Name: Protein is everywhere amid a new cultural obsession. How much do we really need?
Uploaded: 2025-08-31T15:27:54.000Z
Duration: 8 min 29 s
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It used to be that only fitness buffs and bodybuilders thought about how much protein they were getting, but now everybody seems to be looking for more of it in their diet, and just about every food product has added protein, from pancakes to popcorn, from crackers to pasta.

Each box clocks in at a whopping 25 grams of protein. 52 grams of protein. 140 grams of protein.

If you've been online lately, you may have noticed that people are going crazy for protein-packed foods, from television shows like White Lotus, to protein-packed recipe videos on Instagram and TikTok.

I found a high-protein dinner that's under 500 calories, 60 grams of protein.

No one believed me when I said you could get 147 grams of protein by eating two chicken parmesans.

The average American overshoots the federal protein recommendation by nearly 50%, and still, more than two thirds of Americans surveyed last year said they are trying to eat more.

Food companies are capitalizing on the growing interest with new products like protein chips and waffles.

They're packed with protein and whole grains, yet they still taste amazing.

The size of the protein supplement market is expected to more than double in the next seven years.

Scientific research is not keeping pace with its popularity.

Some studies have shown certain people could benefit from more protein than federal recommendations, but it isn't always easy to separate the fads from the facts.

Here to help us untangle it all is Alice Callahan.

She covers nutrition and health for the New York Times.

What does protein do for us, and what happens when we don't get enough of it?

So protein is a super important essential nutrient.

You need protein to make these molecules in your body that help you digest food and fight infections, and create the structures in your body like your muscle and your tendons and your bones and your skin.

So if you're not getting enough protein, a lot of those systems will start to break down.

You might get sick more easily, or you might find that your nails are more brittle, and you might notice that you start to feel weaker, and your muscles kind of waste away.

You've written about how protein seems to have taken on this type of cultural currency.

You know, if you go on Instagram or TikTok, at a certain point you're liable to see somebody talking about the benefits of protein in your diet.

Is this just the latest nutrition fad, like low carb, low fat, or is there something else going on here?

It's the hot topic in the nutrition conversations right now, for sure.

And if you've watched nutrition conversations, as I have over decades, you know, you don't think that things do kind of rise and fall in interest.

I think part of what's going on, though, is that there's a lot of interest in the importance of building and maintaining strong muscles right now.

And so I think we're appreciating that, you know, especially as we grow older, we want to stay really strong, and that's good for our metabolic health, and good for preventing injury.

And so we're seeing more emphasis on strength training, and I think part of that kind of leads to this natural question, like, should we all be eating protein like bodybuilders?

And of course, this interest is just amplified on social media, you know, standard nutrition advice, like eat lots of fruits and vegetables and balanced meals every day is just not that interesting.

It doesn't get picked up on social media algorithms, but really prescriptive and kind of extreme advice about protein, like eat a gram of protein for every pound of body weight, or 30 grams within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning, like these kinds of messages definitely, like, tap into the algorithm and get amplified online.

And of course, the federal recommendation for protein, daily protein intake, is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight.

A lot of the advice you find online is for more than that, including from mainstream nutrition experts.

Here's what Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. had to say about it recently in terms of changing those guidelines.

Our agencies are about to release new dietary guidelines in the next several months.

There's a tremendous amount of emerging science that talks about the need for more protein in our diet.

Is it indicating that we need more protein in our diet?

As a whole, I would say we don't have enough of, like, really high-quality clinical trials to give really solid numbers to people.

The current guideline gives you an amount that you need to meet your body's basic needs, and then it goes up from there for growing children, if you're pregnant, if you're breastfeeding.

I think beyond that, the context really matters.

If you are building muscle, you probably would benefit from consuming, you know, maybe 50% more than that federal recommendation.

Older adults also may benefit from consuming a little bit more.

It would be great, I think, to have kind of more consensus guidelines around these different scenarios with protein, but the challenge is, like, how, you know, what is the quality of evidence to put behind those guidelines?

So it is a very confusing space right now, but I think in general, the federal recommendation gives you a really good starting point, and it can be reasonable in different scenarios to increase a little bit from there.

You probably don't need as much as you're hearing from a lot of influencers online, though.

We're seeing all different types of foods enter the market, marketed as protein cereals, even protein candy.

Of course, protein powder has been around a long time.

Is there any data on the qualitative difference between getting your protein from some of these more processed products versus whole foods like, you know, animal protein or plant based protein?

So, you know, this came up over and over again, when I talked to experts about protein, it's really best if you can get your protein from whole foods like beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, lean meats, fish, dairy products.

All of those foods just come with a bunch of other nutrients like vitamins and minerals and antioxidants.

And they come in that unprocessed form, which allows us to digest them a little bit more slowly, we get all the value of fiber from the plant foods that helps with gut health.

You know, you can supplement around the edges, I think with protein powders or bars, they come with some convenience, but for the most part, you want to try to follow a diet where you're meeting your protein needs with whole foods.

But are there any risks with focusing too much on protein and maybe excluding other types of foods from your diet?

Yeah, I think that's the greatest concern that I heard from experts.

When I was reporting on this issue, not so much that focusing on protein comes with medical risks for most of us, it's totally fine.

But there is a risk that we may miss out on other healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

And, you know, when you look at all of the ways that we could improve the American diet, protein is probably not the place to put our focus.

Like 95% of Americans don't get enough fiber, for example.

And so if you're just focused on, you know, cottage cheese and chicken breast, you're not going to get that fiber that's so important for gut health and also for preventing heart disease and type two diabetes.

So I think that's the main thing is just you want to try to stay balanced and putting too much focus on any one nutrient, you're probably going to lose out somewhere else.

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Protein is everywhere amid a new cultural obsession. How much do we really need?

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