protein inflation is here

As readers of my now-unlocked piece on collagen from 2024 know, collagen threads a perfect needle for food and supplement manufacturers hoping to take advantage of the protein craze. Because it is made of amino acids, it technically gets counted into the protein figure on nutrition labels. But the thing brands really love about collagen is that it’s profoundly cheap to make and get, because it has no useful nutritional content.[^1] It is, as I wrote then, meat garbage. The margins are absolutely insane. Now, brands have figured out that they don’t have to make only collagen-based products. They can inflate the protein figure on any food by stuffing a little, or a lot, of collagen in there. The collagen/protein scam era is upon us.

Because of the types of amino acids it is made of, collagen does not meaningfully contribute to actual protein intake. It’s complicated to explain, but briefly: Protein is made up of different amino acids, like planes are made up of different parts. Whey protein is a whole plane, built and ready to fly. But some proteins are “incomplete,” just wings and landing gear, like rice. Beans are like the fuselage, tail, instruments, and everything else. When complementary proteins are consumed in enough proximity (within days) they can “complete” each other, so your body gets all the aminos it needs in balance and can synthesize those aminos into muscle.

Collagen is not only not a complete protein, like most protein powders made of, say, whey.[^2] As far as plane parts, it’s like a giant pile of the metal panels that make the underside of one part of a wing. Theoretically, other proteins could “complete” collagen, but the only proteins that could do it are proteins that already have all of the amino acids you need anyway.