Protein has become the nutrient of the age: dusted on crisps, stirred into coffee and printed in large type on yoghurt pots. The marketing is running well ahead of physiology.
Official UK advice still sits around 0.75g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day for healthy adults — about 50g for many women and 60g for many men. That is a modest chicken breast, a tin of tuna, a pot of Greek yoghurt and some beans, not a suitcase of whey.
Athletes, people recovering from illness and adults over 65 often benefit from more, closer to 1.2g per kilogram, especially if they are trying to keep muscle while losing weight. The rest of us are, by and large, already there. National diet surveys show average intakes above the reference, even if the distribution through the day is lopsided — a low-protein breakfast and a meat-heavy dinner.
“The danger is not that Britain is protein-deficient,” said Professor Cole. “It is that protein has become a halo, slapped on foods that are still ultra-processed, salty or expensive.”
There is a quieter gap. Older people in hospital, those on very low-calorie diets, and some vegans who rely on refined grains can fall short. For them, the answer is food first: eggs, dairy, tofu, lentils, fish — and only then a supplement if appetite or teeth make eating hard.
If you lift weights, spreading protein across meals is useful. If you do not, buying a third protein bar is not a personality. It is a receipt.