Protein is not a trend

0:02Today we're talking about protein. Welcome to The Curious Consumer. I'm Nate Rosen. I'm Jenna Mofsiewicz. And we're here to talk about all things consumer brands, CPG, consumer packaged goods. If people don't know what that means. Yes. People are curious. People are curious about protein. People are so curious about protein. It's clearly taken over in the year of our Lord 2025. The year of our Lord 2025. Yeah. So we did street industry. We should get into why everybody's talking about protein. Okay. I think so, too. So this year of our Lord 2025, protein has taken center stage, like, I would say more than it has ever before.

0:43I think so. Really has. Not in the sense that, like, we're eating more meat or anything. It's more protein has taken a new stage in that every packaged good, I feel like, is adding protein. So we're seeing, and everyone's talking about it, too. Yeah. Major publications. One of your favorite YouTubers. Yes. drew drew good and he did a he did a video on it got like five million views but people who like have never talked about nutrition before have never talked about like snacks before it's more it's just become this topic that's like it feels trendy but we'll come back to that word um it's just everywhere like it feels like protein is everywhere messaging around protein is everywhere and it is and it is it feels like that because it is I mean we're seeing it it's it's not just for bodybuilders anymore it's not just for people focusing on fitness we're seeing it in cereal we're seeing it in ice cream popcorn pretzels donuts candy and even condiments yeah condiments I was like what are we missing we're missing condiments it's in condiments sprinkles you're Right.

1:53Water. Water. Seltzer. Soda. Alcoholic seltzer, actually. Saw that. I got a sample for a protein alcohol seltzer. I need to find what this was called. Protein blues. It was fortifying. Feels illegal. That's crazy. What was this called? Protocol. Kind of a good name. Protocol. P-R-O-T-O-C-H-O-L. So like alcohol protein. That's a great name. It's a great name. The flavors were pineapple pump. Again, good branding. Swoleberry. Swoleberry is fun. I was like, this is the frattiest beverage I've ever encountered. So I refused to drink it. Fair. My friends and boyfriend did, and they said that it was like a milky White Claw, which nothing sounds more awful than a White Claw, except for a milky White Claw.

2:46That is horrible. So needless to say, protein in everything. It's being noticed by more than just the industry. It's broken out of industry discussions. NPR is talking about it. PBS, New York Times, Wall Street Journal. All of these publications recently, within the past even couple of months, let alone past two years, have started to pen pieces. Basically saying, either let's stop putting protein in everything or there is protein in everything. Yes. And it's true. It's true. It's in a lot of things. But our main argument here is that it's not a new trend. In fact, it's been around for a long time.

3:34And it's not a bubble. Protein's not a bubble. Yeah. And look, yes, 71 % of Americans are seeking more protein. Yes, it's more in this discourse. But it's bigger than just a trend. let's get into why hell yeah i think i mean it's it's so interesting because protein is it is a trend in the sense that like putting like added protein and people caring about adding protein and tracking their protein is relatively new but protein itself i almost want to back up like even before we get into the history stuff literally what is protein because if we were talking earlier and i was like i'm actually nervous that we're getting to a stage where people think that protein is just like something that you add as an ingredient to things.

4:18Me. As opposed to the like scientific definition. At the molecular level, like proteins are huge molecules made up of amino acids. They literally make up like your whole body. They're essential for building and repairing tissues, but it's like your muscles, your skin, your organs, like protein is everything in your body. Many enzymes and hormones are proteins. So when we're saying protein, we're not just talking about like whey isolates, like a protein that is an ingredient that you add to things like protein as a macronutrient can't possibly be a trend because it's our bodies. it's everything but this like added protein conversation is more around there are nine essential amino acids that you need to eat because your body doesn't make it and that's where this like added protein conversation yeah kind of starts and that's really where we're we're focusing a little bit more less on the less of the science of it despite being in an academic hall right now Despite me, yes.

5:28Yes. Despite having a chalkboard behind us. But yeah, tell me about like everything I just said. When was that discovered? So this discussion of protein for muscle building and protein and products really began in earnest in the 19th century. 1838 is when two scientists identified and described and named protein. Protein does not show up until they name it in 1838. Which is crazy because, as I just said, literally building blocks for life. And look, the general concept of it from the food standpoint has existed. Dairy, meat, all that kind of stuff. But the concept of protein in your diet and understanding of it and the impact on your muscles really starts in this mid-19th century era.

6:16Four years after this, another scientist who detailed the idea about protein being an important building block for muscle. and then when muscle breaks down, you need protein to replace it. That is like, this changed everything. The fact that protein and exercise were associated. This is when this protein theory, also protein as food, started to come into play. And critically derived from plants because again, bodies can't make some of these nine essential amino acids, we need to eat it. And I also think that's kind of funny because people eat meat thinking that meat is the primary source, but it's actually the plants that the meat eat.

6:59Yeah. Anyway, I digress. Yeah. Yeah. He you know, this this guy, Justice von Liebig. He also wrote an influential book called Animal Chemistry, where he detailed his ideas about protein metabolism and the muscular exertion. When it breaks down the muscles, you need the protein to replace it. He's our guy. He's our guy. Other games. father of gains. And then still, still in the 19th century, another German physicist, all these were basically German physicists and nutritionists, not physicists, physiologists and nutritionists named Karl von Voigt. He is one of the first scientists to establish the nutritional parameters for the amount of protein one needs to intake.

7:48He was basing this off of working class men, which makes sense. This is around the industrial revolution. People are in factories. People are doing a lot of these laborious. They're laboring. He determined that it was 118 grams of protein. Per day. Per day. Per working man. Per working man. Which is actually a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. And that was just minimum daily intake to like be able to work well correct yeah so interesting so thanks Voigt for telling for basically he was like almost the origin of like the nutrition label even because this is like they're even just the concept of there are minimum daily values of different nutrients that you need was I guess 19th century Some have called him the father of modern nutrition.

8:42Thanks, my guy. Thanks. Super interesting. But I think this era too, it's the Industrial Revolution. It's when packaged goods also are starting to come into play. So it's also when obviously science is changing and we're able to do a lot more, which sort of leads us into like sort of this next wave of these first protein isolates. Yes. Yeah. So this is super interesting. 1930s is really when this all starts. Soy protein is the first widely developed and used isolate. Isolate meaning that scientists were able to separate the soy protein from like the oil and the carbs. So you're not getting the fat and the carbs, you're just getting protein.

9:30They get protein by itself. And this also was news to me. It was mostly used in like industrial purposes as an adhesive, a coating in paper products. Henry Ford was a big, of course, a big user of soy plastics. I love when people are like that ingredient is in yoga mats. And it's like half of what we eat is also in things that we use. Yeah, Because chemicals are in our everything. Water is H2O, which is a chemical, whatever. I digress. But some of the most famous early use cases for isolates is World War II. There are meat rations. And in order to get meat to go a longer way, basically, when it's being rationed, people put soy isolate in meat products or blended soy isolate into meat products.

10:19and that again I want to get into this later but it's so interesting how today we have a category called blended meat products which is basically soy or mushroom and real meat and how we think of that as such an innovation but they were doing that in World War II. I feel like so many like food trends kind of started as a necessity from a war. M &Ms came out of World War II. Yeah. Wars in general produce a lot of advancements technological advancements and of course it's going to come into food and i really think like the need for non-perishable easy access to nutrition and and satiating things and also at like a condensed scale right it makes sense that like some of this stuff came out of this era that we now are using in like you know in in this that we bought at cbs like it's so interesting yeah casein isolate in it yeah which is the next isolate that was developed it's so interesting it's interesting that it was soy before milk because we so associate protein with whey yes but protein comes from plants originally so this is when we started hating plants Yeah, I guess so.

11:35This is when vegans started to become bad. That's a crazy thing. Tell me about milk protein. Yeah, so milk protein was developed shortly after. Again, mostly used on food applications at first. Crazy. Yeah, it's wild. Later used as a supplement. Early diet shakes, so like the slim fasts of the world, developed in the 1950s, used milk protein. But it's the same thing. So when you hear whey isolate or casein isolate, Normally whey was like just a byproduct that they threw out after milk production, but this is saving the whey and it removes the fat and carbs and it's just pure protein. And I know you were researching Eugene Schiff.

12:17Eugene Schiff is a pharmacist. I feel like a lot of food products came out of pharmacies. Coke came out of a pharmacy way before this. But in the 30s, Eugene Schiff developed a method for processing whey from milk for human consumption. He started a company called Schiff Bio Foods, which is still around, still making supplements. And this all leads us into post-World War II, 50s. this is the next big jump in protein and protein products. This is really where we see our modern version of protein products start. And a huge reason for that is because this is when bodybuilding also took off. This was not a thing beforehand.

13:03And I assume that's because people were probably just muscular from doing their normal jobs. The factories. And as office jobs become a thing, people start lifting weights. I'm not going to get into the history of weightlifting. It's too big of a thing. But this is when bodybuilding is really taking off. And they start to become celebrities, too. Yes, it's aspirational. Yeah, and also in the 50s, there's urban sprawl. Grocery stores start opening up. And they become bigger. The world of consumer packaged goods becomes a lot more vibrant and relevant. and people are aware of these things, which I think leads to the introduction of one of the first packaged protein products.

13:47Yeah, I really like this story. So Bob Hoffman was this bodybuilder guy, super jacked. And he was originally anti-supplement. Like supplements were starting to be talked about here and there. And he was like, no, I just want to like eat my food and workout. Paul Bragg, who is the Bragg's guy, if you've ever heard of Bragg's, it's like apple cider vinegar. So Bragg was a famous American nutritionist. Much later, I think he becomes kind of a divisive figure. Again, won't get into that. But he approaches Bob Hoffman and he's like, I think that weightlifting supplements are going to be a thing. And you being a bodybuilder should be someone who makes it.

14:24And Bob Hoffman's a businessman and he's like, why would I make protein bars when I could sell barbells which last much longer fair point technically yes fair point but then this other guy Irving Johnson opens a gym in Chicago and he starts training people part of his training plan is a diet of protein and cream ew and the results are wild and he starts publishing the results in magazines and Hoffman starts seeing what Johnson's doing and he's like Like, maybe this guy is on to something. So he's like, wait, I should actually do this. He starts making his own protein supplements. And I love this detail.

15:03By standing over a fiber drum, stirring soy flour with a canoe paddle and pouring it into melted Hershey's chocolate. I'm sure at this time a whisk existed or like a food safe. No. For the gains, he needed to use a canoe paddle. It was a workout in and of itself. That's the start of like a protein bar, basically, is this guy, Bob Hoffman, copying his friend who's opened this gym and is training people with added protein to their diet. And he's like, oh, I actually am going to take Paul Bragg's idea and turn this into a supplement. This becomes controversial later because this is also when anabolic steroids started to be used.

15:41Hell yeah. And a lot of the famous bodybuilders that Bob Hoffman coached and then he was like, they're huge because I coached them and they used my protein bars. Maybe we're actually on steroids, which we learn later. We don't know. But he claimed his protein powder and canoe paddled protein bars, which we'll insert a picture of, caused like crazy gains. Yeah. And people believe it. I also love this detail. There was a standing joke in gyms across America that you could identify people who used Hoffman's supplements because you could smell them because of gas. Yes. Oh, boy. which people don't digest way very well.

16:24So it does make sense. So the company closed, but that was the first protein bar. And like real packaged. He made cookies too. He made high protein cookies. Before Lenny and Larry's. Before Lenny and Larry's. Before Lenny and Larry's. Yeah. So then now we're into the 60s at this point. And more fitness is coming onto the scene. People are starting to run for the first time, which is crazy. I think that was a little earlier. No. all like the 50s that's crazy running as we know it today started around the 60s that's insane people were not running for pleasure were not running really for fitness before then they didn't have run clothes there were maybe like running away from like the enemy on the battlefield but they weren't running in bandit running shorts and a viore top like that wasn't a thing yet they of goose there's i'll find the video and link it but there's a video sort of describing how like the trend of running is relatively new in human in human history like running for the sake of the way we do it the way you run around a track you run a couple miles in the morning that's new also gyms started opening up and this sort of like boom of fitness again it started around the 50s and 60s really started to pick up in the 70s 80s and 90s this is where the sort of fitness and bodybuilding culture and as as we run our notes the g and c boom yeah really started and this will have an effect on the products that that are being made because it's not and marketed and marketed because it's no longer it's starting to become no longer just for bodybuilders body just for like high endurance athletes, more and more people are starting to get into the world of working out in fitness.

18:16And that's going to lead to more fitness oriented products around protein, because this has already been established that protein and protein in this bar will help you gain muscle, be more fit. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was gain muscle, be more fit, hitting 80s, 90s. it also starts to become more diet messaging. Slimming. Slimming. And there's like, I mean, all of these things happen at the same time because we didn't, people weren't as worried about weight loss. Yeah. Before packaged food became a thing because it wasn't as much of a problem. Also media. Also media. The visual media changed. We got TVs, we got color TVs.

18:59The visibility of these people, both from like the very Jack side and like the Gene Simmons jogging and play side, they come right into your home. Yeah, so this era kind of transforms from just being bodybuilding excess gains into like being in a deficit into slimming. So 80s, 90s, this is when protein powders, bars, shakes explode. And not as like a snack the way we know it today, more as like a meal replacement. I was like, if you want to be skinny, drink this Slim Fast shake. That was one of the big ones. That's where programs started to come into play. Yep, absolutely. And a lot of the messaging was more around protein for satiety as opposed to protein for gains.

19:48That messaging, I would argue, is really kind of what's leaked into today. That is the undertone of marketing today, which we'll get into later too. But yeah, so that's like the Slim Fast Power Bar was one of the first bars. I miss Power Bar. I miss Power Bar too. I love the texture. For you and for the audience, the closest texture bar that I've found, the Dr. Smooth snack bar. Oh, I've never had it. Tastes the same. It's the same texture. It's that same like vaguely shiny bar, but also that like chew. It brought me back to that gold skinny Power Bar. I love it. Yeah. Power Bar is one of the originals.

20:30at first had way more sugar than protein because again these things were still being mostly developed for athletes endurance athletes where you do need carbs if you are a runner carbs or energy you need carbs for energy right so the protein was an added benefit but they were energy bars and i know we also mentioned like cliff still is kind of higher sugar than protein and that's because it's an energy bar not a protein and cliff does they also eventually built Builders Bar, which is their protein bar. Yes, which is a better example of that. So all of these kind of start coming into play. So there's these, like, Cliff Bar is one of the OGs.

21:12Power Bar is another OG. There's one called Tiger's Milk at the time. And these bars become a thing. They don't taste great. People aren't obsessed with them. They're more for athletes. But there's also this, like, it's starting to leak in to just people who are concerned about diet generally. And then the formats kind of start to change in the early 2000s thanks to diet culture also. So diets like the Atkins diet, which really emphasizes protein and fat a little bit, basically no carbs. Same with South Beach diet, paleo, keto. These all start kind of coming onto the scene. Protein is the hero ingredient.

21:54framed more in a way of if you have more protein, you will be fuller, you will be leaner, not gaining muscle. It wasn't about gaining muscle. It was about being smaller. And these all really start to take off and kind of put protein in the spotlight as this hero ingredient. And then it has to, it's just in every format now, because if I can't have, you know, my candy bars, if I can't have my shakes, yogurts, whatever. Ice creams. Ice creams. So many ice creams. I want a different version of them that is high protein, lower sugar. So that starts to become a thing. Some other things that happened in the 2000s was we started to see money moves.

22:39We started to see acquisitions and bigger players come into the scene and scoop some of these brands up. Nestle acquired Power Bar, which we were talking about earlier, for$375 million in 2000. Kraft paid around$300 million for Balance Bar, which is another protein bar that I used to consume a lot as a kid buying from Trader Joe's, also in 2000. So these bigger players are starting to make some bets onto protein, and eventually we'll see significant more bets as we get into the 2010s and as we get into the 2020s. We see a lot more bets. But the 2000s was another big shift, both from the way it was marketed, the way people perceived it, but also the brands that were coming out.

23:23We get some iconic brands coming out in the early to mid-2000s, Pure Protein. Pure Protein. Pure Protein's a big one. We got Pure Protein here. Here. And those were offering a lot of candy replacements. Yeah, this one, well, this one wasn't out then. That was not out then. But this was a Sunday cone. Yeah. And then we see a lot of these candy replacement flavors. it started with bob hoffman but like yeah well the real like one that first marketed itself not as like just a bar but a can a literal candy bar that also has like hornbills charmbles kind of i mean i would argue this is essential it was just marketing um the marketing was like candy bar on steroids was in 2002 and it was a brand called detour which was the first like honestly proof of concept that consumers didn't they didn't want like new forms of protein they didn't want have to like add powders to things they wanted familiar forms but better for you so like they wanted candy right and then you know something like pure protein goes from being a bar to more of a candy yeah so all of these kind of start happening early early 2000s i would say then we get some brands like think thin now think which i had recently they came out with minis pretty decent but again i think the think thin plays specifically into this new trend in the early the 2000s of Thinking Thin.

24:42Thinking Thin. Literally in the name. In the name. They're not trying to hide it. And this is one of those brands to sort of start to introduce a lot more sugar alcohols to reduce the caloric numbers and lower the sugar too. This is when people started thinking about sugar as an issue. And like the protein-tallery ratio. This was like the height of a very explicit type of diet culture that like kicked off in the 90s. Splendid culture, I would say. Splendid culture. I think this all culminated, I think, in two really iconic brands, and that's Quest and Halo Top. Yeah. Oh, Quest and Halo Top are an era.

25:20Like, I would almost call the early 2010s, like, the Quest and Halo Top era. What they share in common is you can eat things you love without guilt. Their whole thing wasn't, like, eat this for bodybuilding. It was a picture of, like, a cheesecake. And they're like, but you can have it. A decadent ass cheesecake. Yes. And now, like, that stuff is so normal. Like, this pure protein bar has a sundae cone on it. This mosh bar has pumpkin pie on it. Like, these... Pure proteins. Pure... Oh, Clean Simple Eats protein. Clean Simple Eats. Has ice cream on it, and this is a protein powder. Quest really was, like, I feel like the first or one of the first...

26:02Yeah. ...to market with that visual and become so successful. So successful. They blew up. Oh, my God. And Halo Top also, through that, like, new format, is really interesting. Yeah. And Halo Top's interesting because they originally positioned themselves with the higher protein content. And, honestly, a whole litany of other call-outs. And, eventually, it was really focused on true diet culture. Guilt-free. Eat the pint. The whole pint. 300 calories, eat the pint. Even though, like, it is kind of one of the OG protein ice creams. And now we have literally so many. But Halo Top was one of the original ones.

26:41Yes. That shifted a lot of things in the proteinization of foods. Quest, Halo Top, Lenny and Larry's, which also started in the 90s. Yes. And got really big around the early 2000s as well. Yeah. Lenny and Larry's was even before either of these. 1993. Very early. Which is really, they've been around for so long, actually. And they're everywhere. I see them. They're at any checkout. You go to the Bellamy and Larry's cookie. Absolutely. It's a lot of fiber. It does have so much fiber. And we can tell that Bellamy and Larry's was before Halo Top Quest era because it's still pretty high sugar. Well, the OG cookie was like pretty high sugar, high calorie, also high protein.

27:26But it was one of the first brands that was like, here's a cookie. We know you want a cookie. But we're adding protein. and that message of this isn't a diet food. This is additive. You're adding something. And we're seeing so much of that now. And that's how diet culture is so well concealed in the protein guise is because people are able to see it as like, oh, I'm not like restricting anything. I'm just getting more protein. But that in itself is diet messaging. It's this idea of permissible indulgence, even though I think sometimes these protein bars are not an indulgence. no quest og quest the texture was so bad and the aftertaste was so bad yeah but but you know the the world that we live in now of protein protein products and the proteinization of products and the expansion of categories yes there's a lot more categories than there ever was but but the the the idea and the marketing and the positioning of a lot of these brands hasn't really changed as much from 2010s, but even the early 2000s.

28:34And I think the biggest, we haven't had another really big jump in protein products. We pretty much have been in a very similar boat almost the past 20 years. It's just we have more products, there is some more tech, and the positioning is slightly different. But we haven't had that big leap. Well, what do you mean? Because I do you feel like we have way more products with protein than ever before sure but i i don't i think you know these new products are slightly better they lean a little bit more into the taste but the the the jump from the 50s where it's these bodybuilder products to then the 80s and the 90s like that was a that was huge like this is just a natural next step from what we've had over the past 20 years.

29:26Yeah, I would argue that the biggest difference, one, is that it's now in everything, which again, we'll get to. And also messaging around the protein calorie ratio in particular, I think is a little bit new, which is interesting because, again, I said, like we've done such a good job of disguising protein as like, this isn't diet culture. Oh, we've done a great job at it. It basically does not exist in the lexicon, even though it is just the same diet culture it's everything because there's something it's all about getting skinny it's all about getting skinny but it feels like like a protein brownie sounds like oh my god i can have dessert and hit my macros like this this idea feels not like deprivation which is we have historically associated diet culture with deprivation but just because it doesn't feel like deprivation doesn't mean it's not diet culture.

30:20I would argue it almost is worse diet culture because it's deceptive diet culture. Yeah. The issue being that it's not giving you all the information. I mean, I suppose like protein, as we know from early days, all the history we talked about, like it is the building blocks of life. We want protein. We want more protein. The average American probably doesn't need as much protein as we are saying that you do because you need protein if you are lifting weight. Yeah, you can't just not lift weights and eat a ton of protein. It's going to do nothing. Well, it may even put you in a caloric surplus, which is not the goal of theoretical diet culture.

31:05I mean, that's not the goal that it's positioning itself. It's basically like you'll be more full, so you'll eat less, is the undertone of a lot of protein products that started. I would say like 2010s um I don't know I it's so much we can go we can go down that hole of 2010s but I do think there was basically the shift until the early 2000s protein was like a diet tool like an like nice tool to have to add as a supplement it was a supply like mid 2010s into 2020s protein is like a wellness baseline it's like anything you have can be upgraded yes We've moved beyond just supplements. Everything demands protein.

31:48Yep. And you can cheat clean. Like, you can eat the things you want. Yeah. In theory. I think this is why, like, again, you know, we talked about Nestle and Kraft making big. Yeah. This is why big bets are still being made and have, and especially in the late 2010s, some big bets were made. Yeah, wait, what are those? Kellogg's bought RX Bar for$600 million in 2017. And now Peter Rahal, who's founded RxBarr, is off doing another thing, which we will get to later. David Barr. Hershey's bought one, which is a similar brand to Quest in terms of like candy and sweet and indulgent forward flavors and positioning.

32:32Hershey bought them for$400 million in 2019. Simply Good Foods Company, which acquired Quest, which we've talked about a lot, for a billion dollars in 2019. And then later acquired Owen for$300 in 2024. Owen is more of a plant-based protein shake and supplement company. And then in the 2020s, I mean, so much, obviously. In the 2020s, this is everything. This is everything. Everything takes off. Kinds, which I still don't really associate with protein. I don't, but it fits into the bar category. most of the bars are really associated with protein, but they sold for an ungodly amount. They sold for$5 billion.