Man spots boxes of Goldfish at Walmart. Then he looks closer at the labels and realizes what the brands are actually doing: ‘What is happening?’

Leland Workman (@leland.jw on TikTok) took a trip to Walmart and found the usual cheddar-flavored Goldfish on the shelf. Then, he looked closer and found that they were labeled as protein snacks. When Workman reviewed the labels, the protein version had double the protein of the normal crackers.

For Workman, the real question was why a protein version of Goldfish Crackers exists, and exists with multiple flavor options. As he continued his Walmart trip, Workman found the protein version of Cheerios and asked, “What is happening?”

Consumers care about protein

While plenty of Workman’s commenters shared his frustration that everything seems to have a protein version now, that’s where the demand seems to be. As consumers increasingly care about their protein intake, they also want options beyond the usual advice to eat chicken.

The BBC ran an article in 2025 about what it called the “high-protein craze.” One woman was asked about the craze and said that she used a fitness app that told her to increase her protein intake, but she wanted a way to do that without also increasing her calorie intake. “I started trying to find high-protein alternatives to things I was already consuming.”

It’s possible that issues like the one in Boston with ground beef that “was like rubber” have consumers looking for alternatives after recalls and stories on TikTok spoil their appetite for certain products, but they still want to consume a specific amount of protein in their diet.

GLP-1s likely drive protein demand

While on GLP-1s like Ozempic, people tend to have their appetite suppressed, which means they consume less food. At the same time, nutrition recommendations for people taking GLP-1s can be found on sites like UCHealth, and they almost all recommend that protein should be prioritized while on this medication.

The specific protein recommendation from UCHealth for someone on a GLP-1 is 0.55 grams of protein per pound of body weight. If you weigh 150 pounds, then you’d want to consume 82 grams of protein each day.

With that focus on protein intake every day and the increased use of GLP-1s, it’s natural that the demand for protein options would shift, and companies would want to capitalize on the current trends. The result is what Workman saw during his shopping trip at Walmart: variations of familiar products that offer even a single gram more protein per serving without sacrificing the taste that consumers are used to in most cases.

As Andie told the BBC, “I realized that everything tasted pretty much the same to me, and I started then actively seeking these products.” She’s likely not the only consumer with this mindset that ends up increasing demand for the very products Workman was upset to see.

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