The key to a healthy diet and a slim figure is a low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet. So it’s no wonder that foods with a high protein label are becoming more popular. They offer extra protein and are therefore considered healthier, but are sometimes three times as expensive. Does this surcharge bring corresponding added value?
A fact check:
The German Nutrition Society (DGE) advises adults to consume around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight – regardless of gender. For a person weighing 70 kilograms, that would be around 56 grams of protein per day. For people over 65, it is estimated to be 1.0 grams per kilo.
It also makes sense to eat approximately these amounts with your diet because protein is vital. It is broken down in the body, which then uses it to produce muscles, enzymes and antibodies.
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Germans usually achieve the recommended amounts through a balanced diet anyway. Foods containing additional protein are not needed for optimal intake, explains Susanne Klaus, professor at the German Institute for Nutritional Research (Dife) Potsdam-Rehbrücke. Because, according to her, people in Germany eat almost twice as much protein as the DGE recommends.
Additional protein is rarely useful and sometimes harmful
According to the DGE, adult recreational athletes who train four to five times a week for 30 minutes at medium intensity do not need any additional amount of protein. People who have a higher protein requirement due to their age or competitive sport can cover it with conventional protein-rich foods.
Protein administration through special dietary supplements only makes sense for athletes in phases with particularly intensive or new training content and for certain food intolerances.
Nutrition expert Dagmar von Cramm also points out that the wrong people in particular eat too much protein – namely young men who don’t necessarily need it. In older people, however, increased protein intake could help against age-related muscle loss.
It is unclear what the long-term effect of an overdose will be
According to the DGE, it is unclear whether increased intake can generally be harmful for healthy adults. There are observations that show that even three to four times as much protein as actually recommended can be harmless. However, it cannot be said conclusively whether such a high intake over a longer period of time will have no negative effects.
The DGE also writes that people who eat significantly more protein should also drink enough. Protein breakdown produces, among other things, urea, which is excreted in the urine. Therefore, too much protein can lead to further kidney damage in people with impaired kidney function.
Proteins from plant-based foods are healthier
According to the DGE, the fact that Germans eat so much protein is mainly due to their high meat consumption and their inclination towards other animal products. It would be healthier to consume proteins from plant-based foods, as Professor Klaus says. Lentils, beans and soy, for example, are considered particularly high in protein.
Because many animal foods contain ingredients that are not necessarily healthy: “Especially when I eat sausage, for example, there is a lot of animal fat in it and it has little or no omega-3 fatty acids – these essential healthy fatty acids,” explains Klaus.
The situation is similar with some protein products. Nutrition expert Cramm says that even “high protein” products can be misleading if they contain hidden calories, sugar or fat. In addition, most of these foods are many times more expensive.
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Cramm calculates: 100 grams of protein porridge with 28 grams of protein costs 1.40 euros, but 100 grams of oat flakes with 13 grams of protein only costs 0.20 euros.
The nutrition expert points out that you can easily meet your protein requirements without special protein products and even without meat: “Baked potatoes with quark contain around 25 grams of protein. Two slices of wholemeal bread with peanut butter 15 grams, 150 grams of cooked lentils 14 grams. A person who weighs 68 kg would have achieved his 54 grams of protein per day with this.”
According to her own statements, Dife Professor Klaus believes that high-protein products are mostly a marketing ploy: “The word “high-protein” is not protected or precisely defined in any way.”
Higher prices for high-protein products
From a market economy perspective, one can generally say that the development of new products involves (high) costs, says Marlen Haß from the Thünen Institute for Market Analysis. “At the same time, consumers appear to be more willing to pay for these products because they attribute greater utility to the products.”
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