by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
Consumer advocates criticize the latest scam by food companies: special “high-protein” products as a brazen rip-off. They are as unnecessary as they are overpriced.
Protein pudding, protein cream cheese, protein muesli, protein bread: foods marketed as particularly high in protein have become box office hits in supermarkets. Suddenly, it’s teeming with them: The product range extends from cornflakes to milk, plant-based milk alternatives, shakes to chips and chocolate bars, and protein-containing water. Customers are being taken for fools en masse, criticizes Foodwatch, a non-profit association founded in 2002 that wants to “expose the anti-consumer practices of the food industry” and “fight for the right to good, healthy and honest food.” He finds the clearest words: “What with Dr. Oetker, Ehrmann, and Co. making the cash registers ring is a blatant rip-off from the consumer’s point of view.”
The price of these products is undoubtedly high: they all cost significantly more than conventional comparable items. You have to pay 86 percent more for Seitenbacher’s “Protein Muesli” than for its “Fitness Muesli.” Mestemacher’s protein bread is 145 percent more expensive than comparable bread. The “High Protein Vanilla Pudding” from Dr. Oetker even costs three times more than a conventional pudding of the same brand.
“The protein hype is a money-printing machine for food manufacturers,” denounces Laura Knauf, campaigner at Foodwatch. Adding protein to food production is dirt cheap: Manufacturers usually use whey protein – a waste product from cheese production that is often processed into animal feed.
The fact that enriched “high protein” products offer an exclusive health benefit is outrageous fraud. This product group also shines with plenty of industrial sugar or table salt, low-quality fats, artificial flavors and flavor enhancers, colors and preservatives, phosphates, antioxidants, emulsifiers, and other questionable chemicals. The proteins they contain are often heavily denatured.
Sold for fools
There’s no question that proteins are essential to life – even the stupidest average consumer knows that much, but not much more. 10 to 15 percent of the calories we consume should come from protein. Our body needs it for the construction and repair of cells, enzymes, and hormones, for the immune system, for the transmission of nerve impulses, for the transport of oxygen and fats, for the construction of collagen, antibodies, coagulation factors, and so on, but also as a source of energy.
However, an artificially increased protein content is almost as unnecessary for a healthy diet as adding H2O to water. “A wide range of natural foods without any additives is the best choice for covering the body’s protein needs,” explains nutrition expert Ingo Froböse from the Cologne Sports University. (1) This can be achieved with little effort: 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, and The German Nutrition Society recommends that day. Anyone who weighs 70 kilograms should consume 56 grams of protein. This can be achieved relatively quickly: 100 grams of hemp seeds, soybeans, rapeseed, or lupine have a protein content of 30 to 40 grams; 100 grams of Chicken breast provides 27 grams of protein; 26 grams of protein are found in 100 grams of peanuts; 100 grams of oat flakes provide twelve grams of protein and 100 grams of natural yogurt provide ten grams. Seeds, mushrooms, legumes – such as lentils, peas, and broad beans – and eggs are also rich protein sources.
In any case, Germans are more likely to consume too much protein than too little – and not necessarily from the most recommended sources. This is suggested by a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Food. (2) They consume the largest amount of meat, milk, cheese, and their products. However, the body stores excess animal protein in the connective tissue and blood vessels. This promotes many diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, rheumatism, gout, angina pectoris, type 2 diabetes, metabolic disorders, kidney inflammation, and autoimmune diseases.
Extra protein is, therefore, extremely healthy, primarily for the balance sheets of food companies. Anyone who does them the favor of paying dearly for the supposed added value deserves limited pity if the hole in the household budget increases as a result.
The crazy protein hype inevitably reminds some cineastes of “Idiocracy”, a bitter science fiction comedy: In the completely stupid society of the year 2505, no one really knows what electrolytes are – but everyone thinks they are extremely healthy. And that’s why everyone drinks the green soft drink Brawndo instead of water. Yes, Brawndo replaces conventional water everywhere except toilet flushing. Our descendants even irrigate their fields with it because, according to the advertising slogan, “Brawndo contains what plants taste good – it contains electrolytes!”
(Harald Wiesendanger)
Remarks
1 Zit. nach Foodwatch, https://www.foodwatch.org/de/teuer-und-unnoetig-foodwatch-marktcheck-zum-hype-um-protein-lebensmittel
2 https://www.mri.bund.de/fileadmin/MRI/Institute/EV/NVSII_Abschlussbericht_Teil_2.pdf , ib. S. 103 f.