why the fuck is protein in everything now
I'm with the people who think it's Ozempic.
There were rumors that Ozempic/GLP-1s result in the loss of muscle mass. This makes sense if they change diet volume but not diet composition, so someone that was previously eating enough protein but also too much junk food starts eating both less protein and less junk food.
There were also rumors that food purchases were declining enough for Walmart to notice.
Combining these two leads to it being rational for junk food manufacturers to sell smaller amounts of food, with added protein, at higher prices, to appeal to Ozempic users and restore revenue.
I think this will go much better than the earlier "fat free (added sugar)" fad.
The Walmart thing was an early one: since Walmart has a pharmacy, they could easily link together the first shoppers who went onto Ozempic with changes in their shopping cart and realize that Ozempic prescriptions very reliably changed buying habits.
they were putting protein in everything before ozempic. i recall trying Protein Gatorade and throwing up before ozempic. seems more plausible that it's a response to the mainstreaming of gym culture in the 2010s
Gatorade is a different animal though, and did have a market to capture within gym culture. Pop Tarts not so much.
