The Great Protein Scam: How Junk Food Became Health Food

Protein marketing is absurd. Most molecules are “protein.” And more is not better.

Everyone knows processed sugar is bad for you. But almost nobody knows or cares that a “protein bar” is just a candy bar.

My jaw was on the ground watching the phenomenon of Quest Bar. It was souped-up cheap candy, and Americans couldn’t get enough, since they tasted like candybars. Because that’s what they were.

Eating a lot of meat is more protein than you can even use. More protein isn’t better. Many films and online videos highlight plant-based bodybuilders, elite athletes, and people aging extraordinarily well in their 60’s to 80’s, with strong muscle mass, eating a plant-based diet.

I’m Not Trying to Sell You On “Vegan”

I am not trying to talk you into being “vegan.” I actually cringe at the label. It triggers a lot of people. It’s extreme. A lot of “vegans” actually eat a junk-food diet. I may not eat animal products much at all, but I don’t want that label.

I’ve been studying nutrition for 30 years, and if strong evidence convinces me a meat-eating diet is a better one, I’ll do it.

I do want to make sure in all the noise and fad-think around supposedly “toxic” compounds in greens, vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts–and with the hype the past couple decades around glorifying “protein”-

–that we don’t lose track of what we already know. Tens of thousands of studies link high consumption of those whole plant-food categories–to long, strong, healthy and disease-free life.

We already knew that before someone put a theory out there about eating all meat. (It actually isn’t going well, for that fad, with a dramatically high dropout rate, severe consequences for most, and even some of the fad’s leaders going back to adding in fruits and vegetables and greens.)

Most molecules qualify as “protein,” including the throwaway byproducts of virtually every food that is processed.

This fun fact has allowed manufacturers to grab up edible garbage, at virtually no cost to them, sweeten and flavor it, and sell it to you for extraordinary profit, pretending you “need more protein.”

Have you ever seen someone ask hundreds of doctors from the stage,

“How many of you have ever seen a patient presenting with protein deficiency?”

And zero docs raise their hands.

The ones on the front row turn around, to see that no one in the entire hotel ballroom is raising their hand.

I haven’t actually seen it either, but I saw Stanford nutrition researcher Christopher Gardner, PhD say that he has asked this, in huge audiences full of doctors, many times in the last 10 years, and not one has ever raised their hand.

He tells them, we have ACTUAL health problems! Why create a fake one? Silence falls over the room.

Doctors Move With the Pack, Too

Doctors can move in herds of lemmings too. You saw it with covid, didn’t you?

They knew, just like you did, that the one and only prevention or treatment protocol for covid–wasn’t actually sufficiently tested for safety or efficacy. Yet most of them took up the cause, and did it, anyway!

The impulse to do it “because everyone else is doing it”--is very strong! (That’s why our mothers cautioned us against it. “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” I bet your mom said this.)

Every even halfway-decent diet has enough “protein.” You have been scammed so hard, for many years, regarding “protein.”

It represents $30B a year in revenue, with 100K people profiting in America, from indoctrinating you to chase “protein.”

Getting people to buy well known junk food (like these Pop Tarts new last year) with “protein” added tells us Idiocracy, the comedy movie from 20 years ago, wasn’t sci fi.

It was what we were fast becoming.

They showed Americans having lost all knowledge regarding health and all that was left was yelling “ELECTROLYTES!” as the answer to every health issue.

Remember, the people in Idiocracy had gotten so dumb, that they drank only Gatorade and had completely lost track of the need for drinking water.

They thought water was for irrigation and toilets!

We aren’t any smarter, when we want to eat ultra-processed garbage (like high-protein Pop Tarts).

And fool ourselves that we’re eating a healthy diet–because, “protein.”

You know what is going extinct, is organic whole foods full of fiber and dozens of micronutrients. A perfect package made by God and nature.

What’s scary is that growing bananas, beets, and blueberries is low profit—and all manufactured food is high profit.

What can we do about it? Buy it and eat vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, greens and herbs.

Keeps farmers in business and keeps us healthy.