Gen Z Can’t Get Enough of Protein

As in any other consumer category, food and beverage trends — and, more broadly, health and wellness trends — come and go. But amid 2025’s fractured media landscape, these trends are getting more intense and specific. 

Case in point: According to a new Morning Consult survey exploring health-related habits and attitudes, Gen Z adults have become uniquely fixated on eating a protein-heavy diet relative to the rest of the population.

 Gen Zers put protein on a pedestal

We presented respondents with 10 diet descriptors and asked them to identify which ones they believed were healthy. “High protein” was the second-most selected option for both all U.S. adults (49%) and Gen Z adults (50%), just behind “eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.”

That said, among Gen Z adults, the gap between “high protein” and the next most selected healthy options (low fat, low calorie) was quite large at 23 percentage points. Meanwhile, among all U.S. adults, this gap was much smaller (10 percentage points), indicating a much more diversified view of what a balanced diet looks like. Despite Gen Zers' myriad reasons for eating healthy, what they know — i.e., what they’re fed on social media — is mostly just protein.

So, what explains Gen Zers’ distinctive devotion to protein? Their outsized reliance on social media (and influencers) to provide all kinds of information plays a big role. 

Nearly 3 in 4 (72%) Gen Z adults said they turn to social media to learn about health and wellness, the largest share of any tested source by a wide margin, and over 20 percentage points higher than the share of all U.S. adults who said the same (50%). What’s more, half of Gen Z adults said they use social media in this manner at least once every single day. 

YouTube (86%), TikTok (77%) and Instagram (75%) are Gen Zers’ preferred destinations for learning about health online — and on each of these platforms (and nearly all others), it’s almost impossible to escape content that sings the praises of protein. 

Type “protein” into any social search bar and you’ll be met with endless videos enthusiastically explaining how to incorporate the macronutrient into everything from breakfast and dinner to more atypical vessels, like candy bars and ice cream. In total, posts on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram using the hashtag “#protein” exceeded 400,000, 2 million, and 30 million, respectively, at the time of writing. 

There are many reasons that protein is the topic of so much digital content and brand investment. Fitness has always been a prominent content category online, and unlike fats or carbohydrates, protein has not been villainized for causing adverse health outcomes like weight gain. That’s a major boon amid today’s broader cultural environment, when the beauty standard pendulum has recently swung hard back to extreme thinness (and likely why “low calorie” also ranks near the top for Gen Z in terms of what they perceive to be healthy). Plus, a common side effect of increasingly popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro is a reduction in muscle mass, driving many users to prioritize protein consumption. 

All of the above means protein-related messaging is more relevant and reliably well-performing than ever. But Gen Zers aren’t simply consuming this content, they’re also acting on it. 

Gen Zers are walking the protein walk

Approximately two-thirds (66%) of Gen Z adults said they follow a high-protein diet, notably higher than the shares who said the same of every other tested eating regimen (aside from, once again, a variety of fruits and vegetables). The young cohort also overindexes on adhering to a high-protein diet relative to the general population (59%).

While social media is undoubtedly the primary source of Gen Zers’ newfound protein fixation, the behavior also feels like a hyper-specific manifestation of several broader trends that we’ve been observing among the generation across different Morning Consult datasets, including their shift toward the political right, their particularly poor self-image and their loss of trust in societal institutions. (In our health survey, 63% of Gen Z adults said they trusted their primary care provider “a lot” or “somewhat,” 12 points lower than the share of all U.S. adults who said the same.)

This combination of factors is driving Gen Zers’ participation in the wellness economy well beyond the meat and seafood sections of the grocery store, too. Even against a backdrop of tariff wars and recession fears, the youngest consumers are still spending heartily on gym memberships, skincare treatments, and more. 

Protein in perpetuity? 

Some have already begun poking fun at the “protein propaganda” seemingly flooding social feeds and food groups in recent months, calling the staying power of the macronutrient’s popularity into question. But again, because it doesn’t have any lingering negative associations, protein is poised to pervade the food and beverage market much longer than fad diets of eras past. 

For brands, this should all serve as the latest reminder that what is said often enough online will eventually become what is done in real life, at least among young shoppers. It’s also a reminder to stay alert and nimble; effective marketing is about identifying emerging consumption motivators (like Gen Z’s obsession with self-optimization and routine) and quickly tying that to an existing suite of offerings to fit that mood.