The protein premium: how much extra do we pay, and how stupid are we to pay it?

ARE WE EVER going to reach peak protein? 

Anyone for a Protein Babybel? How about a refreshing glass of Hubba Bubba-flavoured clear whey protein (“an easy-drinking protein option with a nostalgic flavour twist”)?

Insomnia is now selling protein lattes i.e. a milky coffee with protein powder in it. A few of us tried this in The Journal newsroom this morning; the consensus was that once you got over the clumps of grit floating on the surface and clinging to the edges of the cup, it was basically fine.

We also tried Irish Yogurts of Clonakilty’s new high protein vanilla yoghurt, to which reactions on eating included “it’s sandy”, “how is a yoghurt dry?” and “no”. Disappointing from this Irish brand, which generally makes delicious yoghurts.

So the first thing we need to understand about protein versions of normal products is that they are typically nowhere near as nice as the originals.

The second thing about added protein is that it is expensive. 

A small protein latte in Insomnia will set you back €4.80. A normal latte is €4.20 – so that’s a mark-up of 14% for the protein version. High protein Clonakilty yoghurt in Lidl costs €2.29 for 350g; you can buy a kilogram of Lidl own-brand natural yoghurt for 85c.

In fact, when we compared the “high protein” and normal versions of a basket of 10 products on the Irish market from cheese and milk to pancakes and flapjacks, we found the average mark-up per 100g or 100ml was 31%.

The biggest hike was on Müller rice vanilla – the protein version was 74% more expensive than the normal version in SuperValu at €2.19 per pot. For some products including Babybel and Philadelphia there was no mark-up for the protein version.

The most egregious mark-up was one litre of Avonmore protein milk. 

At €2.59, this was 62.5% more expensive than one litre of regular Avonmore whole milk – so much more expensive, in fact, that it actually worked out at almost the exact same price per gram of protein (5c).

Across the rest of our basket of products, however, you were paying a lower price per gram of protein in the protein versions, if that is what you are looking for.

This brings us on to the third thing about added protein – why is this something consumers are looking for? And should it be?

Protein products in the supermarket are most obviously marketed at younger adults, particularly young men who want to build muscle. Here the path for food companies is smoothed by a whole world of fitness influencers who look great and recommend much higher protein intake than official health guidelines, so high in fact that it would be impossible to reach without eating weird stuff.

(Although not higher than the US guidelines, updated by US health secretary and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy earlier this year to promote higher consumption of protein, particularly red meat and dairy. Doctors from Harvard and Johns Hopkins University have been among those arguing that current American protein intake is grand, and meat is not something Americans need more of.)

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Bord Bia has been encouraging food businesses to link up with influencers to shift protein products since 2018.

Nutrition influencers such as anti-orange-juice crusader Jessie Inchasupé aka the Glucose Goddess (6.1 million followers on Instagram) also talk up the association between protein and satiety.

The argument here is that if you, say, neglect to eat protein at breakfast you will have a “glucose spike” which will leave you “craving” more food. Not more food! Diet culture never goes away, it just changes its face. (Oh, and don’t forget to comment PROTEIN and Inchasupé will send you a link to her protein powder that blends right into your morning coffee for 20g of protein before breakfast.)

So the ever-growing array of protein products in the supermarket aisles is tied into all this pro-protein publicity: food brands’ marketing teams are harnessing the word protein to send a message that their product is good for you, the type of thing that lean fitness influencer types might eat. 

“Research shows that the perception people have is that the protein tag is more healthy,” explained dietitian Sandra Wilkinson, communications manager at the Irish Nutrition and Dietetics Institute.

She cautions shoppers to assess the product as a whole. A granola bar with added protein will still contain a lot of sugar. (And in case you were wondering, the mark-up on a packet of Nature Valley peanut and chocolate protein granola bars relative to normal Nature Valley oats and dark chocolate bars is 50%.)

So do we actually need extra protein?

“If you look at food consumption data across the [Irish] population, your average adult is exceeding their protein requirements,” Wilkinson said.

The Irish guideline is that a healthy adult should eat 0.83g of protein per kilogram of body weight; in reality, most people are eating about 1-1.2g (the lower end of the new US range). Science evolves and the guideline might change one day, but the current advice is based on what research shows to be a necessary amount of protein, Wilkinson said.

“The majority of the time, people can meet their protein requirements easily through food,” she said.

(Obviously, it is advantageous to food companies if we view protein as an isolated nutrient rather than as food, because then we are more likely to forgive the fact that their products taste rank.)

Another note of caution from Wilkinson: while added protein may be more attractive to the terminally online younger generation, it is probably older people who could most benefit from these extra protein products.

People over the age of 65 need more protein relative to their body weight and may not have as big an appetite, so perhaps some protein milk in their breakfast cereal might be helpful.

Overall, if people want to try and maximise the benefit of their protein consumption, Wilkinson suggested they should try to spread it out across the day, as research has indicated this can help to maintain muscle mass and help muscles respond to exercise.

It’s not hard to see how the protein pivot is a win for the food industry. Slap black “protein” packaging on Babybel and you can potentially expand your target market beyond parents buying snacks for their children’s lunchboxes to a whole new cohort.

Whey is a by-product of cheese production, so reselling it to us at a premium is a double win.

Irish “nutrition” multinational Glanbia (it no longer describes itself as a “food” company) proudly declared in its most recent annual results that it is operating in a market of “unprecedented demand for protein” which is “rapidly expanding”. 

The food industry knows it’s on to a winner. The only question is whether the backlash against processed food will be enough to make consumers eventually say no thanks.