One Nation Under Protein

As 42-year-old influencer Caitlin Murray put it to her 1.8 million Instagram followers last month, “Protein is your church now.” Murray is the woman behind Big Time Adulting, which lampoons midlife and motherhood in equal measure. “Listen up, dumb*ss, because everything you thought you knew about health and fitness has changed now,” Murray says in one video, deadpan and sitting in the driver’s seat of her car. “‘Calories in, calories out’ — what, did you ride your dinosaur here? You’re not eating enough. I’ve got three words for you: Protein. Protein. Protein… What did you say, you’re not hungry right now? Shut up and eat your cottage cheese.”

Well, we are. And a lot of it.

Cottage cheese, once favored only by the senior set and restrictive 1980s-era diets, has become a hero ingredient in the pursuit of protein. If you can dream it, a smiling food influencer has found a recipe for it: pancakes, tortillas, ice cream, pizza, cookies — they all have been cottage-cheesed.

“Cottage cheese really glowed up on TikTok, and honestly, I’m not mad about it,” says Ayat Sleymann, MS, RD, a registered dietitian who goes by @momnutritionist to her nearly 1 million followers on Instagram, adding that it’s versatile and naturally packed with protein (about 14 grams per half cup).

Rena Awada, aka @healthyfitnessmeals (follower count: 4.2 million), says some of her most viral recipes put lumpy curds front and center: Her cottage cheese bagels had more than 13 million views. But really, it’s protein that is the draw. “Whenever I share a recipe with the words ‘high protein,’ it gets a lot of attention and traction,” says Awada, adding that those posts have three times more engagement than her average recipe.

The protein-fueled demand for cottage cheese is so strong that many a local supermarket can’t keep up. Substack it girl Emily Sundberg recently mentioned in her Feed Me newsletter that the cottage cheese section at New York’s Bowery Whole Foods was a ghost town. (I can report the same issue happening weekly at the Gowanus, Brooklyn location.)

Upstart brand Good Culture says its sales shot up 80% in 2023 and 70% in 2024. “If I had said cottage cheese would become cool 10 years ago, I would have been laughed out of the room,” says Chris DuBois, executive vice president and protein practice leader for consumer insights company Circana. “Now we literally can’t make enough of it.”

In the not so distant past, protein was a predominantly man’s game — the domain of baked chicken diets and postworkout smoothies laced with powders procured from GNC outings. But over the past few years, that’s majorly changed.

How did we get here? A confluence of factors. There’s the fever pitch of wellness and the growing desire to optimize and track and obsess over, to the point of anxiety, every movement and morsel that we consume. The boom of women embracing strength training and powerlifting is also fueling the surge. Google searches for cardio are on a continual downswing, and gyms are reportedly reducing stationary bikes and steppers in favor of amped-up weight rooms. And then — because women’s bodies are never truly immune to the trend cycle — there’s the body ideal of the moment, which has become more, well, ripped. (Hi, Gracie Abrams’ abs.)

Even the continuously surging market for glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs (GLP-1s) — Goldman Sachs puts its current valuation at $10 billion and estimates it will reach $100 billion by 2030 — is shaping appetites for protein: If you’re eating less food, every bite should be maximized for performance. If Ozempic can now get many of us to what has come to be known, unfortunately, as skinny-fat (that’s thin but lacking muscle definition — h/t Kristen Stewart circa 2009), then protein promises to take it a step further.

Enter skinny-toned, where it’s — to be crystal-clear here — still about thinness, mixed with strength. Perhaps the ubiquity of the protein push lies in its ability to be both accessible (everybody has to eat) and aspirational (if there’s a straight shot to skinny, getting ripped still requires resources: time and effort). Not to mention its appeal feels, well, democratic — anyone and everyone who wants in is welcome — at a time when little else does.

Food companies have been targeting muscle-mad men with promises of extra protein in grocery stores since the dawn of GNC, but it is also increasingly showing up in brands that already have a captive female audience. Perelel, Ritual, Gramms, and Vital Proteins (a company that counts Jennifer Aniston as its chief creative officer) have launched new protein products ready to be swirled into the smoothies and chia pudding recipes that keep popping up on your grid.

From Ballerina Farm, the brand started by Utah-based mom-fluencer and “tradwife” forebear Hannah Neeleman, you can purchase your protein powder (it’s their top seller) along with a gingham apron and enamel sourdough bowl. There’s protein coffee courtesy of Ascent, protein popcorn Khloud courtesy (kourtesy?) of Khloé Kardashian. Oura just debuted its new AI-powered “Meals” feature, allowing users to snap photos of their meals and instantly receive estimated protein metrics, and earlier this year, sad desk salad stalwarts Chopt and Sweetgreen both launched higher protein menus at some locations (with items clocking in at more than 30 grams each).

Have you clocked Chobani’s packaging facelift? You can’t miss it. The ubiquitous yogurt brand’s protein content is now emblazoned front and center in big and bolded font on every product. That yogurt and lunch salads historically skew female is no accident — marketers are tapping the swath of the population with the most spending power with a simple screed: Protein is the word.

But these companies are all cleverly keeping up with a very real demand: According to the market research firm Spate, searches for “high protein” saw more than 40% growth on Google and TikTok between early 2024 and early 2025.

“Everyone has gotten the protein message, and getting enough is now like carrying around our water and staying hydrated,” says DuBois. That message: Besides helping to build and repair muscles, preserve bone integrity, and regulate blood sugar, protein gives a feeling of satiety and curbs appetite, thereby helping with weight loss, something that remains the goal for many, even though it’s being served under the guise of health. But what does getting enough protein actually mean?

The federal guideline for protein, known as the recommended daily allowance (or RDA), suggests 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. So, if you weigh 150 pounds (about 68 kilograms), you should consume about 54 grams every day. But at the heart of the current protein pushiness is the belief — one held not just by influencers, but also a number of scientists and doctors — that the RDA is simply too low. That’s because the current number, established in 1985, is simply the minimum requirement to meet basic needs, says Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, D.O., a board-certified family physician. “The RDA number is often misunderstood because it is designed to prevent deficiency, not to optimize health, support muscle maintenance, or enhance physical performance,” Lyon adds.

Could this protein-powered move towards Popeye arms, ripped abs, and sculpted calves be an indication that strong is the new sexy?

Lauren Colenso-Semple, Ph.D., a scientist specializing in female physiology, exercise, and nutrition, who uses her social platform to regularly cut through the noise in the wellness space, says that all scientists in the nutrition field would agree that the RDA is way too low. “There are just disagreements about how far above it we need to go,” she adds.

Based on the available research, Colenso-Semple sees 1.2 grams per kilogram as a solid minimum baseline for everyone, a figure both Jason Ewoldt, M.S., RDN, a wellness dietitian at the Mayo Clinic, and Lyon agree with. So for that 150-pound woman, that would be nearly 82 grams per day — just about 3 cups of cottage cheese, or about an 11-ounce portion of sirloin steak.

There are, of course, limits to how protein-crazy you should go. Although animal sources of protein tend to be more “complete” — they have all nine essential amino acids, commonly described as the building blocks of protein — most doctors would not advise taking a “carnibro” approach due to the risks saturated fat and cholesterol can pose for cardiovascular health.

“Getting all your protein from animal sources is not healthy,” says Teresa Fung, Sc.D., RD, a professor of nutrition at Simmons University and adjunct professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “To maintain healthy bodies, and healthy gut microbes, we need variety.” Sleymann recommends a mix of animal and plant-based proteins, so eggs, chicken, fish, and Greek yogurt but also lentils, nuts, tofu, and quinoa.

And while doctors generally thumbs-up using protein powders for shakes, Lyon says to be mindful of relying on all those protein bars and snacks: “These products usually come with added sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial ingredients that undermine the health benefits of the protein itself.” For those with kidney disease, there is a real risk of getting too much protein, but for most of us, the issue with going overboard is simply caloric.

We also need more than just protein. “We’re easily drawn to quick fixes, and ‘eat more protein’ is the current simplification of health,” says Rebecca Schlosberg, a dietitian and senior culinary manager for Purple Carrot, a plant-based meal kit company. “Being hyperfocused on a single attribute inevitably means you’re leaving other critical compliments to that nutrient behind.”

There’s one that suffers in particular: “It’s not as sexy, but a lot of times people are getting high protein at the detriment of fiber,” says Ewoldt, the Mayo Clinic dietitian. (For women, the RDA for fiber is 25 grams for women up to 50 years old and 21 grams after that. Fiber plays a key role in gut health and digestion, and blood sugar and cholesterol regulation — all of which become more vulnerable as we age.)

Perhaps most importantly, you can’t separate your protein intake from your lifestyle. It is no surprise that many doctors would say pregnant and lactating women, who are, you know, sustaining another human lifeform, would benefit from going above and beyond the RDA benchmark. Same for anyone on GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy — clinical trials have confirmed that a substantial portion of the weight loss on GLP-1s tends to be muscle and lean tissue, says Lyon, and one major factor there is insufficient protein intake (which can prove challenging with diminished appetites). Everyone, it turns out, should be amping up their protein as they get older.

Our growing fascination with muscle is reflected in the way women are talking about their desired appearance.

“As we age, our muscles become less responsive to proteins in the body, necessitating a higher protein intake compared to when we are younger to maintain muscle mass and function, as well as bone health,” says Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, M.D., OB-GYN and medical co-founder of Perelel. And anyone, no matter what their age, looking to build and sustain muscle should be centering protein too: To maximize muscle growth, Colenso-Semple suggests aiming between 1.6 to 1.8 grams per kilogram, and Lyon thinks that number could even go up to 2.2 grams per kilogram. (That would be nearly 150 grams for that 150-pound woman and close to 6 cups of cottage cheese, for anyone keeping track.)

Increasingly, that latter group of muscle-builders is female: The protein push has coincided, fittingly, with the spike in women weightlifting, as any fan of Casey Johnston — the author of the hit instructional e-book, Liftoff, and the new memoir A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting — will tell you. Protein isn’t a magic bullet on its own, though; weight-bearing exercise is the catalyst. “They function synergistically, not independently,” explains Lyon. “Resistance training is the primary stimulus that signals the body to build muscle, and without that stimulus, even a high-protein diet won’t lead to significant muscle.”

And significant muscle is what more women want right now. We’re obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo’s abs and Monica Barbaro’s toned legs (on display in A Complete Unknown). Chiseled athletes like Simone Biles, Ilona Maher, and the women of the New York Liberty basketball team (whom Rihanna just bestowed with Fenty sponsorship) have new style cred; just look at WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, who were on the Met Gala red carpet this month.

A brawnier female form is being celebrated, too, on screen in films like Love Lies Bleeding and in the forthcoming biopic about boxer Christy Martin starring Sydney Sweeney. Could it be that this protein-powered move towards Popeye arms, ripped abs, and sculpted calves is an indication that strong is the new sexy?

Lyon views it as a shift toward a more grounded approach to health. “It reflects a broader trend away from the outdated obsession with being merely thin, toward a desire to be strong, resilient, and functional,” says Lyon — less restriction, more nourishment. Our growing fascination with muscle is reflected also in the way women are talking about their desired appearance, says Colenso-Semple; while looking “toned” has been an oft-repeated goal for a while, popular training gyms like F45 regularly use InBody scans to check their members’ body composition between HIIT workouts to monitor their muscle ratio.

But one could also argue that these are just more numbers to obsess over, the way some women obsess over the scale, or that this newfound protein enthusiasm is really just diet culture in disguise. “For many women, protein has become the ‘clean,’ socially acceptable way to chase thinness,” says Sleymann (aka @momnutritionist). “More energy, less hunger, toned muscles — and, hopefully, weight loss, without admitting that’s still the goal.”

Regardless, Sleymann says protein does help people who are simply over being tired and hungry a lot. While protein may not be the answer to all our woes (if only!), it is something that a truly mind-boggling array of humans — women in menopause, the swole-seeking masses, carni-bros, willowy MAHA influencers, GLP-1 users, our grandparents, the entire Kardashian clan, longevity hackers, among others — seemingly all agree on. A great equalizer? Perhaps.

In an increasingly chaotic and unpredictable world, says Bayati, it is an individual health choice that we can easily exert, or at least try to exert, some control over. While Khloé Kardashian’s protein popcorn may be nothing but hot air, it seems like she was already onto something with the title of her 2015 memoir: Strong Looks Better Naked.