The first time I really ever thought about dietary fads was in the 80s when oats was a hot ticket. I loved oatmeal cookies, so I was happy to stay healthy by wolfing unlimited numbers of them. In the early 2000s my cousin came to visit in Japan and was aggressively pushing tomatoes on me – something I had never heard about because the Japanese don’t really eat them (and live to 100 anyway). Since then it’s been a continuous parade of stuff that we need to spend money on to stay alive.

This is not really the latest – and as an ‘athlete’ it’s always something that’s been on the radar – but protein has hit the general population hard, it seems, with grocery store shelves piled with protein-injected goods, not to mention the tried and trusted (and high calorie) protein bar. This one reminds me of the sports drink phenomenon that also invaded our supermarkets and convenience stores a couple of decades ago, with mainly people who really should be doing sports rather than drinking sugary drinks buying them.

Now you’ll be surprised to read this, but I’m no doctor or even a scientist, so I’ve cherry picked an article from BBC Science Focus. The article suggests that the general population is probably eating too much protein, in general, and that even athletes don’t necessarily need to go looking for supplements because people who do more exercise naturally eat more calories, thereby grabbing more protein in the process.

The one exception (but I did read another article this morning that contradicted this) seems to be people over 65, who may need more protein to keep their muscles from disappearing. I’m 7 years away from this, so will be keeping my eye on the trends going forward.