Every food commercial, advertisement, and packaging in the US is currently protein obsessed. I just bought 3 burritos, and the most noticeable thing on the entire package is its protein content. TV commercials about waffles are advertising that they have X amount of protein per serving. The products in my jobsite’s vending machine have protein all over every package.
Did America have a protein thing recently?
Same reason they’re obsessed with carnivore diet. It’s about identity projection, macho manosphere bullshit, spun up by a very high amount of money injected by corporate propaganda.
Edit: For disclosure, it’s worth noting that both users Jet and Xep below (who happen to have replied to my comment within minutes of each other, raising suspicion or brigading or just being the same user) are heavy moderators of Carnivore diet communities. So like their diet, take with a massive grain of of salt arguments made from bias-confirming zealotry versus objective evidence.
Nearly no one is obsessed with the carnivore diet. Maybe a person in a thousand does it. Most who do use the diet do so so for health to address a health problem, some do it for athletic performance (running on fat means you don’t bonk; there is no wall)
It is presented as super masculine, but I’m sure the old Reddit community that called it zero carb were mostly women
Also it’s not a high protein diet. I just did the maths for my default meal which by energy* is 76.2% fat 23.8% protein
* Not that we can get significant energy from protein. I don’t think it should even be in the energy calculation on food labels. A human who tries to live on protein (and whatever supplements to keep healthy) starves. Body builders used to (and probably still do) protein sparing modified fasts - eating lean protein to avoid the body burning muscle to feed the nervous system while fasting. They do it to achieve the same as of a fast — to radically reduce body fat. Protein is hardly energy when people use it to help them starve themselves thin