Not even two months into my job here at WIRED, I found myself barfing in the office bathroom. Technically, it was work-related stress, but not in the way you might imagine. It was, instead, the unfortunate and almost immediate result of my efforts to switch to a diet solely consisting of foods, drinks, and supplements marketed as high in protein—and thereby meet the level of daily protein intake recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The conversation on the porcelain telephone came about an hour after I sampled Ghost’s Nutter Butter–flavored whey protein powder. My partner Mads uses it as workout fuel, and I saw it as an easy shortcut to 26 grams of protein. She had already grumbled about me having some for journalistic purposes—“it’s expensive!”—but was relieved that she wouldn’t have to taste-test any of the other slop I had on my list to eat that week.…