One thing I’ve noticed the last few years, is that an increasing number of restaurant menus (usually the more trendy type) have changed their meat/entree descriptions from chicken, beef, pork, seafood, etc. to the more ambiguous term “protein.”

With all that has been said in the last few years about “lab-grown meat” and the injection of cricket powders into processed foods (instead of animal flesh/protein), or meal worm consumption, and given the trendy, liberal nature of the types of restaurants that describe meats as “protein” (which is not synonymous with meat, but merely one constituent element of meat), I’m beginning to wonder if “add your protein” is actually a transitional step in a marketing campaign to disassociate in the public consciousness “meat” and “protein,” to pave the way a few years from now to add to the protein list insect powders, etc., before pulling the plug on meat altogether:

“Hey, you still get protein.”

Kind of like predictive programming.

Do you think there’s any premeditation along these lines, or do I just need a vacation?

There could be something to this, Sean.  But I also think it's something less nefarious...an advertising pitch towards the exercise/gym population (which is quite large).  It's also to make $.  The true athletes know that not all protein is created equal (i.e. chicken is better than pork for building muscle, as an example) but the casual gym-goer (under 30 crowd, which is a large % of people) just hears "protein" and they think "yeah, I need protein for muscle".