Cereal. Ice cream. Flavored sparkling water. A Snickers bar. Donuts and brownies. Candy.
What sounds like the treats table at a child’s birthday party is, in fact, a list of snacks that can now be found crammed with protein.
Next week, Khloé Kardashian, the reality TV star and entrepreneur, will add her Khloud Protein Popcorn to the list. Her popcorn will come in three different flavors: white Cheddar, olive oil and sea salt, and sweet and salty. It will contain 7 grams of protein per serving, derived from the popcorn’s “Khloud Dust,” which is a blend of milk proteins and seasoning, according to a statement from Ms. Kardashian’s company, Khloud Foods.
“I’ve always been a snacker and constantly on the lookout for options that are convenient, healthy, and actually taste good,” Ms. Kardashian said in an emailed statement. With Khloud, Ms. Kardashian added, she wanted to create a snack that ticked those boxes and was “something I’d feel good sharing with family and friends.”
The introduction of Khloud Popcorn, which Ms. Kardashian announced on social media this week, fits with a broader food trend. Experts call it the “proteinification” of snacks, or desserts, or basically “everything,” said Jonathan Deutsch, a professor of culinary arts and science at Drexel University and a trend spotter for the Specialty Food Association, a national organization of food and beverage businesses. The brands hope to cash in on growing consumer demand for protein, which is driven largely by social media.
A trend report by Cargill, a company that sources and processes ingredients for food manufacturers, showed that 61 percent of surveyed consumers noted that they were hoping to increase their protein intake in 2024, up from 48 percent who said so in 2019. Sixty-three percent of consumers reported that they were looking for protein in their snacks in 2024.
The trend also stems from increased use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, like Ozempic and Mounjaro, said Dr. Lisa Young, a nutrition consultant and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University. Those who use the weight-loss drugs report not only a loss in appetite but also a loss of muscle mass, which means that they are likely to try to pack as much protein as possible into the little that they do eat.
But, Dr. Young added, even people using GLP-1 drugs need only a fraction more protein than the recommended amount for an adult, which is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. People on the weight-loss drugs, and those who do intense workouts, like weight training, are advised to shoot for 1.2 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
Protein-enriched snacks, she added, can also fall under the category of ultra-processed foods, the consumption of which, she cautioned, can add to gut problems.
From a marketing perspective, Mr. Deutsch said, there are only three macronutrients that the food industry can try to target in its new product lines: fat, carbs and protein.
“They’re not going to have a ‘fat popcorn’ and they’re not going to have an ‘extra-carb popcorn,’” he said. “That leaves one macronutrient, right?”
According to Mr. Deutsch, an apple or popcorn “as God made it,” or even just a glass of water, could be seen as the ideal snacks for most people because, “when you walk around civil society, you’re not stumbling over people with protein deficiencies.”
