These Protein Bars Signal A Pro-Masculine Cultural Shift

A few months ago, I came across a Facebook ad for “David” protein bars. The name of the bars struck me as random until I visited the website, where I was greeted by a well-chiseled chest, a reference to the sculpture of the quintessential manly man, Michelangelo’s “David.” 

The bars are the brainchild of recent celebrity nutritionist and longevity guru Dr. Peter Attia, who is quite the Renaissance man himself. The website claims the bars are “the most effective portable protein on this planet.”

Full disclosure: I bought them. I mean, even women want “more protein and fewer calories” to help us “increase muscle and decrease body fat.” I am on a constant quest for a protein bar to ensure I ingest the recommended gram of protein per pound of body weight daily, according to the latest research. You try getting in 145 grams of protein a day. It’s a full-time job. After one serving, I determined the bar is not for me and took advantage of their refund policy. 

But I digress. This is not meant to be a taste review of protein bars. After another ad for another protein bar popped up on my Facebook feed — this one called “Jacob,” the “world’s cleanest protein bar” — I became curious about the biblical references. 

Could man’s search for meaning be found in a protein bar? 

While the name of the second bar seems to originate in the founder’s name (Jake Levy), it’s hard to deny that both companies are appealing to more than men’s vanity. With their scriptural brands, they are striking at the very heart of what it means to be manly. 

These protein bars are not meant for sensitive beta males. No, these bars are meant for manly men. Men who walk through life with intention and purpose. Men on a mission. Men who wake up at 4:30 a.m. for a cold plunge and workout and return home after a full day of toiling for a sauna and rare grass-fed steak with a big slab of butter on it after a three-day water fast. Indeed, this kind of alpha male has been deemed toxic and seems to have been glaringly absent from public view in the past four years. 

However, Trump’s appointments and current events signal that masculinity — and all that comes with it — is making a comeback. Pete Hegseth (manly in all the right and wrong ways), Tom Homan (the new border czar, who looks like a prohibition-era gangster), and a freshly acquitted Daniel Penny are all evidence that the boys are back in town, and they’re here to restore order and discipline to a chaotic, unpredictable, and even dangerous culture. 

A little over a decade ago, Jordan Peterson recognized the devastation a world without manliness would cause and tapped into men’s inherent desire for purpose and meaning with great success. Now, brands and personalities, such as Andrew Huberman (a bro buddy of Attia), want to follow in his footsteps and monetize the trend. 

The copy on the Jacob website states that the bar “represents the best of us. It’s who we can aspire to be like. It’s the version of yourself that keeps promises and does what your supposed to do.” I’d like to note that grammatical errors on a business website — confusing “your” and “you’re” — are not very manly, but I’ll overlook that for now. 

In essence, the Jacob bar will help you evolve into the man God has created you to be. These bars are not just selling men nutrition; it’s much deeper than that. These protein bars are selling virtue. And they’re selling it to the type of man who “doesn’t settle for less than the best. You find a solution. You make it work.”

Indeed, with their “clean ingredients,” these bars are a path to purity. Like the carnivore diet or intermittent fasting, real men strip their lives down to the bare essentials. There is nothing frivolous or unnecessary about their regimes, including their diets. 

I will not deny that a chiseled chest and that little “V” that appears between a man’s upper and lower body when he is lean and muscular are highly attractive. However, they’re simply byproducts of being a disciplined, ambitious, and dedicated man living a rightly ordered life. In an era of excess and convenience, asceticism is a welcome change. It is a sign of morality and strength. 

However, the newest additions to the crowded protein bar space may aim to distinguish themselves by capitalizing on men’s deepest spiritual yearnings. But protein bars are not sacramental, and salvation is not a matter of dietary choices. 

It remains to be seen if the latest marketing strategies will be effective. It would greatly benefit society if they succeed. If there’s anything this culture needs right now, it’s a healthy dose of strong and moral men. The label of a protein bar that promotes such men could be a step in the right direction. 

Still, men would do well to remember that physique is developed in the gym and the kitchen; inner strength and character are built in churches, through daily spiritual disciplines, and cultivating close relationships with the people they love and are called to protect. 

Jennifer Galardi spent decades as a health and wellness expert and writes about health, culture, and policy. She is a health reporter for The Epoch Times and founder and director of Center for Healthy America. Her work has also been published in The New York Sun, The Blaze, and The American Spectator, along with countless health outlets. Follow her on X at @JennGalardi or visit her website.