The Viral Milk That Helped Set Off America's Protein Boom
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
And I'm Joe Weisenthal.
Joe, you're a Jim person, aren't you? Notice I did not say Jim Bro.
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Thank you. Aspirationally, I do go to the gym regularly. Yeah. I don't go to the gym regularly enough to see a difference. I think because like I'm at the stage of life where like every day I'm getting a little bit closer to death. And so I'm like holding serve. I'm like sort of holding at the same. So like I know progress, but maybe I'm not regressing. But yes.
I still think if you go to the gym regularly, you're a gym person. Yeah, okay, yeah. All right. That's that's impressive.
I'm gonna have less shame about
it. Okay, here's my question. Yes. Have you noticed the drinking habits of some of your fellow gym people? Have you noticed anyone walking around with bottles of milk?
I have. I mean, I still see more people with like the energy drinks rather than milk. But yeah, I've definitely seen you know, I think like back in the day You know, you had these guys. I think some of them still do with actual like people who try to drink a gallon of milk in a day. There's that famous um um guy. He has a book called Starting Strength. He's like a cult guru within the um barbell world whose name I'm blanking on. I think he's a big like drink a bunch of milk.
Guy. If you're serious about it, you gotta mix raw eggs in with milk. That's what I say.
You do? Have you done that? No,
I
haven't.
Although I did when I I triple fractured my foot when I was in Hong Kong and I did have a doctor who advised me to drink a lot of milk to build up the calcium and heal the foot. Anyway, we're getting slightly off topic.
Yeah.
Okay. One of the milk brands that you see a lot in gyms is something called Fairlife.
Yeah, I've seen it. And I actually literally like had never thought about what it is or but yes, I had seen this brand.
Okay, so I don't know that much about it, but I first got kind of interested in the company reading Austin Freerick's book, Barons. There's a whole chapter in there about dairy barons. And it's about Fair Oaks, which turned into Fair Life. All I know about Fair Life is that Coke bought them. They had a big distribution deal with Coke and we know how important distribution is in the beverage industry from our previous conversations on Celsius and things like that. And it's turned into this phenomenon where Fair Life is this milk that's, I guess, supposed to be healthier. It has more protein. Yeah. Uh it has less lactose or no lactose, I can't remember. Which means you can keep it in your fridge for like a hundred days.
That's pretty cool. Which is actually I find that useful. So we should talk about it because it's also kind of kicked off this whole protein craze.
Protein oh my god, protein everywhere. I know I don't get it. Now you can get this protein drinks. I haven't tried them yet. I, you know When did it become a crime to just eat normally? I got I eat some meat and I eat some veggies and occasionally eat some carbs and stuff like that and whatever. But yeah, you get over time, it's like different macronutrients trend, right? So there was a while it's like good fats, right? People were really into fats for a while. And then it's like, Oh, you need fermented stuff. So we're after you know, let's eat more of that. It's good for your gut health. But we're in like a we're Certainly in a protein bull market right now. People really want more protein because reasons.
Yeah. And what's interesting again about Fairlife is it's making a lot of money.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–8:14
2
What is Fairlife and how did it become a catalyst for the protein boom?
8:14–22:48
3
How does Fairlife’s ultra‑pasteurization and aseptic packaging give it a shelf‑life advantage?
22:48–35:53
4
Why was Coca‑Cola’s distribution partnership crucial to Fairlife’s growth?
35:53–42:45
5
What are the historical forces that shaped today’s U.S. dairy industry?
42:45–45:25
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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