David doesn’t just want you to include protein in your gym bag. The protein bar brand wants the macronutrient to be part of your beauty routine, as well.
“Protein is a beauty product, in a way,” said David co-founder and CEO Peter Rahal. In January, David debuted its Bronze Bar, with fewer grams of protein but more indulgent flavors than its classic Gold Bar. To promote the line, David tapped Julia Fox to lead a campaign centered on pleasure rather than athleticism.
Fitness has always been part of a beauty routine, Rahal said. But David’s new Bronze Bar and Instagram posts showcasing David bars alongside gua shas and lipsticks are taking a more explicit aim at positioning protein as a lifestyle and beauty tool. “Body composition is directly correlated to beauty. Beauty isn’t just putting on makeup. It’s also your figure,” he said. “And so protein is a really good tool to help you achieve that.”
An onslaught of protein products and the rise of “protein maxing” led some to question if we hit peak protein in 2025. But brands like David, which achieved a $725 million valuation in 2025, are doubling down on protein in 2026. And the newest protein launches take the macronutrient beyond a gym bro supplement, instead promoting it as a building block of an aspirational lifestyle that includes matcha lattes and toned Pilates arms.
“The actual cultural meaning of protein has changed, especially for women,” said Alice Clapp, strategy director at the brand design agency Design Bridge and Partners. “It’s a very interesting, subtle status symbol or identity marker that I belong to that subset of people who understand the right way to fuel their bodies, and the right kind of body type to be aspiring to today.”
In January, Starbucks expanded its protein menu to flavors like Caramel Protein Matcha and introduced Khloé Kardashian’s Khloud protein popcorn to stores. Rival coffee chain The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf unveiled a similar protein-laced menu in January. Happier Grocery, New York City’s answer to Erewhon, kicked off the year with a bone broth hot chocolate with Cowboy Colostrum, a cold-weather alternative to the protein soft serve it launched with Ballerina Farm in 2025.
“[David] adds a great deal of sophistication to protein branding. And I think what they’re tapping into is this realization that protein, fitness, and the ability to craft and hone your body, to take the time to go to the gym, and to spend $8 on protein popcorn is luxury. It is a bit of a cultural flex,” said Caitlin Starke, head of strategy at design agency Pearlfisher.
Many of those newer protein products are either implicitly or explicitly marketed to women. And there’s good reason to target female protein consumers: A Euromonitor study published in September found that, globally, women now outnumber men as protein adopters, with North American girls aged 15-19 among the demographic most eager to consume more protein.
“Winning women is more important, because the protein gap is more in women’s health than it is in men’s health. Because there’s this misconception that protein makes you bulky, which is just a fallacy,” said Rahal.
Though devoid of any mentions of weight lifting, Fox’s ab-baring David campaign displays the kind of protein-fueled, toned physique that is increasingly a status symbol among women. The protein craze also runs parallel to the rise in GLP-1s, which women are using at higher rates than men. Health experts have encouraged Americans to up their protein intake while on weight-loss medications, which may become more commonplace in 2026 with the launch of oral versions of the drug from makers like Novo Nordisk.
But some worry the protein-ified beauty standard can do as much harm as good.
“The optimist in me says that [the protein craze] reflects a broader cultural shift around women’s health and strength and autonomy. Like it challenges beauty standards by emphasizing strength over skinny,” said Starke. “The pessimist in me is a little concerned that it also could just be diet culture in new packaging. It is rebranding restriction as optimization and calling it empowerment. And I think we have to be careful as marketers around that.”
Women like Julia Fox and Khloé Kardashian are not the only ones embracing protein. In January, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared new dietary guidelines that raised the daily suggested protein intake from .8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram, with a new inverted food pyramid showing animal-based protein at the top of the hierarchy. “We are ending the war on protein,” declared a slick new nutritional website created by the Trump-administration-backed National Design Studio.
Jessica Crandall Snyder, RDN, and medical advisor for FuturHealth, characterized the new guidelines as moving away from recommending a minimum protein intake toward a more goal-oriented approach.
While protein is essential, Crandall Snyder said focusing too much on protein can mean missing out on other nutrients like fiber. That can be especially risky for women who can be more susceptible to restriction in their diets.
“Women have always, unfortunately, strived for thinner, skinnier. And because of that history, we see a lens of them maybe not getting enough nutrition,” said Crandall Snyder.
But even as some have anticipated a comedown from peak protein, protein has found particular staying power in the wellness world as more consumers expect what they eat to not only be a form of nutrition, but also a beautifying product.
“The expectation [now] is that your water also fixes your skin, which happens to make you look incredible at the same time,” said Isabelle Aleksander, associate strategy director at branding agency CBX. “Protein can take on longevity, it can take on beauty, it can take on new words and connotations. … That’s why I think it’s stuck to the wellness space in such a way.”
Rahal said David may launch more beauty-adjacent products come 2027. With the pressure on consumers to optimize both health and appearance, the lines between what belongs in the food aisle and what belongs in the beauty aisle are increasingly blurred.
“People are coming out of the closet acknowledging they want to be in good shape and be thin,” said Rahal. “Everyone is on social media constantly. Everyone’s building their own platforms. And so there’s this enormous pressure on your appearance. And the most important part of your appearance is nutrition, sleep, it’s these things. You can’t just plastic surgery your way to it anymore.”
