- General Mills and other brands are launching high-protein versions of their products.
- This trend mirrors past health fads like low-carb and low-fat diets, with new influences.
- Social media and health influencers are amplifying the protein craze and other diet trends.
Protein is having a moment, and big packaged food brands like General Mills are keeping up.
An article I read that fascinated me on New York Magazine’s Grub Street looks at how big brands synonymous with carbs — Wheaties and Cheerios, for example — are trying to muscle their way into the latest craze for more protein.
(Wheaties Protein Maple Almond offers 22 grams of protein, up from 3 grams in the classic Wheaties flavor. That’s some swole flakes.)
Big supermarket brands launching high-protein versions of their stapes (I await protein Oreos, personally) feels like the absolute peak of a food/health trend cycle. As Grub Street points out, this isn’t so far off from the Atkins low-carb craze of the 2000s or the low-fat fad of the 1990s. (I will forever remember the taste and texture of the SnackWell low-fat brownie.)
Underlining the trend, General Mills said in December, when it launched a high-protein version of Cheerios, that its research showed 71% of consumers were trying to get more protein in their diets, and their new products were looking to “meet people where they are.”
Of course, there are new factors at plan now, too, like patients on Ozempic whose doctors encourage them to eat diets high in protein to aim to prevent muscle loss, which can be a side effect of GLP-1 inhibitors.
Health food fads come and go — for example, gut health drinks seem to be the latest version of antioxidant-rich beverages. (Remember Pom Wonderful?) Olipop, a line of canned beverages marketed as a healthy version of soda, just raised $50 million in a funding round that valued it at $1.85 billion, Bloomberg reported.
MAHA movement and others help push health trends on social
I have a theory that social media of this moment has supercharged protein mania.
There seems to have been a vibe shift that exhibits itself in more nontraditional health crazes lately: Think the MAHA movement, raw milk influencer moms, the Liver King, and other carnivore diet enthusiasts. Then there’s the popularity of pop science gurus like Andrew Huberman espousing diet and exercise ideas.
This kind of stuff has always existed — and I’m not a health expert, so some of these things might or might not be for you — but I do know a lot about the culture of the moment, and it feels like these ideas about optimization and macros and an obsession with protein have gone — forgive the obvious metaphor — on steroids.
There’s real science behind how getting more protein in your diet is (probably) a good idea. I have even found myself influenced to try eating more protein (although with these egg prices, I’m not sure I can afford to).
Still, maybe don’t take things as far as Grub Street writer Chris Gayomali did, when he did this:
I came across a category of people who drink chicken-breast smoothies. Rather than subjecting themselves to supplements or powders, they’ll throw some shredded chicken breast into a blender with other smoothie ingredients. I was curious. Maybe this concoction could offer a perfect marriage of the unprocessed simplicity of chicken breast with the convenient efficiency of a protein bar. So after picking up a pack of chicken tenderloins at the store and boiling three (150 grams uncooked, about 48 grams of protein), I tore the chunks of flesh into the blender and added a splash of water plus everything I could find in my freezer: the crumbly end of a bag of raspberries, two bananas, some blueberries, a forgotten package of açai.
The result looked like a normal berry smoothie and, on first sip, tasted like one. Then the back end arrived, coating my tongue in what I can only describe as a slick film with the viscosity and taste of a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup.
I don’t think I’ll ever recover from visualizing that, Chris!
