Americans are obsessed with protein. How much do you actually need?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is In Conversation from Apple News. I'm Sam Sanders, in for Shamita Basu. Today, why we're so obsessed with protein.
We are in the middle of a protein boom. Protein food products are a $100 billion plus industry and it's projected to grow even more in the next few years. You see it. Walk into any grocery store and you'll find unending lines of products with added protein. Everything from protein popcorn to protein pasta to protein beer. You can even add protein to the foam on top of your latte at Starbucks.
Why are Americans so obsessed with protein?
If there's a combination of food and extra protein you can dream of, it probably already exists.
Like the Buffalo Wild Wings espresso proteiny cocktail with 10 grams of protein.
That's health scholar Samantha King. She's written a new book with sociologist Gavin Whedon. It's called Protein, The Making of a Nutritional Superstar. Protein is an essential nutrient for our bodies to build muscle and maintain other functions. It's also found naturally in lots of foods. And in their book, Sammy and Gavin argue that our obsession with protein consumption is driven a lot more by industry and marketing and cultural forces than by actual nutritional science.
I think it helps to mark out the distinction between the idea that protein is something we need, which is true, but it's in everything we eat, and the idea that it might be something that we want, that we affect certain kinds of desire to.
I sat down with Sammy and Gavin to talk about how protein became the most popular nutrient and how to think about it differently. Can we just start with a question for me as a real live human living in a protein world?
What drives the current protein boom in the food industry?
How much protein do we actually need? Please answer this question for me, for our audience, once and for all.
I hate to disappoint you, Sam, but we're not... As you smile. Look, the obsession with protein has little to do with what our bodies actually need. Protein deficiency is extremely rare in the absence of severe hunger. So in other words, people generally only become protein deficient when they're This means that protein deficiency is practically non-existent among the demographics that are most preoccupied with their intake.
So what you're saying is... We don't need to sweat protein. If we're eating and getting full, we're fine?
Yes, we're fine.
Yes. That feels freeing.
Yeah. Oh, totally. It's liberating. I mean, even under the new guidelines announced by Health Secretary RFK Jr. in January, which, of course, increased the amount of protein we were being encouraged to consume, most American men are eating more than twice what they need. And most women are also exceeding the guidelines. Yeah. But yes, people are supplementing with protein, not just to build muscle or to get stronger, but to develop glossier skin. People take it for energy, even though that's not the primary way that we gain energy that comes from carbohydrates. There are all kinds of ideals attached to it that are not borne out in the science of what it can actually do for us.
I wonder if the best way to wrap our heads around what protein is right now, scientifically and culturally, is to go back to the start. There's one guy who is owed a lot of credit for the way we think about protein now, and His name is Eustace von Liebig. He was doing stuff in the 1800s, and his story with protein includes a lot of foxes?
Yes. So Liebig was a biochemist and entrepreneur who was trying to understand the stuff from which our bodies are made, how food turns into flesh, what are the mechanisms that shape our body size. shape, stamina, those kinds of things. And he was really interested in the potential of chemistry to build stronger, healthier society. It's a period of rapid industrialization. People are moving to cities. Men especially are working in hard physical labor in factories, in mines, and so on. And Liebig is trying to think about the role of nutrition in fueling that workforce. He's also part of a growing number of people who have come to see meat as central to a strong Europe. So he saw nutrition as an important political project from the start.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–0:48
2
Why are Americans so obsessed with protein?
0:48–2:01
3
What drives the current protein boom in the food industry?
2:01–11:58
4
How much protein do we actually need for our health?
11:58–24:08
5
What historical figure shaped our understanding of protein?
24:08–26:16
Speakers
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