Every food commercial, advertisement, and packaging in the US is currently protein obsessed. I just bought 3 burritos, and the most noticeable thing on the entire package is its protein content. TV commercials about waffles are advertising that they have X amount of protein per serving. The products in my jobsite’s vending machine have protein all over every package.
Did America have a protein thing recently?
I reread this and your interpretation seems pretty off the mark. Of course you’re going to get more endurance performance from a higher carb diet, carbs are what give you raw energy. Anyone who’s ever done an endurance sport like long distance running knows they load you up on pasta for a reason.
Endurance performance is absolutely not the same as athletic performance, which is far more general. There’s no way high protein diets aren’t beneficial to people who need more raw strength than endurance. This meta analysis does not back up your comment.
I’m not sure which of us misunderstood it, but my interpretation of their findings is that overall, increased protein intake was not associated with increased athletic performance. However if you look ONLY at endurance, it was actually associated with high performance, though only when alongside carbs. Maybe counterintuitive.
Their total sample size was around 300 or 400 iirc. Pretty big, but could be better.