It might be the algorithms I’m getting (I follow a lot of cooking and some exercise channels) but I’ve never seen a similar obsession about getting enough fiber (something the average person actually undereats.) Is it just less sexy than meat? How important is it nutritionally compared to other things if you’re not an athlete or a vegan or something? Why is a meal that’s “high in protein” often positioned as good and why do you need to “boost” your meals?
Source: https://www.goodrx.com/well-being/diet-nutrition/too-much-protein-health-risks
In: Biology
When you want to build or maintain muscle, no typical diet is going to naturally give you enough protein, unless you eat chicken breasts with rice and lentils every day, which would get old really really fast. If you’re a male of average build, you’re looking at 130-180g of protein a day, depending on weight. 150 grams of chicken breast (1 average sized breast) has about slightly less than 50g of protein, so assuming a balanced overall diet, you will need protein rich supplements like protein powder or bars to make up the difference. Most protein rich food sources are also kind of bland and boring, especially compared to carbs (white meat, legumes, fish, nuts vs pasta, pizza, cereal, sugar in general).
If you don’t care about muscle then you don’t have to obsess about protein, but if you work out then there’s 2 problems that arise from a lack of protein: 1) you don’t recover fast enough, which means you’re extra sore and may have to skip a day or two in order for your muscles to recharge. 2) your body will start using muscle as an energy source instead of carbs or fat, which means you’re at best not progressing in the gym, and at worst you’re even regressing.
Overall I’d say western diet is decent enough protein wise. Asia has a much bigger problem imo because rice and noodles are staples in virtually every meal over there (most restaurants in China for example have huge containers with steamed rice and you can fill a bowl to the brim, free of charge), so the average Asian in my experience is much more “skinny fat” compared to the average westerner
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