Ask Lemmy

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.

The reason you're noticing it is because of marketing propaganda. Anyone who sells a product that contains protein wants to highlight that aspect to take advantage of the public mindset who believes protein is an essential part of our diets. And the reason we even believe protein is an essential part of our diet is also because of marketing, even though it might be the case that protein actually is an essential component. The majority of the public would not know this unless they learned of it through the media. Read Propaganda by Edward Bernays. It talks about where this approach began at the beginning of the 20th century.

i think its the anti fat messaging, and sugar messaging going on.

It's the entire world, no?

Is it the usa or is it the big grocery conglomerates? In Canada it's protein this and protein that. The protein marketing machine is in full force. What say you Europeans?

this is a question that someone who's not getting enough protein would ask

In addition to what others people have mentioned (studies showing legitimate benefits to increased protein, greater need to ensure adequate protein intake for those with artificially reduced appetite, and just general dude-bro carnivore keto fads), a huge thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the massive dairy surplus.

Very few people drink milk as a beverage compared to 15 years ago, so the dairy industry (with the aid of the government) is trying to get as many alternative uses for dairy going as possible.

It's got what plants crave

Maybe you missed the pendulum swung back hard after the body positivity fad of "healthy at any size" and people yelling about how calories are a lie. this all went down about 3 yrs ago.

Then after the resulting mass of influencer death from heart failures in as young as mid twenties to early thirties we are swung back on the fitness side of things again with a new ferocity involving protien and glp1 now.

Isn't the US, it's everywhere. The next trend is fiber.

I only see an obsession with protien from gym bros and health influencers that say shit like seed oils are posionous. 🤷‍♂️

We actually just had another fitness epidemic here similar to the 90s but slightly more gym related than outdoor related. Protein powder was HUGE on tiktok shop and fairly big in stores. I happen to be a target of the powder supplement as a medical issue caused me to start my journey in losing over 100lbs in less than a year. I was having overnight oats with extra protein everyday. I have some left but now that I've lost the weight and kept most of the muscle, I'm back on whole foods only, especially for protein.

Edit: if you look it up, theres's a lot written about the "fitness influencer to right wing pipeline"

This might need confirming so take it with a grain of salt

I heard because GLP-1 treatments got super cheap in US lately everyone is getting slimmer. So slimming doesn’t seem as a luxury anymore. And because meat quality went down massively and expensive - protein is the new luxury and “bulking up” is the new trend rather than slimming.

Typical American market manipulation.

In Poland we also have this. A lot of products of have a huge infromarion how much protein it has or comercials in big cities with a new prootein products

It's not just the US even. It's been a trend for many years already, both aimed at gymbros with gymbro nutritional science ("more protein is betterer") and also selling that idea on to the general public because of the gymbro association.

I think the dumbest fucking thing I saw was a bar of chocolate I bought that proudly advertised that it had "high protein crisps" in it, and it was like 2% in a slab of milk chocolate.

Can't explain that

Because every time they try to eat something, it's recalled.

Nutritionism sells more food. If you really want to be radicalized go read Michael Polan’s In Defense of Food

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Food

Probably the whole shitty influencer "wellness" trend, but too much protein is actually pretty bad for you.