> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.practically.fit/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Yes, There's Protein in Your Coffee Now. But How Much Do You Actually Need? - URL: https://www.practically.fit/yes-theres-protein-in-your-coffee-now-but-how-much-do-you-actually-need/ - Published: 2026-08-29T17:54:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-29T18:03:06.000Z - Description: Protein is having a moment. It's in your coffee, your ramen, and apparently your popcorn, and there's a good reason the food industry is obsessed with it right now. - Author: Alex Johnson - Tags: Podcast, Nutrition Protein is having a moment. It's in your coffee, your ramen, and apparently your popcorn, and there's a good reason the food industry is obsessed with it right now. In this episode, Abbie and I dig into the protein craze: what protein actually does in your body, why it's suddenly being added to everything, and whether any of these products are worth it. We start with the basics: proteins aren't just for building muscle. They're running virtually every system in your body, from your immune response to your digestion. Since protein is so important to your body, how much do you actually need? We took a look at the recommendations, and it's complicated. We also taste-tested the Starbucks Protein Latte before recording, in preparation for a segment on the strangest protein-infused products now on shelves, including protein pizza crust, protein water, and a brand of chicken-based protein chips that I tried months ago, with concerning results. Plus, a drink-themed Warm Up: new research links coffee to higher testosterone levels in men, tea drinkers live longer according to a UK study, and Americans drinking alcohol has hit a record low for the second year in a row. #### Read The Transcript ****Alex:** Welcome to Practically Fit, Real Fitness Over 40\. I'm Alex. ****Abbie:** And I'm Abbie. ****Alex:** And today we're talking about the latest craze in nutrition: protein. ****Abbie:** Yeah, it definitely feels like you cannot get away from protein these days. It's popping up on labels everywhere. It feels obligatory for a fitness influencer to mention it in any nutrition video they do. And if, like me, you're a woman over 40 and you haven't yet been told some version of the mathematical calculation of how much protein you should be eating per pound or gram you weigh, then I feel like you must be living off the grid. So in this episode, we're going to do a deeper dive into all things protein to help you navigate the mass of noise and marketing campaigns. But first, let's limber up. The Warm-Up: Coffee, Tea, and Alcohol ****Alex:** So, Abbie, it's a drink-themed edition of the warm-up today, and we're going to get into some of the latest news about coffee, tea, and alcohol. This follows up on some of the discussions we've had in recent weeks, doesn't it? ****Abbie:** I think it also follows up on your obsession with these things. Clearly your news app is feeding you the same stories again and again, because we just seem to keep coming back to coffee. ****Alex:** No, I'm just interested in the benefits these beverages can provide in your life — or the pitfalls, when it comes to alcohol. And I think on this one we'll have a bit of a competition between ourselves, because we've got coffee versus tea. Let's start with coffee. The first article comes from Study Finds, one of my favorite websites — I love reading a study, as you can tell from the podcast. The title of this article is "Men Who Drink More Coffee Show Higher Testosterone Levels, Study Finds." I love that Study Finds includes "study finds" in the headline. ****Abbie:** Yeah, very on brand. ****Alex:** This is big news, though. I saw this, and I was already excited that it's heart-healthy to drink up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day through coffee. But when I saw that coffee may be giving me higher testosterone levels too — the great news on coffee just keeps coming. This article says, quote, "Men who drank more coffee daily had significantly higher testosterone, with each daily cup linked to a 0.29 nmol/L rise" — I guess that's a measure of testosterone — "even after accounting for weight, smoking, activity, and alcohol." It also says heavier coffee drinkers as a group had less body fat and more muscle, though the heavy-drinking group skewed more male, which may partly explain that pattern. The study notes it only captured a single point in time, so it can't say whether coffee is raising testosterone, whether higher testosterone leads to more coffee drinking, or whether something else explains both. But I see no downside to upping your coffee intake within that safe caffeine range — particularly if you're a man, since the study looked at women too and didn't see similar benefits there. ****Abbie:** Okay. I don't know — that study sounds like it tells you nothing. ****Alex:** It tells me it reinforces the notion in my head that coffee is good for me. Don't you want me to have more testosterone? That's a good thing, right? ****Abbie:** I think that's just you looking for evidence that supports your theory. ****Alex:** Supports your worldview, right? Hey, the good thing about drinking this much coffee is that it also keeps you regular. So that's an added benefit for any men out there who want to up their coffee intake. ****Abbie:** Whatever floats your boat. Well, I'll share the other story we focused on for this warm-up, from the Washington Post — five science-backed health benefits of tea, from longevity to brain health. Scientists have found that the compounds in tea can protect your blood vessels, lower inflammation, aid relaxation, and potentially boost your gut microbiome. In one analysis published in the journal Life Sciences, researchers described tea as "nature's gift for promoting human health." The article summarizes tea's benefits based on studies over the years, but I found the bit about longevity most interesting — based on a longevity study from the UK, of course. ****Alex:** Right, of course it had to be the UK, given how much tea they drink. ****Abbie:** Tea is drunk widely all over the world, I think you'll find. You'd need to go do some investigation to see which country actually drinks the most tea. Anyway — based on this longevity study, scientists tracked about half a million adults, so a pretty big sample group, between the ages of 40 and 69, for over ten years. They looked at diet, beverage consumption, lifestyle habits, medical conditions, and overall health. Ninety percent of the tea drinkers drank black tea, and 7% drank green tea. ****Alex:** So they're like you — you drink black tea. ****Abbie:** I do. I occasionally drink an herbal tea, but I like black tea the most. The researchers found that tea drinkers were less likely to die during the study period compared with non-tea drinkers. People who drank two to three cups daily seemed to benefit the most — that was the sweet spot — and those individuals had a 13% reduction in mortality compared with people who rarely or never drank tea. The findings were essentially the same regardless of whether people also drank coffee. So it sounds like tea is outweighing coffee. ****Alex:** I wouldn't say that, with all the great research we've been seeing on coffee. What this says to me is that I need to drink both tea and coffee daily, just to maximize my health gains. ****Abbie:** Well, you'd have to stay within your caffeine boundary, so you'd have to swap one out for the other at some point. ****Alex:** Because it says the findings were the same regardless — so you can still only take so much caffeine a day. ****Abbie:** Right, yeah. ****Alex:** But tea doesn't have as much caffeine. What I've typically been doing is two cups of coffee in the morning — although my first cup might count for a bit more than two, it's a pint glass — and then tea in the afternoon, usually a green tea. So maybe I need a green tea in the afternoon and then another tea at night to wind down the day. A cup of tea before bed is one of the greatest things in the world. How many teas do you think you drink a day? Are you in that two-to-three-cups range? ****Abbie:** I way outperform that. ****Alex:** How many do you drink? I've never counted. ****Abbie:** On an average day, probably four. ****Alex:** Okay, so four or five — this is good for your life, see, you can be excited about this, like I was excited about the coffee. ****Abbie:** I'm also excited because that's a pretty well-researched study — half a million people over ten years. Good, solid science-based study. ****Alex:** That's right. Well, let's talk about our final article today, from USA Today: "Americans Who Say They Drink Alcohol Remains at a Record Low, Survey Finds." I thought this was worth covering because we've talked about a few of these alcohol surveys recently, and this is just a new data point reinforcing what we've discussed before. The article says, quote, "Americans are reaching for alcohol at record lows, according to a new Gallup survey." The survey, out on August 20th, found that the number of Americans who say they drink alcohol sits at 54% for the second consecutive year, and "51% of U.S. adults now believe drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is bad for one's health" — essentially unchanged from last year's record high of 53%. If you look at the running average of Americans drinking alcohol, those numbers seem to keep dropping. ****Abbie:** And also the percentage of people recognizing that it's not good for your health — that repeated consumption isn't good for you. ****Alex:** That's right. And back in 2001, only 27% considered moderate drinking bad for one's health — so that number has almost doubled over this 25-year period. Pretty amazing. They also surveyed, for the first time, on consuming non-alcoholic beer, wine, or spirits instead of an alcoholic drink in the past year, and 17% reported having done that. That's why we're seeing all these restaurants adding non-alcoholic cocktails everywhere you turn — just continuing the trend toward less alcohol being drunk in the U.S. And we've kind of been on that boat lately too, haven't we? ****Abbie:** Yeah, no, definitely. Interesting to see what the studies say in future years. ****Alex:** All right, that's it for today's warm-up. What Is Protein, Anyway? ****Alex:** So today our main topic is protein. As we mentioned at the top, there's really a protein craze going on right now — everywhere you look, protein is being added to food. So we wanted to talk about this. It's been a while since I took biology, so I thought it would be important for us to brush up on what proteins are and why they're so important, right at the top of this segment. ****Abbie:** Yeah, good idea, Alex. It's been a while for me too — I'm so old, for those in the UK, that I did double-science GCSEs, which is two GCSEs covering four sciences — well, three sciences plus environmental science. So that's how old I am. But yeah, it's been a while since I've looked at a biology textbook. ****Alex:** So what does that mean — you had numerous different tests? Do they do less science testing now on those exams? Because GCSEs are essentially your final exams, right? ****Abbie:** Oh, no — you study for your GCSEs over five years, you just sit the actual test at the end of it. ****Alex:** Okay. ****Abbie:** So it's basically your high school education. ****Alex:** Yeah. At one point in my life I thought I could be a biology major — that was in college, and that lasted about a semester, after I got a 53 on my first test. It was much harder in college than in high school. Kind of funny to think about now. As adults, I think we often associate protein simply with building muscle. But looking at the chemistry and biology behind it, proteins are actually vital for a huge number of important things in your body. ****Abbie:** Yeah, that's right, and I think it's really interesting to look a little further into what proteins are and what they do — because, like you said, Alex, it's become so tied to muscle that I'd honestly forgotten everything else it's connected to. Cleveland Clinic, one of our favorite health information sources, has a great article breaking down the role protein plays in your body. Proteins are molecules made up of hundreds of amino acids wrapped into a chain — that's why you hear terms like "polypeptide chain" in relation to supplements like BCAAs, or branched-chain amino acids. But already I think we're stepping into why this gets so complicated — there's a lot of science behind it. ****Alex:** Yeah, it's complicated. Looking back into it reminded me that it's not just about muscle-building — a lot of the things marketed as supplements are actually different types of protein. So, Abbie, tell us more about that. ****Abbie:** Yeah, absolutely. Here are some of the different types of proteins your body needs to function: defense proteins, or antibodies; enzymes, which you'll have heard of if you've thought about digestion, breaking down fats and carbs, and getting energy into your body. ****Alex:** Yeah, and those of us with digestive issues have certainly heard a lot about enzymes and probiotics and things like that. ****Abbie:** Yeah, absolutely. Then there are messenger proteins that help cells communicate across your body, motor proteins that help your muscles move and food move through your digestive tract, and proteins that help with wound healing. And structural proteins, like collagen — which is also very trendy right now — that help support your cells. That's just a partial list; we didn't cover all of them. ****Alex:** So basically, everything your body does relies on proteins — that was my main takeaway. Quick chemistry and biology refresher there; we don't want to go too deep into it, but it's really amazing how important proteins are. Based on all that, you see why it's not just muscles — it's the entire functioning of you, the human, as an organism. So it's really important that we're incorporating protein into our diet. Getting Protein Into Your Diet ****Alex:** I think people for the most part are pretty familiar with the traditional sources of protein — meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts — things you'd typically think of as protein sources. There's protein in a lot of foods, but those are the ones you'd probably think about first. And of course, protein supplements and bars have been popular for years. So, Abbie, how do you personally incorporate protein into your diet? ****Abbie:** Well, this is really interesting, because for a long time I don't think I thought about protein at all. Especially when I was dieting or watching what I ate, I would often lean away from protein sources and toward things like salads, being very light in terms of what I ate. Now I've read up more and understand that protein is actually really important to have in your meals to keep you full — especially as you get older and the calories you need go down. So how do you make yourself more satiated while staying within your recommended calories? I do pretty much lean into those traditional sources — meat, eggs, dairy, nuts — those are what I tend to reach for. ****Alex:** And you don't really do protein supplements — I know you've dabbled a bit, and I do it pretty much daily, and the kids do some too — but you've mostly stuck to the whole-food approach. Is there a reason you don't like the protein powders? ****Abbie:** I just don't feel like it fills me up the same way. I'd rather have a chicken breast on a salad, or in a sandwich or a wrap, than a protein shake. ****Alex:** Yeah, and I'm not drinking multiple protein shakes or anything — I typically do it once a day, because most days I'll have a smoothie, so it just makes sense to put some protein powder in there. Lately I've been using a mix of that Kachava protein that's so popular — it's plant-based and has some other good stuff in it — and also a product called PB powder, which is basically the protein from peanut butter, without all the fat, because I love peanut butter. ****Abbie:** I've used that PB powder too — it works really well in shakes, and it's a good add-in for oatmeal or something like that, just to boost the protein. The other one I eat pretty much every day is Greek yogurt — that's a good, fairly high-protein, fairly low-calorie source. I'll often have that for breakfast with berries and granola, or oatmeal with some additional protein mixed in. Peanut butter is the one Alex and I argue over, because he cites it as a good protein source, and I say for the amount of protein you get, the calories are ridiculous — you're talking three or four hundred calories to get the same protein you'd get from a scoop of protein powder. ****Alex:** Yeah, but it makes your smoothie taste amazing. Although lately I've rarely used it — I've been using the powders instead. For me, an important thing has been finding a plant-based protein I actually like, because the traditional protein when I was younger, so popular in the strength-training community, was whey — milk-based protein. And that should have been my first sign growing up that I'm a bit intolerant to milk, because any time I had it, it did not go well — it resulted in a very quick trip to the bathroom. Sorry, TMI, but a lot of us have this problem, so let's talk about it. That's why I like plant-based protein — it's typically easier for me to digest. There's also soy protein, which can be good, but I've read that for men there may be some concerns about consuming too much of it. ****Abbie:** Yeah, I have a shake mix the kids like too that's soy-based, and it's pretty good, not too high in calories — I'd often take that as a meal replacement for breakfast or pre-workout. And so does our eldest. ****Alex:** So we're pretty conscious of our protein intake. We try to keep it simple — incorporating it into whole foods, having servings of meat a couple of times a day. Like I said, I like the powders, but now protein is being put into everything, which is really the whole reason we're talking about this episode — and we'll talk more at the end about some of the more unusual protein-infused items out there. That's our fun closer for the show. But what's interesting to me is why there's been this surge in culture around protein, and why foods are being marketed as protein-infused or higher in protein. Abbie, why do you think that is? Why the Protein Craze? ****Abbie:** There are a few theories out there when you look it up, as we did before this episode, but there have definitely been trends over the years that have driven increased focus on protein, which I think has ultimately led to where we are today. In the past, protein was more strongly associated with bodybuilders, boxers, professional athletes, or really active professions like farm work. For most of the 1900s, eating more protein than recommended was mainly limited to working men and athletes. Then nutritional science and research really took off during and after World War II, partly fueled by the need for healthy soldiers and by a physically weakened population following the Great Depression. In 1943, the Food and Nutrition Board released the first comprehensive recommended daily allowances in the U.S., including protein alongside calories and vitamins, for adults and children. And I thought this was really interesting, Alex — the first precursor to the modern protein shake hit the market in 1952\. I wouldn't have guessed it went back that far. That was bodybuilder Bob Hoffman. ****Alex:** Oh yes, Bob Hoffman. I know him. ****Abbie:** His Hi-Proteen powder was made from soy protein, whey, and flavoring — interesting that it had both soy and whey in it. In that same decade, the United Nations publicly identified protein deficiency as a major nutritional problem in developing countries. So that's when people really started talking about protein more. I think the next big turning point came in the early 2000s, when scientific studies showed that high-protein diets could help people lose weight — that's when you saw diets like Atkins take off, and marketing for protein products really took off with it. ****Alex:** Yeah, that's when I really remember it coming about — like when I was in college, and we started trying different protein supplements, some of which were terrible and had other weird things in them, marketed mostly toward men for strength training. That timeline lines up perfectly with when I remember it taking off. Was it like that in the UK too? ****Abbie:** Well, yeah, though obviously I'm coming from a different gender perspective — I remember it more in terms of, this can be a way to get slimmer. So diets like Atkins were really focused on getting a slimmer waistline. That was a second big turning point. And then in the last decade, I think we've seen a concentrated push for higher protein, particularly for women — which I think importantly coincided with the recommendation for women to incorporate more strength training into their routines, especially as they age, and protein is critical there because of the role it plays in building muscle. And then much more recently, with GLP-1 drugs becoming more prominent, protein has had a renewed importance — highlighting how important it is for people on those medications to track and increase their protein intake, to prevent loss of muscle instead of fat. ****Alex:** Right, because that's a big concern with those drugs — you could lose muscle if they're reducing your desire to eat, and that can affect your entire body. It's not just fat loss. That's why there's such a big focus on people taking GLP-1s tracking their protein throughout the day. ****Abbie:** Yeah, exactly. And I think in this era of fitness influencers and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, experts are saying more and more Americans are actually meeting or even exceeding their daily protein needs, which I think is really interesting. ****Alex:** Yeah, we'll talk more about that in a moment. But I also think it's interesting that with GLP-1s so prominent, the marketplace is reacting to it. I read an article about this in the Wall Street Journal, I think last week — food companies are trying to adjust to this new normal, because a pretty significant portion of the population is taking these drugs. I didn't look up the exact number, but it's enough that food companies, especially the ones making processed foods and snacks, are thinking, we have to shift our strategy to keep selling food. I think that's driving a lot of this. ****Abbie:** Interesting you say that, Alex, because I looked into what the market looks like — by 2024, the protein supplements market was valued at $9.88 billion in the United States and $28.15 billion globally, according to Fortune Business Insights. That's a huge market. ****Alex:** Yeah, that's massive. And I suspect if you look at the five-to-ten-year forecasts, it's something that's only going to keep growing. ****Abbie:** It would be really interesting to see how that changes over time. So, Alex, we've established that protein is vital for your body, and there are lots of ways to get it through natural foods or supplements. So how much protein should you actually be getting in a day? How Much Protein Do You Actually Need? ****Alex:** Yeah, this is where it gets a little confusing — there are so many different estimates out there. I've always heard that if you want to be really aggressive with your protein intake, especially in the bodybuilder-type community, people are shooting for at least a gram per pound of body weight. To me, that sounds like a lot — how would I eat 167 grams of protein in one day? That's a ton of protein. ****Abbie:** Yeah, I've looked at various sources on this too. The average man consumes about 100 grams of protein a day, so a fairly reasonable amount. And there are varying recommendations — Harvard Health recommends 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound. But I've read that especially for women, if you're wanting to increase your protein, that's probably a bit low — trying to get up to around 100 grams a day is more the target. ****Alex:** Yeah, that felt low to me too. I actually went and used their calculator — you put in your height, weight, gender — and it said I only needed 61 grams a day. So I looked at another common recommendation out there, which was 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight. Again, we're back to kilograms versus pounds, which is confusing — I know kilograms is probably less confusing for you, but converting that to pounds, for me that's about 90 grams of protein, which seems pretty reasonable and lines up with what you just said about 100 grams a day for women. ****Abbie:** Yeah, exactly. Actually, one way I think it's a little easier to think about is per meal — roughly 35 to 40 grams of protein per meal. That's a bit easier for me to keep in my head. ****Alex:** Yeah, and I think the other thing is, if you're trying to hit that higher metric I mentioned earlier — one gram per pound of body weight, which is the really high end — at that point, if you're not supplementing, you'd have to be, or you'd be one of those people eating multiple chicken breasts or hamburger patties a day. ****Abbie:** But I do think there are some hacks. Like I said earlier, if I take Greek yogurt and mix a protein powder into it, that's not increasing the volume of food, but it is increasing the volume of protein. There are some interesting ways to do that. But I agree — if you're trying to get up to 170 grams of protein, you're going to need some kind of supplement. ****Alex:** Yeah, I remember when we were in college trying to increase our protein intake, we'd go to the cafeteria and just get — I kid you not — four or five hamburger patties, or four or five chicken breasts. That's a lot of food. ****Abbie:** Or drinking eggs. That was the thing I remember from being a teenager, the boys saying that rugby players drank raw eggs. ****Alex:** They're not worried about salmonella, I guess. ****Abbie:** Right. So a big takeaway for us, looking at all this, is that if you're doing a lot of strength training, that may be when you want to up how much protein you're consuming. ****Alex:** Yeah, we found an interesting quote from Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a Tufts University nutrition expert. He said: if you're actively building muscle with strength or resistance training, more protein can help — otherwise, you're probably already getting enough. So my big takeaway is that 90 to 100 grams of protein a day, depending on your exact body weight, is probably pretty good. Trying to get up to those higher limits, like a gram of protein per pound of body weight, probably isn't necessary unless you're an elite bodybuilder or something. ****Abbie:** Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But like we said, just make sure you're paying attention to protein, and if you're not seeing the results you want, it might be worth exploring further. ****Alex:** Yeah, try an experiment — just look at what you're eating on a daily basis and do a rough estimate of how much protein you're getting. It doesn't have to be exact, but if you're coming in below some of those recommended ranges, you may want to look at supplementing a bit more. ****Abbie:** And for sure, one of the things I found — because Alex definitely pointed this out to me when we both worked from home, especially after the pandemic — was that I'd make a salad and he'd say, "Where's the protein?" He would always ask that, because I'd just make a salad with salad items and maybe some cheese. Now I always make sure to add chicken. You feel so much fuller from a salad when it has a solid protein source on it. ****Alex:** Yeah, a salad without a protein source lasts about an hour for me, and then I'm hungry again. The Weirdest Protein-Infused Products ****Alex:** All right, so let's round out our protein talk with some of the weirdest protein items out there, because with this protein craze, there are lots of new protein products at the grocery store. My favorite has to be protein in your coffee — so thank you, Starbucks, for this amazing innovation. ****Abbie:** Well, Alex, there's that billion-dollar market we talked about earlier. Starbucks now has a whole line of protein-boosted drinks, like protein lattes — you can even get protein infused into elements of your drink, like a protein-infused cold foam. ****Alex:** That's good — if you have a drink that's lower calorie, since a lot of their drinks are so heavy on calories, I could see adding that cold foam. I think I saw it was around 15 grams of protein in the cold foam alone. ****Abbie:** That's reasonable. And they've started selling these in the grocery store too — Starbucks is a business model, if you want to study one. There's a quote from the Starbucks CEO: "What I've noticed, as I've understood the behaviors associated with people who are ultimately on GLP-1s, is you end up with more snacking or smaller meals, and more protein-forward, more fiber-forward" eating. ****Alex:** Yeah, that goes right back to why this is happening. I believe this current 2026 iteration of the protein craze is directly tied to GLP-1s. The fiber thing is interesting too — they're introducing snacks in their stores with more fiber as well. So actually, before the podcast today, Abbie and I decided to experiment and try some of these protein drinks. We've got a video of it on our Instagram, @practicallyfitpod. We tried the iced vanilla protein latte. ****Abbie:** It was the iced vanilla protein latte. ****Alex:** There we go. So, Abbie, what did you think? ****Abbie:** Well, I don't drink a lot of coffee, and I don't drink a lot of Starbucks, but from what I've had before, or a sip of the kids' drinks, I thought it tasted pretty similar to a regular one. ****Alex:** Yeah, if you're used to drinking normal Starbucks drinks, I think it tastes the same. What I noticed — and by the way, I didn't even think to switch mine to almond milk, so I couldn't finish the whole thing — is that it's whey protein, so for me this really isn't an option. I'll be curious to see if they bring in a plant-based protein option over time, for people who are lactose intolerant or vegan. When you look at the actual nutrition, we got the tall, the smallest size — always confusing that "tall" is the small one — and it was 210 calories, 22 grams of sugar, 22 grams of protein, and 75 milligrams of caffeine, so one shot of espresso. Good caffeine boost if you want to drink it in the afternoon. But if you drank a couple of these in a day to get close to 50 grams of protein, you'd also be taking in 420 calories, just from the tall size. I think the grande, the medium, was over 250. ****Abbie:** I don't think that's too far off from their regular lattes, though — you're forgetting you'd normally order it with almond milk, which is about 30 calories, whereas regular milk is around 150 calories for what you'd need in a latte. So 200 to 250 calories for a latte is pretty typical. ****Alex:** Yeah, and the other thing — they have a sugar-free version, and on the tall we looked at that but didn't try it. I don't know what's in it, but it was 150 calories. If you drank these pretty frequently, that would add a lot of calories to your day, which I think is interesting about all these new protein foods. ****Abbie:** Well, back to your point though — if you'd normally have one of these drinks a day anyway, and you're just switching it out for the protein version, maybe that's really what they're targeting. I always think these are the secret calorie-catchers in your diet — "oh, I just had a latte and a breakfast sandwich," that's not a lot of food, but a latte and a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks can easily be six or seven hundred calories. ****Alex:** Yeah, I guess if you're already drinking it, there's really no downside to adding this, if you can tolerate whey protein. Interestingly, from that CEO quote, he also said these drinks have a high return rate — people are coming back to buy them again — so I suspect we'll see more iterations of this at Starbucks, and every other coffee shop will follow suit, wanting to get in on it too. ****Abbie:** Yeah, exactly — they'll want a part of that billion-dollar market. What about some other weird food items that have recently added protein? Two of my recent favorites, Alex, are protein Pop-Tarts — if I'm having a Pop-Tart, I'm honestly not thinking about nutrition in the first place, those things are sugar bombs — and protein added to other drinks, like protein soda, or my absolute favorite, protein water. ****Alex:** Right — if you're buying protein water, why not just get some tap water and mix protein powder into it yourself? I can guarantee the cost per unit on the water is more than you'd pay buying protein powder in bulk. ****Abbie:** Oh, you'd be able to buy a massive vat of protein powder instead, probably. ****Alex:** What about Cup Noodles protein ramen? ****Abbie:** That one's hilarious. ****Alex:** Kids love ramen. ****Abbie:** I wonder if we could get more protein into them if we found the protein ramen. ****Alex:** Yeah, a lot of these things strike me as just unhealthy items where they're adding protein. Is that supposed to make you think it's healthy, or is it just meant to be a bonus — like, "well, at least you'll get some protein"? ****Abbie:** I think it's probably the latter, honestly — at least you get some protein while eating this thing you wanted anyway. But some of them also taste gross. I bought some protein chips once, and they were disgusting. I thought, yes, I might be getting protein, but I was trying to have chips, and these taste awful. ****Alex:** Is that the one I tried too — like a chicken protein chip? There was one I bought, and I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but it was almost like chicken skin on the chip — I'm not kidding, there were almost little pieces of chicken texture on it. It was disgusting. A few more of these out there: Papa John's has incorporated protein into their pizza crust. And my favorite, Khloé Kardashian's Khloud popcorn with protein, which is also available at Starbucks. ****Abbie:** Wow, you could double up — a protein latte and some protein popcorn. ****Alex:** Yeah, so while these things are still processed and still packed with sugar or other unhealthy chemicals, it makes me wonder — could people just eat chicken instead? Like an actual chicken breast. Wouldn't that be easier? ****Abbie:** Back to what the bodybuilders did — chicken breast in a tub, and a drink of raw eggs. ****Alex:** Yeah, or a steak, or something like that — natural foods seem like a better way to do it, as opposed to eating unhealthy snacks with protein "infused" into them. ****Abbie:** Especially if you're doing this for your health — I think you need to look at your whole diet, and not just add protein into things you should probably be avoiding, limiting, or moderating in the first place. ****Alex:** Yeah, I again think it's these massive food companies looking at declining profits from these items that have been so popular, especially in the United States — unhealthy food items — and they're panicking. That's what's driving this. Wrap-Up ****Abbie:** Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, that's it for today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it. Please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. And we'd love to hear any comments or thoughts you have on this protein craze, or any other fitness topic you'd like us to cover. Leave a comment on the podcast at our website, practically.fit, or shoot us an email at [alex@practically.fit](mailto:alex@practically.fit), and we'll share it on a future episode. ****Alex:** That's right. Yeah, and we're excited about the new website — we've been getting things set up there, so we're a little late getting out the email for the last podcast, and probably this one too. If you're getting this through our email list, apologies for the delay, but we wanted to get everything situated with the new site before pushing out content. Please head over to practically.fit — like Abbie said, you can subscribe there. If you're listening through Spotify, Apple, or another platform, you can also go to the website to get our content directly to your inbox. So speaking of content, Abbie, what will we be talking about on the next episode? ****Abbie:** We're going to be talking about trail running, which is one of our favorite activities and something we've recently been talking about getting back out and doing more of. So we'll be covering that in more detail on the next episode. But until then, remember: when it comes to fitness, you don't have to be perfect. You just have to be practical. ****Alex:** We'll catch you on the next one.