It is possible to reap some significant benefits by increasing the protein content of your diet; this is part of the reason why protein powders have exploded in popularity and dominate the exercise industry. In the United States, customers routinely spend tens of billions of dollars annually just on protein supplements. A simple stroll through places as diverse as shopping malls, nutrition stores, airport merchant stores and even vending machines can have a diverse array of both protein-enriched meals and protein shakes.
The shakes have become so popular that smoothie shops routinely sell them, and you don’t think twice about seeing someone walking up the street drinking from the protein shaker – whether they’re coming from a nearby gym or not. Simply put, protein powder is an excellent way to supplement your diet with the famously muscle-building nutrient. There’s little doubt that most people agree protein powders/protein shakes are a quick and efficient way to meet and exceed your body’s daily recommended dose of protein.
Whether you’ve been around long enough or not, the history of the rise of protein powders popularity started right around the middle of the 20th century. Famous bodybuilding, weightlifting, and fitness aficionados such as Joe Wieder, Rheo H. Blair, and Bob Hoffman were the driving forces behind this current generation of workout supplements. You may notice some of these names if you own dumbbell and barbell sets – Joe Wieder is emblazoned on a very popular set of weight plates.
In the following article, I will go through the history of supplements and protein powders. By the end of this, you will learn when protein shakes were invented, the very first proponents of them, and the driving mechanism behind their current popularity in the fitness industry.
How It All Began: The Inception of Protein Powders
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the inception of protein powders had very little to do with the fitness industry. You will find that when investigating the history of many inventions, it is often the case that their widespread use in present times had little to do with why they were originally created. Protein powders, specifically, were first instrumental in German hospitals as a means by which to restore the strength of malnourished patients. This occurred in the latter part of the 19th century, when a form of powdered milk named Plasmon was created by a team of German doctors in the research department.
The characteristics of Plasmon were similar to protein powders today: it had no taste or odor and contained a lot more protein per density than any natural substance. Because of its utility in bolstering the strength of undernourished hospital patients, it took only about 10 years before Plasmon left from the hospitals into the burgeoning fitness industry. The first wave of the modern-era bodybuilders took to it almost immediately and robustly.
Although there are no exact measurements preserved of Plasmon’s protein content, it is estimated that one teaspoonful had as much protein as two large eggs. 12 g of protein is a very significant amount for such a small measurement as a teaspoon; therefore, we can extrapolate that Plasmon’s protein content was not much different from the average scoop of modern protein powders – which contain between 20-30 g of protein and 30-40 g of powder overall.
So how did Plasmon break forth into the public consciousness? Again, it all really started to take hold in the late 19th century, when Dr.Virchow, a famous German physician, compiled a comprehensive report on Plasmon and submitted it to the Department of Health affairs for the German government. Although there was a lot contained in this report, the gist of it was that Plasmon proved superior to even lean meat in many ways – insofar as infusing the undernourished with vitality, strength and endurance. The primary constituent of Plasmon was simply fresh milk in a dry, soluble granulated powder that was able to retain a much longer half-life due to the lack of moisture.
As a result of this glowing report, the very beginning of the 20th century saw a cadre of businessmen from Great Britain obtain the rights to Plasmon for worldwide distribution. Less than half a decade after securing these rights, these businessmen started International Plasmon Limited. Their goal was not medicine – they wanted to sell this to the public and to athletes.
About a decade after the incorporation of the first supplement protein powder company, World War I exploded onto the scene. In between that period of time, Plasmon was supported and promoted by numerous subcontracted businessmen and athletes – so much so that the casual exerciser took note and became a consumer.
The so-called “physical culture” started right around this time; physical culture is a catch-all term encompassing bodybuilding, weightlifting and general gym culture. The early 20th century is when this really exploded, and Plasmon was the fuel behind said explosion. Some of the athletes of the time that were being paid and promoted by International Plasmon Limited in the many subsidiaries that sprung up where famous bodybuilder Eugene Sandow, tennis player Eustace Miles, well-respected British athlete CB Fry and others. They helped certify and establish Plasmon’s place as the progenitor of the protein powders to come.
As for Eugene Sandow, he was definitely one of the progenitors of modern bodybuilding, and dominated the mid-20th century as a strongman and aesthetic paragon of physique. His promotion of Plasmon was worth more than its weight in gold. In fact, one of the chief things he did was to instill in the public consciousness the idea that Plasmon was viable to consume by itself, as well as in conjunction with a well-balanced meal – which would come to be especially useful for competitive bodybuilders and weightlifters due to their stratospheric protein requirements.
Ushering in the New Era of Protein Powders
A look back at history shows that gym enthusiasts were using powdered milk as far back as the very early 20th century, it was only in the mid-20th century that the consumer marketplace saw the serious introduction of protein powders. This was largely due to ignorance as to their nutritional value for bodybuilders and weightlifters in particular; only in the 1940s did two American celebrity nutritionists – Paul Bragg and Bob Hoffman formally convene to begin promoting supplements in general. Separately, they authored many books, and lectured around the country on nutrition, health and the supplements they promoted.
In the late 1940s they got together to discuss nutrition for the benefit of the fitness industry. Around the same time, famous health expert Jack La Lalanne employed Paul Bragg as his nutritionist. When Bragg finally met up with Bob Hoffman, they didn’t hit it off as well as they might have because of a difference in philosophy. Bob Hoffman was not sold on supplements and nutrition as being central to weightlifting – apparently, his knowledge on the correlation was sparse. He believed that it did not actually take that much protein for bodybuilders and weightlifters to maximize their gains, and actually published these ideas in Iron Man magazine right before 1950. This was a sentiment shared by the magazine editor, Peary Rader.
It took the intervention of a nutrition supplement businessman named Irving Johnson to reignite the exceptional importance of protein that Eugene Sandow had promulgated half a century ago. Linking up with Iron Man editor Peary Rader, Johnson was able to publish a very important article named “Build Bigger Biceps Faster with Food Supplements”. Of course, Irving Johnson was able to promote the exceptional abilities of the protein powder he was selling at the time in this article. In particular, the name of Johnson’s product was Hi-Protein Food; he brought out space in Iron Man magazine and supplied convincing testimonials about the many-fold increases in strength and size experienced by the users of his protein powder.
Although some of the claims made by Irving Johnson in the magazine were just north of outrageous, the testimonials and images served to ignite the torrent of interest that was to come. The fitness industry was very receptive to this, and as early as 1952 – just one year after the magazine article was published, Bob Hoffman created and sold his own patented “Hi-Protein” soy protein powder. Of course competition changes things, and Bob Hoffman stopped allowing Irving Johnson to buy advertising space in his own Strength and Health magazine so that he could run advertisements exclusively for his new powder.
Success is undeniably a strange attractor; Bob Hoffman soon linked up with famous weight-plate manufacturer Joe Wieder to expand the protein-selling operation. Of course, given that Joe Wieder had a muscle magazine empire himself, and was also the founder of Mr. Olympia, this attracted quite a few other business partners. Essentially, what they started then is what’s responsible for the undisputed rain of protein powders today. Protein powders and anabolic steroids are what ushered in the Golden Age of bodybuilding.
The Golden Age of Body Building: The Role of Protein Powder
In this part, the history becomes a little sordid – although that depends on who you ask. Around the mid-1950s, weightlifting and bodybuilding started to become commercialized due to the highly sought after muscle magazines around which new communities were forming. It was at the same time that professional weightlifters were introduced to anabolic steroids by Bob Hoffman – who also happen to be the seller of the protein powder “Hi-Proteen.”
This is where the potentially unscrupulous marketing tactics were used: as bodybuilders began to get much larger than the previous generations – while losing none of the definition, many boys and men wanted to look like them. Although the professionals were using anabolic steroids as well as protein supplements, Bob Hoffman, Joe Weider, and their ilk marketed to the public the idea that the professionals were only using their brand of protein powder to develop their unique size and strength. Back in the 1950s, the average Jim Gore had little to no knowledge of steroids, so it was very easy to believe that products such as Hi-Protein were solely responsible for the mesmerizing muscle development they saw in magazines and on screen at Mr. Olympia.
At this point Irving Johnson reenters the fray after having changed his name to Rheo H. Blair in a bid for reinvention. After Bob Hoffman had stopped him from being able to advertise his protein powder, Irving Johnson found it difficult to sell his product competitively. Therefore he packed up and left Chicago to move to California and changed his name before coming up with a new product: protein powder mixed with milk. He also changed his originally honest advertising approach and claimed that his milk protein powder mix could give bodybuilders the same results as anabolic steroids. As a result, Rheo H. Blair’s new milk protein powder mix pretty much ruled the 1960s among weightlifters and bodybuilders due to the product’s fantastic claims.
It should come as no surprise that countless people believed these claims, driven by advertisement as they were. Some of the bodybuilders on his payroll even claimed that his mail protein powder mix was even more effective than anabolic steroids. Blair claimed that even the beginner could enjoy 20-30 pound gains of pure muscle by using only his milk protein powder mix. No matter how you slice it, Blair’s product became an inessential part of the 1960s-1970s explosion known as the Golden age of American bodybuilding.
Due to the rising popularity, bodybuilding legends such as Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Franco Colombo with pen articles for fitness and bodybuilding magazines, touting the effectiveness of protein powder. Using the age-old tactics of visual advertising, magazine editors would simply have these industry stalwarts pose next to the weightlifting supplement they were paid to advertise. It had a runaway reaction effect as sales of protein powders and supplements exploded.
To further solidify this example, consider the widespread existence of shaker bottles; these exist almost solely due to the stratospheric rise of protein powders during the 1970s and 1980s. Astute business persons quickly noticed that with more and more people consuming protein powders, there was quite a bit to be made by facilitating set consumption. Protein shaker bottles would now make it even easier to consume more protein. A quick online search for in-store search will reveal the existence of a multitude of different types of protein – from the in protein shakes and whey protein powders, to weight loss shakes and meal replacement protein shakes.
As can be seen in this article, the protein shake itself emerged onto the scene in the late 19th century. It would take another half-century, however, before their popularity exploded into the public consciousness. The reason for this is due largely to an Act of God: World War I. Remember, making its way from Germany to America was Plasmon; which was then promoted by bodybuilder and weightlifter Eugene Sandow (primarily) before news of it was stunted by the occurrence of the Great War. It would be slightly more than half a century later that protein powders would re-emerge and become ever more popular. Thereafter, certain dubious marketing practices – primarily advertising protein powders as effective as anabolic steroids – would really explode powdered protein on a trajectory that is yet to cease even today.
