America’s obsession with consuming “enough” protein has officially reached fever pitch. While some folks have been feeding their muscles with baked chicken and fat-free yogurt for decades, we’ve recently seen a ginormous uptick in the number of processed foods enhanced with protein.
Now it seems like you can’t go anywhere without being confronted by protein-infused cookies, cereal, popcorn, and it can even be in the cold foam on your iced coffee.
If you haven’t tried any of these products, we don’t think you’re missing anything but an upcharge since most of us are already getting the protein we need from our regular, cold-foamless diets.
Still, the excitement around protein is perfectly understandable. Protein-rich foods play a key role in everything from building and repairing muscles to supporting immunity, but because most of us are not trying to be The Rock, we only need about 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight (that’s about 54 grams of protein per day for a person who weighs around 150 pounds, for example).
“This is how much the average adult, who is moderately active, needs to just maintain their health,” Elizabeth Dunn, a food journalist who’s written widely about nutrition, told us — the hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — when she recently dropped by our studio.
Press play to hear the full episode:
“There are certain groups who definitely do benefit from more than that daily allowance: Kids … young adults who are rapidly growing, building muscle and are more active … and also older people, 65-plus,” she noted. These groups, as well as very active adults or endurance athletes, Dunn said, might benefit from one to one-and-a-half grams of protein per kilogram.
And, contrary to what we’ve been made to believe by Big Protein Bar, there isn’t really an epidemic of protein deficiency in the United States. Many of us are getting enough from our daily, hopefully balanced, meals and snacks.
“There’s actually protein in almost everything you eat. If you’re only thinking about the things you eat that are really dense sources of protein, then you’re maybe going to feel like ‘well I don’t eat that much meat or eggs,’” Dunn said. “But there’s protein in strawberries. Whole grains are a sleeper source of protein — and I’m not just talking about quinoa. Oats have a lot of protein in them. As do seeds, hemp and chia. All those have protein in them, so it adds up a lot faster than you think.”
So, most of us can safely ignore all those TikToks telling us we need 300 grams of protein a day or we’re going to wither away. However, Dunn mentioned there is something admittedly less sexy that we all probably could use more of in our diets.
“I think that fiber is actually a more legit thing to be obsessed with than protein,” she said. “When I speak to my nutritionist pals, fiber is the thing they believe we’re not getting enough of. So something like 95% [of people] are supposedly deficient in fiber.”
However, don’t expect Starbucks to roll out fiber cold foam anytime soon, as the first thing that the nutrient brings to most of our minds is poop. Despite this, it’s clear that not getting enough fiber can have consequences.
“As nutrition scientists and doctors study the microbiome, they’re realizing that fiber is super important to the health of the microbiome, which then contributes to the health of the whole rest of the body, including mental health,” Dunn said. “This is a huge driver of health that we’re just beginning to understand.”
So if you have to pick a nutrient to cozy up to in 2026, we’re going to lovingly suggest you choose fiber. However, there’s lots more to learn about protein, and on this episode, we also discussed the best times to eat protein, the protein-filled snack food Dunn said we should definitely skip and lots more.
Listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also watch the full episode on YouTube.
For more from Elizabeth Dunn, visit her website and subscribe to her Substack.
Have a question or need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.