Protein in your iced tea? In your snack chips? Yes indeed, these are artifacts of “protein madness.” This growing obsession with cramming protein into ever more of the products we consume has far-reaching effects. For The Atlantic, Lila Shroff describes her epiphany about this trend:

“Protein products have come a long way. Perhaps, they have come too far. Last weekend, at the gym, I was offered a can of lemon-flavored ‘protein ice tea.’ The summery, yellow-striped packaging advertised 15 grams of protein per can, or about the same as what you might get from three eggs.”

If food is medicine, are we medicating with protein chips and tea?

A Boon to the Dairy Industry

The protein in that tea comes from whey, and whey comes from dairies.

So dairy farmers love this trend. The explosive growth in demand for protein to cram into ultra-processed foods like chips, bars, teas, and much more means that whey protein is a money-maker for them. Cheesemakers tell us that whey was once a waste product. They had to pay to dispose of it. Now it sometimes seems like the cheese they proudly make is just a byproduct of their whey production. High prices for whey are keeping dairies profitable.

Writing for the New York Times, Kevin Draper described what’s driving this:

“Whey is so valuable because it can deliver a lot of protein in a small caloric package, and in case you haven’t noticed, exhortations to consume more protein have popped up everywhere over the last two decades. Doctors recommend additional protein for healthy aging.

“More recently, the demand for whey has been turbocharged by the growing use of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic. Patients taking those drugs are advised to increase their protein intake to avoid muscle loss.”

Ultra-Processed Health Food

It’s funny, really. At the same time nutrition advocates preach that ultra-processed foods are destroying our health, consumers are responding to health advice and creating a market for more of these ultra-processed protein-packed abominations.

Why not? What could go wrong? After all, those protein chips are “crafted from REAL ingredients.”

Click here for free access to Shroff’s piece in The Atlantic and here for an interview with her on the Marketplace. For access to Draper’s article in the Times, click here.

Wilde Protein Chips, photograph by Ted Kyle / ConscienHealth