This is In Conversation from Apple News.

I'm Sam Sanders in for Shamed Tabassu.

Today, why we're so obsessed with protein.

We are in the middle of a protein boom.

Protein food products are a $100 billion plus industry,

and it's projected to grow even more in the next few years.

You see it.

Walk into any grocery store,

and you'll find unending lines of products with added protein.

Everything from protein popcorn to protein pasta to protein beer.

You can even add protein to the foam on top of your latte at Starbucks.

If there's a combination of food and extra protein you can dream of, it probably already exists.

Like the Buffalo Wild Wings espresso protein-y cocktail with 10 grams of protein.

As health scholar Samantha King, she's written a new book with sociologist Gavin Weeden.

It's called Protein, The Making of a Nutritional Superstar.

Protein is an essential nutrient for our bodies, to build muscle and maintain other functions.

It's also found naturally in lots of foods.

And in their book, Sammy and Gavin argue that our obsession with protein consumption is driven

a lot more by industry and marketing and cultural forces than by actual nutritional science.

I think it helps to mark out the distinction between the idea that protein is something we need,

which is true, but it's in everything we eat, and the idea that it might be something that we want,

that we affect certain kinds of desire to.

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