They don’t tell you about the bioavailability of the proteins though. Waffles or plants among others don’t get utilized by the body as well as protein from meat or whey.
GLP-1, Ozempic or weightloss drugs.
heres a youtube video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4y3r5vyac8
havent watched it. this discussion just popped up in another forum a few hours ago.
probably something about the lower calories intake while still getting enough proteins or smth like that.
It’s this, the weightloss drugs. Protein AND fiber products are being pushed everywhere.
Fiber atleast you cant get too much of, and the majority of people don’t get enough to begin with.
On the contrary, getting too much fiber is quite easy, especially if supplemented, and getting too much of it can have highly negative consequences.
thats… not true. as always, the dose makes the poison.
I was referencing mostly that people already by and large get more protein than they need, and that it is easier to get to an amount of protein where it starts being bad for you (at least if you eat a regular western diet). Of course anything in excess is bad for you.
For sure! Especially millennials - there’s way too many of us dying from colon cancer these days.
Im guessing it also has something to do with all the noise around lowered testosterone in men lately. Protein dude bro think
i assumed it was the popularity of gym culture moving into every day life
I also think this is it. I have a couple of friends that buy these kind of products, and they are also the only gym goers I know. So for my tiny sample it’s an absolute one to one correlation.
Aside from people working out protein isn’t really going to make a difference.
It does, it makes your farts smell way worse.
Nutritionism sells more food. If you really want to be radicalized go read Michael Polan’s In Defense of Food
It’s not entirely pseudoscience. I imagine a lot of people don’t normally get the recommended 1.2g per kg per day https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/
That seems high per https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/are-you-getting-too-much-protein
Which quotes 0.8 g/kg
Just to note 1.2g per kg per day is a highly contested number. To my knowledge, the usual recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of most countries sits at around 0.8. As it says in that link, this was the RDA in the US, too, before the Trump bros recently increased it.
And the RDA covers the needs of 97.5% of the population. So, per definition, most people need less than that.
At the same time, with an average Western diet, you can easily get 1.5g per kg bodyweight per day. There’s cases where folks can’t deal with excess protein due to a kidney failure, and actually getting them to not eat excess protein can be quite the challenge.Source for that second block is this podcast/video where a nutrition professor is interviewed: https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-should-i-eat-more-protein
Gym bros misquote this as a gram per pound, which is just a ridiculous amount of protein.
That’s how much you need to eat when you’re trying to actively gain muscle, not just maintain your current amount.
And quite frankly, either put on that much muscle or kindly accept that they may have a point.
It’s 1 gram per pound of LEAN body mass not overall body weight
Just because a person is in good shape doesn’t mean they actually understand what is required to train and it’s very common for top athletes to use a ton of pseudoscience garbage because they want anything that could possibly improve performance
A lot of people have gone on GLP-1’s recently. You’re advised to eat a lot of protein when you go on those.
