JOHN YANG: It used to be that only fitness buffs and bodybuilders thought about how much protein they were getting.

But now everybody seems to be looking for more of it in their diet.

And just about every food product has added protein, from pancakes to popcorn, from crackers to pasta.

But how much protein do we really need?

Ali Rogan reports.

WOMAN: Each box clocks in at a whopping 25 grams of protein.

WOMAN: 52 grams of protein.

WOMAN: 140 grams of protein.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): If you've been online lately, you may have noticed that people are going crazy for protein packed foods from television shows like White Lotus.

MAN: Lucky, you want in on this.

MAN: On what?

MAN: Dude, protein shake.

I said let's buffing you up.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): To protein packed recipe videos on Instagram and TikTok.

WOMAN: Oh my God.

I found a high protein dinner that's under 500 calories, 60 grams of protein.

MAN: No one believed me when I said you could get 147 grams of protein by eating two chicken parmesans.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): The average American overshoots the federal protein recommendation by nearly 50 percent.

And still more than two-thirds of Americans surveyed last year said they are trying to eat more.

Food companies are capitalizing on the growing interest with new products like protein chips and waffles.

MAN: Try Kodiak Power Waffles.

They're packed with protein and whole grains, yet they still taste amazing.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): The size of the protein supplement market is expected to more than double in the next seven years.

Scientific research is not keeping pace with its popularity.

Some studies have shown certain people could benefit from more protein than federal recommendations.

But it isn't always easy to separate the fads from the facts.

ALI ROGIN: Here to help us untangle it all is Alice Callahan.

She covers nutrition and health for the New York Times.

Alice, thank you so much for joining us.

First, let's get to the basics.

What does protein do for us, and what happens when we don't get enough of it?

ALICE CALLAHAN, The New York Times: So protein is a super important essential nutrient.

You need protein to make these molecules in your body that help you digest food and fight infections and create the structures in your body like your muscle and your tendons and your bones and your skin.

So if you're not getting enough protein, a lot of those systems will start to break down.

You might get sick more easily, or you might find that your nails are more brittle, and you might notice that you start to feel weaker and your muscles kind of waste away.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): You've written about how protein seems to have taken on this type of cultural currency.

You know, if you go on Instagram or TikTok at a certain point, you're liable to see somebody talking about the benefits of protein in your diet.

Is this just the latest nutrition fad, like low carb, low fat, or is there something else going on here?

ALICE CALLAHAN: You know, I think it is, in part, a fad.

It's the hot topic in the nutrition conversations right now, for sure.

And if you've watched nutrition conversations, as I have over decades, you know, you don't think that things do kind of rise and fall interest.

I think part of what's going on, though, is that there's a lot of interest in the importance of building and maintaining strong muscles right now.

And so I think we're appreciating that.

You know, especially as we grow older, we want to stay really strong, and that's good for our metabolic health and good for preventing injury.

And so we're seeing more emphasis on strength training.

And I think part of that kind of leads to this natural question, like, should we all be eating protein like bodybuilders?

And, of course, this interest is just amplified on social media.

You know, standard nutrition advice, like eat lots of fruits and vegetables and balanced meals every day is just not that interesting.

It doesn't get picked up on social media algorithms.

But really prescriptive and kind of extreme advice about protein, like eat a gram of protein for every pound of body weight or 30 grams within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning like these kinds of messages definitely, like, tap into the algorithm and get amplified online.

ALI ROGIN: And of course, the federal recommendation for protein, daily protein intake is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight.

A lot of the advice you find online is for more than that, including from mainstream nutrition experts.

Here's what Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had to say about it recently in terms of changing those guidelines.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., Secretary of Health and Human Services: Our agencies are about to release new dietary guidelines in the next several months.

There's tremendous amount of emerging science that talks about the need for more protein in our diet.

ALI ROGIN: So what does the science say?

Is it indicating that we need more protein in our diet as a whole?

ALICE CALLAHAN: I would say we don't have enough of, like, really high quality clinical trials to give really solid numbers to people.

The current guideline gives you an amount that you need to meet your body's basic needs, and then it goes up from there.

For growing children, if you're pregnant, if you're breastfeeding, I think beyond that, the context really matters.

If you are building muscle, you probably would benefit from consuming, you know, maybe 50 percent more than that federal recommendation.

Older adults also may benefit from consuming a little bit more.

It would be great, I think, to have kind of more consensus guidelines around these different scenarios with protein.

But the challenge is, like, how you know, what is the quality of evidence to put behind those guidelines.

So it is a very confusing space right now.

But I think in general, the federal recommendation gives you a really good starting point and it can be reasonable in different scenarios to increase a little bit from there.

You probably don't need as much as you're hearing from a lot of influencers online, though.

ALI ROGIN: We're seeing all different types of foods enter the marketed as protein cereals, even protein candy.

Of course, protein powder has been around a long time.

Is there any data on the qualitative difference between getting your protein from some of these more processed products versus whole foods, like, you know, animal protein or plant based protein?

ALICE CALLAHAN: So, you know, this came up over and over again when I talk to experts about protein.

It's really best if you can get your protein from whole foods like beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, lean meats, fish, dairy products.

All of those foods just come with a bunch of other nutrients like vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, and they come in that unprocessed form which allows us to digest them a little bit more slowly, we get all of the value of fiber from the plant foods that helps with gut health.

You know, you can supplement around the edges, I think, with protein powders or bars.

They come with some convenience.

But for the most part, you want to try to follow a diet where you're meeting your protein needs with whole foods.

ALI ROGIN: But are there any risks with focusing too much on protein and maybe excluding other types of foods from your diet?

ALICE CALLAHAN: Yeah, I think that's the greatest concern that I heard from experts when I was reporting on this issue.

Not so much that focusing on protein comes with medical risks.

For most of us, it's totally fine, but there is a risk that we may miss out on other healthy foods like fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

And when you look at all of the ways that we could improve the American diet, protein is probably not the place to put our focus.

95 percent of Americans don't get enough fiber, for example.

And so if you're just focused on cottage cheese and chicken breast, you're going to get that fiber that's so important for gut health and also for preventing heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

So I think that's the main thing is just you want to try to stay balanced and putting too much focus on any one nutrient, you're probably going to lose out somewhere else.

ALI ROGIN: Alice Callahan with the New York Times.

Thank you so much.

ALICE CALLAHAN: Thank you so much.

It was great to be here.