DESIGNER

Michael Richards

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

Article text courtesy of nytimes.com Are Protein Bars Actually Good for You? Or are they just glorified candy bars?

In the late 1980s, two distance runners who were living together in the Bay Area blended vitamins, oat bran, milk protein and corn syrup in their kitchen, concocting what would become a PowerBar, one of the first modern protein bars. By the mid 1990s, it was a phenomenon — what one writer for The New York Times called “a high octane snack for yuppies and fitness freaks.”

Today, though, protein bars are everywhere, and their branding has expanded far beyond exercise fanatics. They’re presented as healthy snacks for when you’re on the go or even as part of a self-care routine. Grocery stores, gas stations, bodegas, gyms and pharmacies now carry colorfully wrapped hunks of whey protein, marketed as energy-supplying health foods, despite coming in flavors like cookie dough and lemon cake. The global market for protein bars is growing quickly and expected to swell to more than $2 billion by the end of 2026, according to the financial analysis site, MarketWatch.