‘McDonald’s, Bollywood, Cricket fuel wellness craze in India’ said the story (Business Standard 27 August 2025), the story also said ‘Country witnessing huge demand for protein loaded products’.
Some years ago the only place you saw ‘Protein’ boldly emblazoned was on special drinks that gym going men (and women) slugged after a heavy workout. It was seen as a special something that these six-pack aspirants consumed. Us mortals were not on the radar of these special products. But as in the case of all innovative products, the diffusion of innovation curve kicked in. The special ingredient managed to ‘cross the chasm’ to become accepted by the early majority, it seems.
This was brought alive to me when I saw an ad by Godrej Yummiez for their chicken nuggets. The kid in the ad I saw had drawn six pack abs and wanted to eat protein, refusing to eat noodles that his loving father offers. The kid’s argument was that he needed protein to become strong and only Godrej Yummies chicken nuggets packs the protein he needed. The ad was counterintuitive, making the kid demand something healthy, breaking out of the ‘healthy bhi tasty bhi argument’. Also, it was nice to see the dad playing the role of a caregiver, instead of the stereotypical mom. The ad says, to assuage the taste fanatics, the kid actually loves the taste of the chicken nuggets with the line ‘Protein to bahana hai…’.
Protein packed products and protein claims have made a giant leap, from the gym to the home refrigerator.
Amul probably pioneered the move to make protein center of a health offering by presenting protein as a key ingredient in its range of products. The brand has taken out full page ads in leading dailies presenting protein packed products including high protein milk, whey protein powders (the gym goers favorite), protein lassi / butter milk, high protein dahi, paneer etc.
While brands like Godrej and Amul are going after the upper/upper middle income class, there are the class of products like energy bars that are targeting the more affluent millennials. These energy bars and breakfast snacks like YogaBar also loudly declare the amount of protein a bar contains: 20gm. 10 gm. 8 gm.
This leads us to the question: how much protein is needed for a healthy daily diet? A healthy adult needs a minimum of 0.80 gms of protein for every kg of body weight per day, as per experts. So if you are 70 kg you need 56 gms of protein. Other reports indicate that the average consumption of protein in India is around 62 gms per day which is way lower than the global average of 78 gms. The data says that we are consuming less protein than our global counterparts in USA and China. Indian diets, largely vegetarian, incorporate protein needs through dals, curd and paneer. Addition of soya, tofu, quinoa add to the protein intake, of the more evolved consumer. But there is some contradictions when it comes to understanding and interpreting nutritional needs that our body needs. Animal protein that is recommended can cause cardiovascular diseases due to the saturated fat content, but at the same time offer us iron, B12 and more. Plant based protein give us folate, fibre and more but on a per gram basis offer less protein. Both non-veg and veg food as protein sources have positives and negatives.
Nutrition labelling on packaged food brands is supposed to help consumers take informed decisions, but often consumers can’t decode all that is presented in the table on the back of pack (also read my column ‘Better nutrition labelling on packaged foods – are larger fonts enough’ Business Standard 22 August 2024).
All this noise around protein should be helping in some way. Consumption of protein in India has shown an 8% increase over the last ten years. The current spate of new products and advertising is bound to improve consumer awareness of protein. In a country that does not consume meat with every meal, products like milk, paneer and soya nuggets are good suppliers of protein. Consumers, at least the more nutrionally aware, are paying more attention to protein, thanks to all the noise. Unfortunately like everything else , excess consumption of protein can have its own side effects.
This leads me to the campaign that the Egg Co-ordination Committee ran two or three decades ago. The line crafted by the late advertising genius Anand Halve went : ‘Sunday ho ya Monday Roz khao Andey’. Eggs are a great source of protein. So may be the campaign should now add protein to its catchy slogan: ‘Sunday ho ya Monday, roz khao (protein packed) Andey’.
Appeared originally in Business Standard September 2025