{"id":26615,"date":"2026-05-06T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=26615"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:23:48","slug":"do-we-really-need-high-protein-pretzels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2026\/05\/06\/do-we-really-need-high-protein-pretzels\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Really Need High Protein Pretzels?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n

In 1975, the renowned Harvard professor of Nutrition, Jean Mayer, wrote an opinion piece titled, \u201cIs It Cereal or Candy?\u201d 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 \u201csugar-coated vitamin pills\u201d (1).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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?<\/p>\n

There are other ways to get 12 grams of protein (the difference between the protein that\u2019s usually in pretzels and the protein in the protein-fortified pretzels). All of these foods have approximately 12 grams of protein:<\/p>\n