Shake It Up Baby: Protein Powder in America

How its changed



The first account of Whey use comes from 17th century England. It was there that whey gained popularity as a beverage, giving way to the opening of whey houses. Kind of like a modern day coffee shop or tea house.  Until the late 1800s, the protein in milk was classified as either Whey or Casein. According to sources, Eugene Sandow used a product called “Plasmon”, which may have been a type of whey or egg-based protein drink. However, there’s not a substantial amount of sources documenting Sandow consuming these drinks on a regular basis. In 1951, Bob Hoffman was adamant about his anti-supplement stance, but soon a man named Irvin Johnson had convinced Hofman to sell his product. The two were then advertising “Johnson’s Hi Protein Food” in Hoffman’s Health and Strength magazine. In 1946 Paul Bragg, a natural foods advocate, visited Bob Hoffman at his home with the Idea that Hoffman should reconsider joining the world of Nutritional supplements and that he would be doing his followers a huge service encouraging them to take nutritional supplements. Bragg noticed what Johnson had noticed was that people were very fond of the idea of getting into shape as easily as they could. Marketing campaigns began to advertise protein powder as a miracle kind of formula that would suppress appetite and aid in weight loss. Noticing the volume of sales Johnson made along with the before & after photos included in the magazine, Hoffman finally changed his mind and supported the idea that protein supplements had a place in one’s diet. Advertising got off to a slow start, but in the late years of the twentieth century in the 1990’s a protein powder revolution took hold of the fitness industry. Whey had been used for a long time before the early 90’s, it wasn’t until this decade in time that researchers would begin to study whey for its potential health benefits.

As research increased, so too did the quality of whey protein. Whey and egg based Protein were beginning to take a hold of the not only the athletes diet, but the average person as well. The changes protein powder has experienced in roughly a 40 year span have been drastic. The manufacturing process has become more refined, popular advertising lead everyday Americans to start consuming protein shakes, and star athletes like Arnold Schwarzenegger brought a new found popularity to the world of bodybuilding and what fuels its athletes. The 2000s promise to hold even more leaps and bounds for the ability to process and develop this magical substance as Sports science has been a growing trend in america since the 1950s. As technology continues to develop, so too will the manufacturing processes of crafting a higher quality protein powder. Marketing within the fitness industry had influenced a steady growth in sales and popularity of protein in the 70s and 80s. The growth in popularity of Bodybuilding and sculpting directly influenced the growth in sales of protein powder resulting in protein powder being researched and better developed throughout the second half of the twentieth century.


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