The change happened quietly, albeit suddenly. Once the chalky preserve of sweatbox changing rooms and elite sportsmens’ kitbags, protein has become the sexiest, most ubiquitous and most lucrative nutrient around.

Between 2010 and 2015, the number of new food products claiming to be ‘high-protein’ rose almost 500 per cent, according to market research group Mintel. And with one in four Britons already consuming sports supplements regularly – recently rising to an alleged 42 per cent of men aged 16 to 24 – it’s clear we just can’t get enough of it.

Of course, we expect to find whey in our post-gym shakes and bars. You’ve doubtless used them yourself, whether looking to build and sustain muscle or simply recover faster from your workouts. But this relatively niche market has breached its banks. Its appeal is blowing up. Yoghurt brands such as Arla heavily market their protein content. Weetabix On The Go calls itself a ‘protein breakfast drink’. Even Marks & Spencer’s Balanced For You ready meals promote their high levels of the muscle macro.

Meanwhile, the ‘healthy’ ice cream brand Halo Top, now outsells all of its US competitors. This is in no small part due to its advertised 5g of protein per scoop – five times that in the caloric equivalent of a Ben & Jerry’s. Other brands such as Shreddies and Batchelors Cup a Soup have all launched high-protein products. Coca-Cola has even created protein milk Fairlife.

Not even rain itself has escaped protein-ification. Recently launched ‘water’ Vieve claims to be natural, sugar-free, fat-free and high-protein – a list of descriptors that could all be applied to a glass of tap water with one exception. Each bottle contains 20g of protein, mainly derived from collagen.

In the language of marketing gurus, protein now has a ‘health halo’, just as low-fat foods did back in the ’80s. But why exactly is this? Why have British consumers suddenly embraced this macronutrient with such strange and bewildering obsession? And is it really as good for us as we seem to think?

The Easiest Ways to Consume More Protein

We’ve known about proteins since the 18th century. The Swedish chemist who named the molecules in the 1830s coined the word from the Greek ‘pro’ – meaning first and, therefore, most important. They are, of course, critical to life.

The amino acids of which they are comprised are essential to sustain our muscles and bones, and synthesise hormones. Research in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating a serving of protein at every meal promotes healthy ageing, while a Japanese study linked eating animal protein with a lower risk of mental decline. So far, so vital.

Crucially, it proves pretty helpful for weightloss, too: when we consume protein, it stimulates glucose production in the small intestine, which helps us to feel full. A 2013 paper from the University of Missouri found that a high-protein breakfast staves off hunger better than a regular bowl of (unfortified) cereal, even when both dishes offer the same calories.

Nevertheless, the word ‘protein’ can be a misleadingly catch-all term when describing what actually goes into adulterated food products. You have whey and casein, which are found in milk, as well as numerous plant options like those extracted from soy and hemp. One of the many growth areas for the booming high-protein industry is that derived from insects – crickets, for instance.

And, when deciding where to score your hit, not all proteins are created equal. Typically, only the animal-derived varieties found in meat and dairy contain all essential amino acids – those that our body cannot produce itself. They also offer a more favourable ratio of protein-per-calorie.

Quinoa, as any health hipster worth his Himalayan sea salt will tell you, is a rare example of a plant that contains every amino acid necessary for the human body. But you’d have to consume almost 550 calories’ worth of the stuff in order to score 20g of protein, says dietitian Chris Mohr, who has a PhD in exercise physiology. To obtain the same from a juicy steak would set you back by less than 200 calories.

Consequently, food manufacturers have realised that we don’t just want more protein, we want it in more manageable, condensed packages. Yet while the sports nutrition industry has been bulking up, British snacking habits have been waning.

According to recent research from Mintel, our consumption of sweets and crisps has fallen 10 per cent. “Concerns around health are prompting users to cut back – most people are trying to eat healthily much, if not all, of the time,” explains Emma Clifford, Mintel’s associate director of food and drink. “As companies clamour to capitalise on the interest in protein, there has been a surge in new products featuring the high-protein claim. Snacks lend themselves well to this, providing an easy way for consumers to boost their intake.”

Significantly, 18 per cent of consumers now say they would happily pay more for a snack with added nutritional benefits. And in 2018 that doesn’t mean low-fat muffins or vitamin-enriched biscuits. It means extra P.

How Much Protein Should We Be Eating?

None of this is to address exactly why we suddenly want it so much. Of course, successive popular eating plans – from Atkins to Dukan and, more recently, the Paleo diet – have been teaching us to prioritise protein for the last two decades. And while we’ve always been careful not to use the word ‘diet’ itself, this very magazine has promoted the nutritional benefits of protein since its inception.

According to Dr Mayur Ranchordas, a senior lecturer and sports nutrition consultant at Sheffield Hallam University, this fixation could be due to a process of elimination. “The key message nowadays is to reduce the amount of carbs we eat, and for a long time we were told not to eat fat, either,” he says. “So protein is the only macronutrient left to fill the gap.”

But Ranchordas is also quick to lay responsibility with social media for the recently accelerated shift, citing the ‘wellness influencers’ who share their workout and refuel snaps on Instagram. Protein supplementation is no longer the preserve of overmuscled bench-pressers. Body fuel has been lifestylised.

Meanwhile, Dale Pinnock, a specialist in the medicinal properties of food, thinks that our collective obsession with protein is not so much the result of a newfound interest in health, as a guilelessness when it comes to nutrition. “People are mad about protein all of a sudden because of prevailing ‘bro science’, rather than society becoming more interested in fitness per se,” he says. “Certain ‘theories’ that once existed within the confines of the gym have been brought into the mainstream and presented as true.” As a result, we’ve come to believe that more and more protein is inherently healthier.

So how much of it do we need and how much of it are we already eating?

Dr Zoe Harcombe, a researcher in public health nutrition, points out that protein is present in almost every food, not just your chicken breast. “Nature tends to create foods with either a mix of carbs and proteins, such as vegetables, grains, legumes, or fats and proteins, such as meat, fish and eggs,” she says.

All this means that we already consume more protein as part of our everyday diets than we might suspect, claims Harcombe. “At my size, and with my activity levels, I need roughly 50g of protein a day,” she says. “I could get that from a couple of tuna steaks. But I’m still taking on protein from almost everything else I eat during the day: porridge, salad, brown rice, dark chocolate – you name it.”

Britain’s Department of Health recommends that men consume an average 56g of protein daily – or 0.75g for every kilo of bodyweight, based on the Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI). Most of us are eating more than that: the mean average intake in the UK is 86.5g per day for men. According to a recent Scottish government report, “mean protein intakes are well above the RNIs in all age groups.”

If you’re still unsure of what that quantity looks like, a typical chicken breast contains about 40g of protein, a portion of tofu 15g and two eggs 12g. And from the fortified aisle? You’ll find 10g in one of Eat Natural’s soya-enriched Peanut and Chocolate bars and a full 20g in a bag of Sweet Southern BBQ Chicken protein crisps. All of which means your odds of falling short are highly unlikely.

Are High-Protein Diets Healthy?

The average Brit might not be at risk of deficiency, but, of course, optimal nutrition is about more than meeting base requirements. People exercising frequently will need more protein than the sofa-bound, and for the man in training or looking to add to his frame, government targets probably set the bar too low. “The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that athletes undergoing heavy training should eat between 1.6g and, in extreme cases, 2g per kilo of their bodyweight,” says Ranchordas.

Working out at roughly 150g a day for an average-sized man, this is double the British government’s recommended quotas for sedentary people. Even so, it’s still a goal you can meet without desperate measures.

“It’s relatively easy to get enough protein from food sources, no matter how much exercise you’re doing. There’s really no need to resort to fortified ice cream,” says Pinnock. “My major concern is the people who are banishing all carbs while eating half a grilled moose for breakfast. They are pushing protein intake beyond a healthy level, risking damaging their kidneys, cardiovascular health, gut flora and increasing their colorectal cancer risk.”

Indeed, science suggests you really can have too much of a good thing. A 2013 paper published in the journal ISRN Nutrition concluded that an excessively high protein intake “could be useless or even harmful for healthy individuals”, especially for those who self-prescribe protein supplements and overlook the guidelines for using them, something which can be common among athletes and bodybuilders. Excess protein, the report claims, “is not used efficiently by the body and may impose a metabolic burden on the bones, kidneys and liver.”

Nevertheless, Ranchordas is keen to countenance against irrationality – after all, what we are talking about here are diets with unusually high levels of protein, prioritised at the expense of other nutrients. He recommends that we approach the alleged dangers of over-consumption with a healthy side of scepticism. “We can speculate that high-protein diets might cause problems,” he says. “But the data is not as clear as it is for high-carbohydrate diets, which are known to cause insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. I wouldn’t recommend a diet excessively high in any one macronutrient.”

All of which is reasonable. However, it’s not a compelling sell at the checkout. And until the pitch of ‘naturally balanced nutrient ratios’ manages to acquire some marketing sex appeal, food marketeers will continue to seek out the most translatable sales hook, regardless of scientific nuance or veracity. In the early 2000s, that hook was omega-3. In 2018, it is baited with protein.

Getting Your Protein from Natural Sources

What, then, is the hungry MH reader to do? Well, if you’re only making it to the gym a couple of times a week, then habitually stocking up on protein-fortified foods is probably unnecessary. Protein is not a muscle-building elixir in and of itself and, in any case, it’s likely your diet already has you covered. If you’re training regularly, then – by all means – supplement your intake. But unless you’re happy to fork out 50 per cent more for a loaf of bread, it’s easier and cheaper to add an extra scoop to your shake.

The critical point, agreed by all nutritionists we’ve spoken to, is that the quality of your diet is more important than the quantity of your macros. If all you’re doing is counting grams, the people who stand to benefit most from those extra helpings are the manufacturers of processed foods – capitalising on the prevailing myth that a ‘high protein’ badge automatically makes a food product healthy, regardless of whether it naturally belongs there or what else might be in it. As Harcombe says: “Adding protein to our crisps and cakes doesn’t make them virtuous; it just makes them junk foods with added protein.”

Food manufacturers are well aware of this, which is why they are frequently at pains to claim some kind of authenticity for their wares. When phrases like ‘clean eating’ are common parlance, drawing attention to ingredients’ ‘natural’ credentials becomes a key part of the sell for a high-protein product.

As a Mintel investigation into UK attitudes concluded, brands are learning to put a strong focus on the plant-derived nature of high-protein ingredients in order to “boost associations with naturalness”. Indeed, many marketeers predict the next big retail trend will be plant-based or ‘green’ protein, in place of the ‘high-’ prefix.

But it’s worth noting that boosting “associations with naturalness” is only ever required in those cases when the food you are purchasing is, well, quite unnatural. Brands such as Vieve Protein Water, for example, bill themselves as ‘naturally flavoured’, yet a glance at the ingredients list reveal it to contain the artificial sweetener sucralose and the anti-foaming agent E900, alongside its added collagen protein.

It’s not that they’re bad for you. It’s just that, for the same price, you could purchase eight whole pints of another health drink – one that serves up all your ‘natural’ protein alongside vitamins D, B12, calcium and phosphorus. It’s called milk. And wouldn’t that be simpler?