But where do you get your protein, bro?
Yet another soul-sucking extended family gathering. But hey, small mercy: your aunt Dot could not make it this time…phew. Except the universe abhors a vacuum, so in her place you get Chad. A distant cousin who flexes as he introduces himself: “Mum couldn’t make it.” Aunt Dot's only son!
Chad is 38 years young and still lives with Dot because she makes “a killer steak” and he can’t work the washing machine yet. At the dinner table, Chad feels compelled to give you unsolicited health advice. You watch the confusion take over his entire body at the mention of It-what-must-not-be-named.
"Oat m*Ilk? Bbbu..bu.bb..but where do you get your protein from?" He says chomping into an entire rotisserie chicken, no plate. Not sure where he found that, everybody else is on risotto.
Here we go.
The macro that ate the internet
Protein. The world’s favourite evergreen nutrition topic. People have always been concerned with protein and products marketed for their protein content have been around for centuries. But only recently did interest turn into obsession.
It all began when protein supplements first infiltrated the competitive bodybuilding market. A niche culture at the time, a young pharmacist developed a whey protein supplement. Later, as competitive bodybuilding gained traction in the 1970s, big figures (quite literally) like Arnold Schwarzenegger, started promoting the use of these supplements, bringing them into wider public consciousness. Then, the rise of low-carb, high-protein diets like Atkins reframed protein entirely: from a muscle-building aid to a tool for weight loss, greatly expanding its appeal to everyday consumers. By 2010, the market had responded with a flood of products promising to boost protein intake.
And it hasn't slowed down. The amount of food and beverage products going to market with high protein claims quadrupled between 2013 and 2023.
It isn’t that nutrition scientists have made some groundbreaking discovery, and protein has always been an essential nutrient. Science did not change, but our conversations and focus did.
So where are we now? Well, have you ever heard of protein water? Yes, it's real. Everything nowadays has an alter ego that has 20 extra grams of protein in it. Social media has become a vessel for influencers who are not trained in nutrition to promote protein-rich products as a staple of the healthy lifestyle. Such promotion matters: one small survey on non-professional athletes’ supplement habits found that roughly 40% of participants named social media as their main source of information about the supplements. Influencer driven content facilitates the rapid spread of misinformation, especially in regards to supplement use and restrictive diets .
And those who bear the consequences of protein fads? Well, everybody who drinks the protein-enriched Kool-Aid. But have no fear! ROA is here! And not to add 20 grams of protein into your oat m*lk, rather to clear the air around the modern hyper-protein narrative.
Myth #1: “You need 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight”
From our respective position, we’ll keep it short(ish) and simple(ish) because, like most influencers on social media, we are not food scientists. All of what is about to come next is from the World Health Organization's “Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition” report , plus some other credible sources. Check them out yourself before making any dietary decisions!
Somewhere along the way, the internet convinced people that more is better. Scroll a few minutes and you’ll find someone insisting that the amount of protein you’re eating is not enough, and if you get lucky, you might just stumble upon a Chad-adjacent fitness post preaching "You need 1g of protein per pound of body weight."
But before you take that statement seriously, ask yourself two questions.
1g per pound for what? Because put into perspective, that’s 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. Nearly three times the WHO’s baseline recommendation of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight (about 0.36 grams per pound) for healthy adults.
Even accounting for moderate to intense physical training, research tends to cap at about 1-1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight with studies showing that performance outcomes and muscle gains plateau with a higher protein intake, and pushing past that is, in the words of one review, "just wasteful." Actually, scratch that, “wasteful” might be underselling it. After digging deeper, dangerous could be the better word.
Depending on the type of protein you’re piling on, too much may carry real risks. A meta-analysis revealed that people in the highest quartile of total protein intake had a higher risk of dying from any cause than those in the lowest quartile, an effect driven largely by animal protein and cardiovascular deaths specifically tied to meat and dairy. Plant protein told a different story: overall, it wasn't linked to higher mortality, and protein from legumes, nuts, vegetables, and fruit was actually tied to lower risk.
And truth being, reaching your actual daily need isn't some grueling task. Most people, even those who don't track macros exceed it comfortably .
1g per pound for who? Because “you” isn't universal. Requirements shift with body composition, activity level, age, sex, and many other conditions.
But as much as it pains us to say it: Chad was not entirely wrong. Some people do need more protein than others, and that's exactly what makes statements like this one so easy to misuse. A number that is accurate for 5% of the population gets presented as if it applies to 100% of the audience, and so it feels like it’s directed to you.
So who needs more protein than the recommended amount? Is it you? To find out please answer these simple questions: Are you an infant? Are you over 65? Are you pregnant? Are you an endurance athlete? Are you an elite strength athlete? Are you Chad? if you answered yes to any of the above, chances are yes you do need more protein than the recommended amount.
Do you even lift, bro?
Practical bottom line: if you don't lift, and are a healthy average adult, a normal varied diet almost certainly covers you. If you do lift, at any frequency, aiming for around 1.6 g/kg/day of total protein gives a small but real extra gain in muscle and strength.
Myth #2: “Oat m*lk has less protein than dairy ”
It’s true: oat m*lk is not high in protein. We are not here to bend the facts, rather to shift the paradigm.
But does that mean it's a bad choice?
To answer that question, we’re going to let you in on a little secret that nobody put on their fitness pages: you will not, at 70 years old, look back on your life and think “Damn, I would’ve been shredded if only that oat milk latte had been dairy."
And yet, that is how marketing strategies and the wellness industry pit people against plant-based milks.
Yes, if you set out to replace dairy milk gram-for-gram as your protein source, oat m*lk will come up short…sorry. But holding oat m*lk to dairy’s protein content assumes that protein is the reason anyone’s drinking a splash of milk in their coffee in the first place. Oh and guess what, milk isn't high in protein either. A cup of whole fat milk gets you roughly 8 grams, which sounds perfectly fine until you become an elite protein-maxxing body builder and realize you’d need 6 glasses just to hit a third of your daily needs, and nobody is doing that over their lattes. So if milk was never going to be the hero of your protein arc, let's talk about who actually is: cooked lentils (17.9g a cup), cooked chickpeas (14.5g a cup), tempeh (33.7g a cup), cooked black beans (15g a cup), and cooked soybeans (31.3g a cup).
Nobody is hitting their daily protein goal off their oat m*lk latte or dairy cappuccino. The real question shouldn't be “which milk will increase my muscle gains,” but “which milk do i want to drink, for taste, for texture, for the planet.”
The takeaway
By dessert, Chad has moved on to explaining glute activation and you’re mostly off the hook. But all this “healthy debate” with aunt Dot’s beefcake spawn has got you thinking. Living a full and healthy life means living a varied life – where some things are optimised for vitamins, minerals, protein, and – gasp! – enjoyment. Flavour.
Oat m*lk has plenty of benefits over dairy (see our other articles), but not everything can be everything to everyone. If you love an oat flat white, drink an oat flat white, without shame. Knowing that by balancing your diet, routine and lifestyle elsewhere, you very much deserve that delicious, velvety pour in your cup. Guilt free, and proudly low in protein.
For all sources, check out this article on Substack!
