How do these bagels have 13g of protein?

August 29, 2021 3:19 PM

I love Epic Everything Bagels by Dave's Killer Bread. The packaging says that each bagel has 13g of protein. How?

The website for these Epic Everything Bagels has this ingredients list (plus the Nutrition Facts label):

"Organic wheat (organic whole wheat flour, organic wheat flour), water, organic Epic Everything® seed and topping mix (organic chia seeds, organic whole flax seeds, organic black sesame seeds, organic brown sesame seeds, organic poppy seeds, coarse sea salt, organic dried minced garlic, organic dried chopped onion), organic wheat gluten, organic cane sugar, organic rolled oats, yeast, contains 2% or less of each of the following: organic sunflower seeds, organic vinegar, organic expeller pressed canola oil, organic yellow cornmeal, salt, organic cultured wheat flour, organic fermented rye flour, organic acerola cherry powder, enzymes."

I don't see anything in the nutrition details that's like "These facts actually represent a bagel covered in cream cheese, not by itself." How can these bagels provide 13g of protein?

I thought that bagels in general were just carbs and didn't have much in the way of protein. Was I wrong about that?

posted by cadge to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

Best answer: Whole wheat has a fair amount of protein in it. A generic search indicates 5g of protein in a whole wheat slice of bread and 10 in a bagel, so 13 doesn't seem a stretch. Lots of things have protein in them that you wouldn't think, which is why vegans can get enough protein.
posted by RustyBrooks at 3:22 PM on August 29, 2021 [12 favorites]

(whole wheat flour has ~16g protein per cup apparently)
posted by RustyBrooks at 3:23 PM on August 29, 2021

Best answer: Wheat gluten (a little further down the ingredients) is basically 100% protein, minus impurities.
posted by fountainofdoubt at 3:27 PM on August 29, 2021 [13 favorites]

Also, the protein in all those seeds adds up.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:35 PM on August 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Probably the whole wheat flour + vital wheat gluten + rolled oats.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:56 PM on August 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

FWIW the CDC lists 1/4 of a large bagel as one starch. So perhaps consider the impact of portion size.
posted by oceano at 7:37 PM on August 29, 2021

Response by poster: Wow! Thanks, everyone! Now I'm even more excited to plow through these bagels. They're so good.
posted by cadge at 8:19 PM on August 29, 2021

a name like 'killer bread'

The eponymous Dave is a formerly incarcerated guy who lived a live of crime and became a baker after he was released, so it's kind of a joke about his formerly violent persona. And yeah, they're pretty good bagels and somehow packed with protein!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 9:10 PM on August 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted. Sorry, but jokes and riffs would soon take over Ask Me threads if we allowed them as answers!
posted by taz (staff) at 12:45 AM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also, the protein in all those seeds adds up.

I thought it might be the seeds too, but note that the Plain Awesome Bagels from the same company have 11 g of protein. It seems likely that the wheat protein does most of the work here.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:21 AM on August 30, 2021

Glu-hu-ten is the
Pro-ho-teen
in bread!

It is not the-ee
e-ne-my
it's rad.

Uh-un-less
you're a-ler-her-gic
that is!

Glu-hu-ten is the
Pro-ho-teen
in bread!
posted by amtho at 5:10 AM on August 30, 2021