by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
In 1975, the renowned Harvard professor of Nutrition, Jean Mayer, wrote an opinion piece titled, “Is It Cereal or Candy?” Dr. Mayer was questioning the practice of fortifying sugary cereals with lots of vitamins and minerals to make them appear healthy. He described these cereals as “sugar-coated vitamin pills” (1).
Something similar is happening today with everything under the sun from candy bars to soft drinks being fortified with protein, a nutrient that most Americans get enough of without having to rely on protein-fortified gummies or similar products.
On a recent visit to a grocery store, I spotted pretzels with added protein. This snack food had 15 grams of protein in a 1 ounce serving. Where did that protein come from? According to the ingredient label, the product contained hydrolyzed wheat protein, carob seed protein, soy protein isolate, and wheat gluten – all potential protein sources. Contrast this with a standard bag of supermarket pretzels which contains 3 grams of protein in an ounce of pretzels. Both kinds of pretzels have 110 calories and over 250 milligrams of sodium per serving. Pretzels can be a decent snack food, albeit somewhat high salt, but do they need to have lots of protein added?
There are other ways to get 12 grams of protein (the difference between the protein that’s usually in pretzels and the protein in the protein-fortified pretzels). All of these foods have approximately 12 grams of protein:
- ¾ cup of canned or cooked black beans, chickpeas, or pinto beans
- ⅔ cup of canned or cooked lentils
- 1-½ ounces of seitan
- ½ cup of shelled edamame
- ⅓ cup of tempeh
- ½ cup of prepared textured vegetable protein
- ¼-½ cup of tofu
- 3 Tablespoons of peanut butter
- 1-½ cups of soymilk
- ¼ cup of tahini
The thing is, these foods provide protein as well as vitamins and minerals including iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, and B-vitamins. The protein-fortified pretzels, appear to mainly contain protein and a bit of fiber.
To paraphrase Jean Mayer, are these pretzels or “salty protein pills”? There are special circumstances where people need a lot of extra protein and where a snack fortified with protein can help but, for most of us, there’s no need to buy protein-fortified pretzels.
To read more about protein for vegans see:
Protein for Vegans & Vegetarians
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Protein?
How Much Protein Do Vegans Need?
Reference
- Moss M. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. New York: Random House; 2013.
The contents of this website and our other publications, including The Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.