High protein is the newest grocery-store fad

Dieters are obsessed with protein

Protein is one of three macronutrients found in food. The others are fat and carbohydrates. All calories in food come from one of these three macros. Each gram of protein and each gram of carbohydrates has four calories; each gram of fat has nine.

Finding the right diet starts with getting the right number of calories. Then it’s about splitting those calories among the three macronutrients—all while making sure you get enough fiber and micronutrients like vitamins.

Fad diets usually take aim at one of these macros. In the 1990s, America was swept with a low-carb craze. Dieters swapped out bread and pasta in favor of peanut butter and cheese cubes. A decade earlier, it was about reducing fat. Now, the newest trend in food is high protein.

You can find protein everywhere. Animal meats are big sources of protein: chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and others. You can also get it from fish. White fish, like cod or halibut, is one of the most efficient natural sources of protein you can find. Not your thing? Dairy is another option. Yogurt, eggs, cheese, and good old fashioned cow’s milk can boost your protein intake. You can get protein from plants. Soybeans—edamame—and chickpeas are great sources. Protein is also in oats, lentils, beans, and quinoa.

But for some people, that’s not enough. Gymgoers and bodybuilders have long added protein powder to shakes and have snacked on dry, bad-tasting protein bars. But now, high protein is coming out of the gym and going mainstream.

There are two ways you see this in the grocery store. First, you see more of the traditional high-protein foods. Cottage cheese is a great example. Ten or twenty years ago, low-fat cottage cheese was almost a byword for unappetizing food. It’s the sort of thing people would eat on a diet—and not a day longer.

Not anymore. Refined recipes and better branding have made cottage cheese officially cool. A market research firm estimates that in the U.S., sales of cottage cheese are up fifty percent over just a few years ago. I eat it the old-fashioned way—with a spoon directly out of the tub. But others blend it with fruit, add it to smoothies, spread it on pita bread, and mix it in with scrambled eggs.

Other naturally high-protein foods are also becoming more popular. Sales of Greek yogurt, beef jerky, and chickpeas are also increasing these days. Even the humble glass of cow’s milk is coming back. In the U.S., fluid milk sales had declined every year for fifteen years—until the trend reversed in 2024. New ultra-filtered varieties offer higher percentages of protein, and are often easier to digest.

The other way you see the protein fad in the grocery store is with protein-enhanced products. Here, food manufacturers add protein to other foods that aren’t normally high in protein. Most big food companies like Nestle and ConAgra are adding business units, product lines, or special labels just for protein-enhanced products.

Nestle, for example, created a line of products called Vital Pursuit, many of which are protein-enhanced. A 360-calorie frozen pizza has 33 grams of protein. That’s about twice as much protein as its standard frozen pizza would have, for the same number of calories. Mars even makes a high-protein chocolate bar, with 20 grams of protein in 378 calories.

And startups are getting in on the action, too. Protein Pints is protein-enhanced ice cream; it has 10 grams per 160 calories. Feisty Soda says on its website that “soda just got a protein upgrade.” A can of its green apple & lime soda has 67 calories and 10 grams of protein.

You can also find protein-enhanced chips, waffles, and cookies. If you think you’re seeing the word “protein” everywhere, you’re not the only one. An analysis in the U.S. found that in 2024, food makers introduced 97 new products with the word “protein” in the title—that’s double the amount of the year before.

But nutrition experts advise being careful about these protein-enhanced foods. If your main source of protein is ice cream and waffles, then you’re getting your protein from highly processed sources. That comes with its own problems.

And besides, not every gram of protein is created equal. Natural sources of protein often have a more complete amino acid profile—meaning, they’re higher quality sources. And protein is not the only story in a person’s diet. A protein pizza doesn’t have many of the other micronutrients that a healthy meal has.

For most people, it’s probably better to get a moderate amount of protein, and to get it from higher quality sources. Exactly how much do you need, though? The World Health Organization says the minimum is 0.83 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. That’s pretty low. Bodybuilders, on the other hand, usually aim for between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Most people who are aiming for general health can shoot for something in between those two ranges.

You can’t really get hurt by eating too much protein, but there’s no additional benefit from consuming more than you need, more than your body uses for maintaining or building muscle mass. And in case you’re wondering: no, you can’t stock up on protein. Unlike carbs and fat, your body has no way to store excess protein for later use.

If you’re trying to build muscle, it’s probably better to get as much protein as possible, within reason. Of course, some people do take things a little too far, like one character on season 3 of The White Lotus. He was so obsessed with protein shakes that he took a blender with him on vacation.

Jeff’s take

GLP-1 weight loss drugs are a big driver of this trend, too. One of the concerns that doctors have is that if people lose their appetite on GLP-1 drugs, then they won’t get enough protein—they won’t eat enough. So when you go on GLP-1s, they often advise you to switch to high protein sources and vegetables. And that’s part of the trend, too.

If I am allowed, I would like to ask for one thing to come from this for me personally. I would like to ask for better, higher-protein options in a convenience store. Two months back, I was on a long drive in the U.S. and—it’s a long story, but I was hungry, I was in a hurry, I was in a gas station—and there was just no healthy option.

And I read that food companies are experimenting with better varieties of pre-packaged snacks like, just grilled chicken breast in a plastic wrapper. This is what I want. I don’t need extra protein in my waffles. I don’t need a 378-calorie Mars bar with protein added. I don’t need that. But if I can have a healthier, higher protein snack in a gas station or convenience store, then I would be very, very happy.