You don’t need me to tell you that the US is in the midst of an obsession with protein. By now, you’ve probably seen extra protein in foods and beverages it once didn’t belong: ice cream, popcorn, iced tea — even water. Google searches for “protein” have surged in recent years, and the macronutrient seems to be on the tip of every fitness influencers’ tongue.

But the impact of the protein craze goes beyond snacks and social media. It helped the meat industry achieve record sales in 2024, and it likely contributed to a surprising change in American eating habits: Last year, for the first time in 15 years, consumers increased their cow’s milk consumption.

Perhaps no company has both benefited from and accelerated these converging trends more than Fairlife, the Coca-Cola-owned milk brand that contains zero lactose and boasts 50 percent more protein and 50 percent less sugar than regular milk. That unique nutritional profile, achieved through a patented “ultra-filtration” process, has helped turn Fairlife into a billion-dollar business in under a decade, ranking second in name-brand refrigerated milk sales last year.

“There’s this obsession with protein [among] young men right now that’s just been blockbuster to” Fairlife, agriculture researcher Austin Frerick, author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, told me. The company’s success has been a godsend for Coca-Cola, which became Fairlife’s sole owner in 2020; it’s now the beverage giant’s fastest-growing US brand.

Fairlife has distinguished itself not just with its high protein content, but also by claiming........

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