The protein craze is fueled by gym culture; a recognition that eating protein makes you feel full longer and can help with weight loss; and the marketers eager to exploit our vulnerabilities.
I thought counting calories was a drag, but it’s nothing compared with trying to hit your protein quota.
To do protein right, you need to spend your days like a blue whale, eating, eating, eating, except instead of krill, you’re mainlining pistachios and Greek yogurt.
So many products seem like the imagination of SNL writers — protein popcorn, protein seltzer, protein beer — that I’m not sure if the following tweets are a joke.
For a 150-pound adult, that could be as much as 136 grams of protein a day.
I mean, eating with your teeth, not a straw. It’s difficult to recall, but “meals” didn’t always entail whey hydrolysate, cottage cheese, egg whites, and a blender.
The 200-gram White Lotus smoothie that Patrick Schwarzenegger reportedly consumed was meant to be a joke rather than a goal.
We now inhabit the protein-ocene, however. Frozen, raw cod is being marketed by David Protein, the company that makes upscale protein bars, as an additional flavor to their blueberry pie and cake batter bars. The instructions stated to “boil before consuming.”.
The popularity of gym culture, the knowledge that eating protein prolongs feelings of fullness and aids in weight loss, and marketers looking to take advantage of our weaknesses are the main causes of the protein craze.
People who simply want to go about their day without being embarrassed for wasting calories on an apple are now subjected to what was once a specialized gym bro obsession.
In my opinion, tracking calories is tedious, but it’s nothing in comparison to attempting to meet your protein intake. You have to eat like a blue whale every day to get enough protein, but instead of krill, you should eat Greek yogurt and pistachios.
Food brands are the most giddy about protein. The chocolate chip protein pancakes suddenly appeared just as gluten-free fatigue was starting to set in. In protein circles, the macronutrient, or “macro,” has taken on a health halo, so it doesn’t matter if eating too much protein can damage your kidneys or cause weight gain.
Goodbye “organic” and hello “proffee” (protein coffee, which is real).
Protein beer, protein popcorn, and protein seltzer are just a few of the products that seem like the creations of Saturday Night Live writers. I’m not sure if the following tweets are satire.
“We are getting closer to the reality of ‘protein vape’ every day,” @CBD420 wrote on X earlier this month.
A close-up of sour protein gummies was accompanied by the caption, “We’ve strayed so far from God’s light.”.
Well, hold on, we haven’t reached the main query.
How much protein do I need to eat? The National Academy of Medicine recommends that adults consume between 0 and 8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day.
Ignoring the fact that I still don’t know how many kilograms I weigh or the reason they insist on using kilograms, this translates to roughly 54 grams per day for an adult weighing 150 pounds.
However, there are experts who advise people who are extremely active, trying to gain muscle, or, god forbid, getting older to eat more.
That could amount to up to 136 grams of protein per day for an adult weighing 150 pounds. Get active!
Influencers brag about their consumption in video after video on TikTok, as fixated on “hitting their numbers” as lottery winners, and after a few minutes, everything comes together until you don’t want to see or hear about another gram of protein ever again.
Using bone broth as a substitute, this smoothie contains 45 grams of protein without any added sugar, and this is how I protein-load my breakfast. I’m a dietician, and this is how I get 120 grams of protein every day.
Then there’s the added difficulty of meeting protein targets while adhering to calorie and spouse tolerance limits. Perhaps the greater difficulty lies in the latter.
On a regular basis, local health coach Tiana Lane observes the negative aspects of such intense focus.
“Because they need to meet their protein goals, one person wants to go out to dinner or get drinks, but the other won’t,” she said. They are worried that it will sabotage their “protein progress.”. ‘”.
“But it feels like the stakes are high,” Lane said.
“People believe that protein will help them with all of their problems, including work-life balance, stress, fatigue, brain fog, and anger management.”.
However, she said, they get “confused and sad” when it doesn’t or they can’t keep up with all the eating. “They feel like such failures that they give up” — until they fall victim to the newest health fad.
But it can be challenging to break free from the hold of protein, according to Laura Cohen, a former registered dietician who is currently an activist and recovery coach for eating disorders.
She emailed me a link to a blog post about “protorexia,” which is the unhealthy fixation with diets high in protein.
According to Total Health, a blog based in the United Kingdom, the biggest warning signs are when people begin substituting protein shakes and bars for meals and entire food groups.
Or, Cohen added, it turns into their sole conversation. She claimed that some people only wanted to discuss their protein intake.
Fortunately, fads like pumpkin spice don’t last forever, and protein’s hold might be waning. Take a look at some recent news stories.
The majority of us consume too many protein dots. The BBC Science Focus Magazine reported that it is increasing fat levels.
The Harvard T. says, “Experts say we’re eating too much, but protein is important.”. H. . Public Health School of Chan wrote.
I think my Globe co-op colleague Isabella Bernstein took the most sensible approach. Being a college student, she is a prime target for protein-related emails.
As we sat down to discuss protein, she asked, “What about love and joy?”.
Joy and love? How lovely that sounded. Does it contain protein?
