Cereal, pancakes, a Mars bar spinoff – just a few of the foods that have been "supercharged" with added protein in recent years. Swing by your local supermarket and you’ll find specially formulated yoghurts in the fridge section packing 25-odd grams of protein per pot, and tortilla wraps weighing in at an impressively high 10g of the nutrient per serving. So stratospheric has the topic of protein become, that it’s very typical now for food and drink items to have their protein content tattooed on the packaging in big, bold letters to better stand out to the nutritionally minded while shopping. On TikTok, at the time of writing, there are 1.7 million posts which feature the hashtag #protein. Meanwhile, the global protein market is, according to Statista, currently valued at $27.5 billion, with this number forecasted to almost double by 2030.
But for all its volume, data from a small study conducted in 2020 suggests that many of us may not be meeting the recommended daily intake of protein. Not sure what protein actually is? Well, it’s an essential nutrient that plays a vital role in numerous physiological functions, which is what makes it so important to be mindful of the signs you’re not getting enough.
