{"id":432067,"date":"2025-09-17T21:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432067\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T21:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:09:22","slug":"inside-the-battle-for-the-fat-substitute-epg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432067\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Battle for the Fat Substitute EPG"},"content":{"rendered":"

M<\/strong>CKAY FUGAL WOKE <\/strong>up to an email one morning this past spring that made his stomach drop. The subject line was unremarkable, the tone polite. But the message in the attached document was devastating. Epogee, the supplier of the most critical ingredient in the line of low-fat, high-protein chocolate bars he\u2019d helped invent, was cutting the business off. No negotiation, no warning. Just a brief note to say that any pending orders would be fulfilled, but then no more, effective immediately. <\/p>\n

Together, Fugal and his wife, Leilani, had spent the past three years building their start-up, Defiant Chocolate, out of a rented commercial kitchen south of Salt Lake City. Mckay, a competitive bodybuilder and commercial real estate broker by day, and Leilani, a former college basketball player who worked full-time at the start-up, weren\u2019t in business just for a payday. Defiant was their dream\u2014their after-hours obsession\u2014and it was their answer to a massive gap in the health food market.<\/p>\n

To make their chocolate bars somewhat healthy, replacing the sugar was easy enough: Defiant settled on a mix of erythritol and monk fruit as the sweetener. But then they had to address the fat content\u2014because, well, without fat, you don\u2019t have chocolate. By just reducing the fat and boosting the protein, they\u2019d end up with a dry, chalky bar that nobody would want to eat. Trickier still, adding protein raised the calorie count too high. \u201cWe\u2019d be looking at a 400-calorie bar, and nobody\u2019s going to buy that,\u201d recalls Fugal. They needed something to replace the fat that would still allow for a creamy, rich texture\u2014which they eventually found, via Google, in a lab-engineered fat substitute called EPG, manufactured by a little-known Indianapolis-based company called Epogee. <\/p>\n

After tinkering with the product formulation, the Fugals set up a website in 2024 and began promoting the bars at local bodybuilding shows and farmers markets. This year things were finally set to take off in a bigger way. Defiant had just invested in new packaging, new equipment, and a small warehouse that could serve larger-scale production needs better than their rented commercial kitchen could. Then the Epogee email arrived.
<\/p>\n

The reason for the sudden cutoff was simple, the Fugals learned: David, a protein bar company launched by RxBar cofounder Peter Rahal and funded by wellness celebrities such as the bestselling author Peter Attia, MD, and the podcasting Stanford professor Andrew Huberman, PhD, had acquired Epogee. David\u2019s protein bar, wrapped in a shiny gold metallic wrapper with a macronutrient profile that blew away anything else on the market (28 grams of protein, zero sugar, and just 150 calories per bar), had been on an absolute tear since it debuted the previous September. The company sold $10 million worth of bars in its first four months alone, and Rahal was projecting more than $100 million in sales for the first full year in business. After raising $75 million from investors this spring, the company purchased Epogee, and Rahal\u2019s first act as the new owner was to take control of the EPG supply. <\/p>\n

\n

DAVID\u2019S PROTEIN BAR, wrapped in a SHINY GOLD METALLIC wrapper with a macronutrient profile that BLEW AWAY anything else on the market, had been on an ABSOLUTE TEAR since it debuted the previous September.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When Fugal called his contact at Epogee to ask if any other companies using EPG, besides David, would be able to continue to receive their supplies, he was told no, he says. That would turn out to be not quite right\u2014Rahal told Men\u2019s Health that his company would \u201ccontinue to supply EPG to all previous customers who had supply contracts with Epogee prior to the acquisition,\u201d but he declined to identify those customers or say how many there are. In any case, the contact told Fugal that perhaps they could pick things up again at a future date. But, of course, by then Defiant would likely be out of business. <\/p>\n

Four days after receiving that email, on June 2, Defiant joined two other food start-ups and Epogee customers in the same position\u2014a Calgary-based nut butter brand called Own Your Hunger and a Nashville-based sauce maker called Lighten Up Foods\u2014and filed a lawsuit against Rahal; David\u2019s parent company, Linus Technologies; and Epogee in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the defendants of unlawful monopolization in violation of federal antitrust laws. The lawsuit alleges systematic supply denial, arguing that David\u2019s complete control of EPG has walled off access to a unique and essential ingredient, freezing out competitors and effectively eliminating innovation for EPG-dependent companies. <\/p>\n

David promptly responded in court documents that the plaintiffs \u201conly have themselves to blame\u201d because they should have had the foresight to lock in long-term contracts with Epogee to secure a reliable supply of their key ingredient. But the company\u2019s main argument is that David\u2019s share of the protein bar market is in the low single digits, that Epogee is a small player in the fat substitute market, and that none of the plaintiffs even make protein bars, which means there can be no monopoly in either the protein bar market or the fat substitute market. It\u2019s a fair point, but it hardly slowed down the growing controversy that has, in the weeks since, spread across the Internet and exposed a deep rift at the very heart of the public\u2019s understanding of health foods. And it didn\u2019t do much to explain why a brand named David was suddenly acting very much like Goliath. <\/p>\n

\"goldA Soiled History <\/p>\n

THE STORY OF<\/strong> the battle over EPG\u2014why the ingredient is so valuable and whether it will eventually find its way into products throughout the grocery store\u2014goes back several decades, and it begins with one of the most notorious debacles in modern food science. Does \u201cOlestra\u201d ring a bell?<\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, the hype over Olestra was inescapable. Developed by Procter & Gamble for a cool half-billion dollars, the original lab-made fat substitute promised the holy grail: snacks that tasted just as good as the full-fat versions but with zero fat and zero calories absorbed by the body. Frito-Lay rolled it out in fat-free versions of Ruffles and Lay\u2019s under the name Wow! The ingredient was hailed as a miracle of modern nutrition\u2014until the side effects started showing up.<\/p>\n

Olestra was undigestible. That was its key attribute; it passed right through the digestive tract and therefore wouldn\u2019t result in body fat. The problem was its low melting point in the body, which led to an infamously polite phrase printed on the Wow! labels: \u201cMay cause abdominal cramping and loose stools.\u201d But in practice, some consumers reported much worse: painful gas, severe diarrhea, and, in more than a few cases, oily anal leakage. The public and media reaction was merciless, and in the ensuing years, the product became a national punch line and got pulled from many markets.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Olestra wasn\u2019t the only fat substitute emerging from labs in that era. In the late \u201990s, Michael Davidson, MD, a cardiologist and lipid expert who had performed some of the clinical research on Olestra, found himself working on trials of a new fat substitute that offered the same calorie-slashing benefits as Olestra but with better tolerability and no need for a warning label: EPG (esterified propoxylated glycerol), a family of fat- and oil-like substances that resemble triglycerides (the most common type of fat found in your body) in structure and appearance but have been modified to prevent or limit their digestion when consumed in food.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEPG was done as essentially A BETTER OLESTRA. At the time, FAT was the BIG CULPRIT for HEART DISEASE. So we wanted to find a way to make DIETS HEALTHIER.\u201d
\u2014Dr. Davidson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEPG was done as essentially a better Olestra,\u201d he explains, referring to EPG\u2019s higher melting point in the body, which allows it to stay solid and move through the digestive tract more slowly. Unlike Olestra, EPG doesn\u2019t prevent absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, and E, though it does have a slight impact on beta-carotene and vitamin K levels. The fat substitute had been developed by the chemical division of the oil-and-gas giant ARCO back in the 1980s, as part of that company\u2019s effort to diversify into new areas of business. In the \u201990s, the then\u2013parent company of Hellmann\u2019s mayonnaise, Best Foods, joined ARCO in a strategic partnership to bring EPG to market. \u201cAt the time, fat was the big culprit for heart disease,\u201d says Dr. Davidson. \u201cSo we wanted to find a way to make diets healthier.\u201d <\/p>\n

ARCO and Best Foods sponsored the research that tested EPG for safety and side effects. One study that determined tolerable consumption levels, which Dr. Davidson authored with an industry consultant and food scientist named David Bechtel, PhD, was conducted in 1997, not long after Olestra first began to appear on store shelves. Within a year, the Olestra debacle buried the entire concept of fat substitutes. EPG was dead before it ever made it onto a product label.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, ARCO was purchased by the energy company BP, Best Foods was bought by the multinational giant Unilever, and in the process, all the research and development materials around EPG were donated to Kansas State University, where they essentially sat on a shelf for more than a decade. The entire national attitude toward weight loss began to shift in the meantime. \u201cAtkins was getting more and more popular,\u201d Dr. Davidson remembers, \u201cand people started moving away from worrying about fat and worrying more about carbs and sugars. The idea of a fat substitute didn\u2019t have the same value.\u201d <\/p>\n

A chemical industry executive from Indiana named David Rowe negotiated with Kansas State to get the EPG materials in exchange for royalties and equity through a company he created called Choco Finesse. After reenlisting Bechtel, who\u2019d conducted the earlier research on EPG, Choco Finesse managed to get the old research published and secure GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status from the FDA, a process in which companies seek to have ingredients certified as safe for human consumption without needing pre-market review by the FDA.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Epogee was born, as a subsidiary of Choco Finesse and a supplier of EPG to other food tinkerers looking to hack nutrition. A few companies like Defiant began experimenting with EPG in chocolate coatings, baked goods, and ice cream, but it wasn\u2019t until Rahal, the David founder, arrived on the scene that the novel fat substitute got its long-delayed shot at the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\"goldThe King of Protein Bars<\/p>\n

W<\/strong>EARING A FEW <\/strong>days\u2019 stubble and a white David Protein half-zip sweatshirt, 39-year-old Peter Rahal doesn\u2019t look all that different from the scrappy health food hustlers suing him\u2014and David Protein\u2019s spare, loftlike NYC offices don\u2019t exactly scream Big Food as much as pugnacious, move-fast-and-break-things start-up. Despite his lawyers advising him not to, Rahal eventually spoke to me one day this summer as the lawsuit trudged forward and the parties filed motions and counter-motions. \u201cThanks for your empathy and patience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Rahal cofounded RxBar back in 2013, he was very much the same kind of kitchen-table innovator that Mckay and Leilani Fugal are today. With just $10,000 of their own money, he and a buddy, Jared Smith, turned simple ingredients like egg whites, dates, and nuts into a line of protein bars that they first sold in CrossFit gyms and other fitness strongholds. Rahal\u2019s transformation into a food industry icon came when Kellogg Co. acquired RxBar, just four years after its launch, for $600 million. News of that price tag, which was nearly five times the company\u2019s revenue at the time, rippled across the business world. <\/p>\n

When RxBar debuted, Rahal positioned it squarely in the paleo tradition, which was the reigning diet fad at the time. In the paleo world, the enemy wasn\u2019t fat or carbs but rather anything that our prehistoric hunter-gatherer ancestors might not have consumed (in other words, no processed foods). Wrapped in plastic and machined into a pocket-friendly form, RxBars weren\u2019t exactly prehistoric, but their emphasis on whole ingredients and \u201cno B.S.\u201d (as the tagline put it) worked well enough. <\/p>\n

\"petercourtesy brand<\/p>\n

Peter Rahal, above, cofounded David Protein with Zach Ranen. Ranen is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. <\/p>\n

Rahal says he felt burned when the world moved on from paleo diets. \u201cI was like, \u2018Wait a second, you guys, I built a business for this and you all left.\u2019\u200a\u201d So in the fall of 2023, he decided to build his next bar based on what he deems a more \u201crigorous approach\u201d to nutrition that considers processed foods acceptable in a healthy diet. \u201cIt\u2019s not that natural is good and artificial is automatically bad,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that simple. What does matter is getting an adequate amount of protein and not overeating calories. And don\u2019t spike your blood sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, apps like MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, and Noom have made it easy to track your macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) and optimize your nutrition. Rahal took the macros concept and boiled it down one step further with the help of the longevity guru Dr. Attia, who invested in David\u2019s initial $10 million funding round and signed on as the company\u2019s chief science officer. \u201cWe wanted to create a more intellectual view on evaluating basic processed food quality,\u201d Rahal says, \u201cso we came up with the concept of CFP: calories from protein.\u201d The label of every David bar says that 75 percent of its calories are from protein, a number the company says is roughly 50 percent higher than that of any competitor. According to the David website, a Built bar has 52 percent and a Quest bar has 47 percent. <\/p>\n

Just as the Defiant owners found, achieving that kind of macro profile along with a satisfying mouthfeel came down to the ingredient that would deliver or mimic fat. Rahal and his team considered everything from almond butter to beef tallow, but they all had drawbacks, whether it was a strong taste or health concerns. \u201cAnd when we found EPG, I was like, \u2018My god, what an innovation. You\u2019re delivering all the benefits of fat without any of the caloric impact!\u2019\u200a\u201d (EPG contains only 0.7 calories per gram, compared to 9 calories per gram in traditional fats.) Even better, no sizable brand anywhere was using it yet.<\/p>\n

When David Protein launched in September 2024, it entered the market like a conquering army. Backed by the health and fitness elite, the brand arrived with instant cultural currency and one hell of a marketing campaign. Thousands of people had already posted their reviews of the bars by launch day, thanks to a special giveaway from the company, and online sales took off. In its first six weeks alone, David sold more than 1 million bars at 39 bucks for a box of 12, available in eight flavors ranging from blueberry pie to salted peanut butter. A blurb on the David website sums up the swaggering entrance: \u201cWe thank our predecessors in the protein industry. We\u2019ll take it from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PROTEIN BAR ARMS RACE<\/p>\n

How David stacks up against some of the most popular bars on the market.
\"the<\/p>\n

Courtesy brands<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"goldToilet Turmoil <\/p>\n

AS DAVID PROTEIN’S<\/strong> profile rose in those months after its debut, so did tension with the people who make up the so-called Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which, much as paleo did, rejects ultra-processed foods. To many in the health-conscious circles David targeted, EPG and the bar itself\u2014the very definition of a processed food product\u2014were the antithesis of what they stood for. <\/p>\n

One Redditor on r\/PeterAttia put it bluntly: \u201cHave some steak, chicken, or seafood instead. You don\u2019t need a protein candy bar, regardless of what the ingredients are.\u201d \u201cJust show me an ingredient list with no fluff,\u201d said another. That some of the most heated comments were made on a Subreddit dedicated to Dr. Attia underscored how divisive David quickly became, as followers of one of the most admired wellness celebrities began to turn on him. \u201cAttia is high on his own supply,\u201d said one commenter. Dr. Attia was unavailable to speak with Men\u2019s Health for this article.<\/p>\n

And then the threads about EPG started to appear. \u201cDavid bars literally destroyed my gut with EPG,\u201d said a Redditor on r\/Volumeeating. \u201cNo fart is safe now,\u201d said another on r\/PeterAttia. One of the especially graphic phenomena described in social media posts about EPG: orange flecks of a fatlike substance in people\u2019s stool, which is apparently pretty common.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause EPG is not digested, people should expect that, like undigested carrots or beets or whatever, it\u2019s going to come through pretty much unchanged,\u201d explains Bechtel, who authored the research on EPG\u2019s tolerability. \u201cThey should expect their stool consistency to reflect the difference in composition.\u201d That is: Yes, your poops might creep you out; don\u2019t be alarmed. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBecause EPG is NOT DIGESTED, people should EXPECT that, like undigested carrots or beets or whatever, it\u2019s going to come through pretty much UNCHANGED. They should expect their STOOL CONSISTENCY to reflect the DIFFERENCE IN COMPOSITION.\u201d
\u2014Bechtel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to published studies, EPG is safe to consume\u2014at least if you don\u2019t binge on it. When three comparison groups consumed 10, 25, and 40 grams of EPG per day, \u201cgastrointestinal adverse events\u201d (gas with discharge, diarrhea, liquid stool\u2026) were reported more frequently by people in the groups that consumed 25 or 40 grams per day, one study found. But 10 grams of EPG per day \u201cwas reasonably well tolerated.\u201d David Protein doesn\u2019t disclose how many grams of EPG are in each of its bars. (The company says the 2 grams of fat listed on the label doesn\u2019t include EPG, using the FDA\u2019s classification guidance, but that the ingredient is accounted for in the total calorie count.) David does, however, suggest a limit of two bars per day on its website. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the primary studies on EPG were industry-funded, commissioned by EPG\u2019s then owners, and written up years later by Bechtel on behalf of Epogee\u2019s parent company. That the research was paid for by the company that also stood to profit from it might give anyone pause\u2014but like it or not, the arrangement is standard practice in the food world. Both Bechtel and Dr. Davidson insist that their work on EPG went through rigorous FDA review, in part because of the legacy of Olestra. In any case, their studies offer the best available data. <\/p>\n

When I reached out to Eric Decker, PhD, a lipid chemist and professor emeritus in the food science department at UMass Amherst, he echoed Dr. Davidson and Bechtel\u2019s sentiments on safety\u2014and likened EPG to dietary fiber, which is also nondigestible and could cause problems if you overconsume it. <\/p>\n

Dr. Davidson, who says Dr. Attia consulted him about how much EPG to include in the formulation when the David bars were still in development, shrugs when I ask him about the reports of toilet troubles spreading across the Internet. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe they\u2019re having three bars a day. Obviously there is a threshold where once you cross it, you\u2019re going to get some side effects.\u201d And different people and different circumstances can lead to different results. \u201cEveryone has different GI transit times\u2014some fast, some slow. And what are they eating it with?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"goldJust Business<\/p>\n

IT DIDN’T TAKE <\/strong>long for Rahal to see that his hit new protein product was going to run into trouble\u2014and it wasn\u2019t because of the poop-filled Reddit threads. Rather, it was a problem every business owner simultaneously dreams of and fears: when supply can\u2019t keep up with demand. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to acquire Epogee came after the launch of our bars, when it became clear that demand was rapidly outpacing our supply\u2014and that Epogee lacked the plans and capital to scale manufacturing on its own,\u201d Rahal says. \u201cGiven how critical EPG is to our product and our growth trajectory, the acquisition was a move to ensure we could scale production to meet demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rahal, Epogee has the capacity to make 3 million pounds of EPG per year, but David\u2019s annual demand, based on its sales rate this summer, is already at 4 million pounds. And it takes time to build up manufacturing capacity. \u201cNo one expected our growth to be the way it was,\u201d he says. The company\u2019s website was, by early September, fully sold out of protein bars.<\/p>\n

Following the acquisition of Epogee, nutrition-focused communities across the Internet began to criticize the brand for the move and advocate for the small-business founders David squeezed out\u2014people like the Fugals at Defiant. <\/p>\n

\u201c[David is] monopolizing access to a better-for-you product. One that they did not even create\u2026and now they want to prohibit access to future better-for-you brands like their own.\u2026 It\u2019s shameless,\u201d wrote one Redditor on r\/Volumeeating. \u201cNever buying one of their bars again,\u201d wrote another. \u201cToo bad. So sad. Bye bye.\u201d Across TikTok and Instagram, creators posted merciless videos criticizing David and its founder, some vowing to boycott the bars.<\/p>\n

In their legal complaint, Own Your Hunger, Lighten Up Foods, and Defiant Foods said they\u2019d collectively lost more than $100,000 in sales and roughly $450,000 in research and development costs and were hemorrhaging $15,000 per month in overhead costs while sitting idle. Meanwhile, David had stockpiled two years of EPG supply, the suit alleged. David responded in a court filing that the company wasn\u2019t stockpiling or blocking anyone for competitive reasons but rather making a prudent business decision to secure access to a key ingredient. <\/p>\n

Rahal explains the decision to Men\u2019s Health: \u201cIn business, I\u2019m hypersensitive to dependencies. I\u2019m thinking about \u2018Who\u2019s going to kill me? How am I going to die?\u2019 And I think that\u2019s a really important mindset: You need to protect any sort of dependency you have as a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"theGlenn Harvey<\/p>\n

The lawsuit will likely take months, if not years, to resolve, as antitrust cases are often very complex.<\/p>\n

According to Abe Wickelgren, PhD, an expert in antitrust law at the University of Texas School of Law, David\u2019s maneuver in buying a key supplier\u2014what\u2019s known in business as vertical integration\u2014may be harder to argue against than consolidating power by buying a key competitor. It might be a jerk move to other growing brands. It might seem unfair. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it\u2019s a legal problem.<\/p>\n

Epogee\u2019s patent on EPG represents a monopoly no matter who owns it\u2014that\u2019s the case with anything patented, says Wickelgren. \u201cThe patent system basically gives monopoly power as a way to incentivize innovation,\u201d he explains. \u201c[Epogee] can exploit that monopoly either by remaining independent and selling EPG at inflated monopoly prices to everybody, or they can integrate with somebody and become the only party who can make anything with EPG.\u201d Put simply, David didn\u2019t create the situation in which one company owns the exclusive rights to EPG; it just acquired that company.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the lawsuit is hopeless for the plaintiffs, Wickelgren adds, but \u201cit\u2019s going to be expensive, they\u2019re going to have to hire experts, and the court will probably not rule for them quickly.\u201d <\/p>\n

The key would be demonstrating harm to consumers more broadly, beyond just EPG bars, according to Wickelgren\u2014a sentiment the plaintiffs share. \u201cDenying EPG access to innovative companies impacts your food choices,\u201d says Own Your Hunger founder Ruz Safai in a statement to Men\u2019s Health. \u201cThis ingredient revolutionized healthy eating by cutting fat calories while keeping food satisfying. Innovative companies that spent years developing products to help you achieve your health and fitness goals are now getting shut out of the market. The result? Far fewer healthy eating options for everyone trying to eat better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plenty of consumers have been making a version of the same case, arguing that David\u2019s locking up of EPG is not just a jerk move to the small-business founders who got iced out, but a jerk move to regular folks who want more choices in the market. If EPG really is a holy grail ingredient, a fat substitute that works\u2014no weird taste, no digestive disasters (though some may argue that actual fat is better since it helps your gut absorb nutrients)\u2014then why shouldn\u2019t more products use it? Why shouldn\u2019t more people benefit? That\u2019s exactly the point made by creator @formerfatguyfitness in a viral TikTok tirade: \u201cI don\u2019t care what excuse they\u2019re trying to use.\u2026 You don\u2019t bogart it and create a monopoly.\u2026 You\u2019re taking an ingredient that could change people\u2019s lives and saying it\u2019ll only work if we can profit off it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statements like that hint at another compelling question. If EPG is such a game-changing ingredient with so many potential uses, why didn\u2019t a giant company with a broad portfolio of products\u2014General Mills, say, or Kraft Heinz, or Unilever\u2014swoop in and buy it first? Why would a niche player like David end up with the opportunity?<\/p>\n

One possible answer: because EPG is a limited-use ingredient. If the limit of tolerability is around 20 grams, as Bechtel\u2019s study suggests, you can\u2019t build an entire product portfolio around it. A multinational conglomerate couldn\u2019t stick it into shakes, frozen meals, and sauces\u2014let alone cookies, chips, and other bingeable snack foods\u2014without potentially causing mass gastrointestinal regret. But if one company controls EPG and tightly manages how much ends up in consumers\u2019 hands, the risk of overconsumption goes down.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn business, I\u2019m HYPERSENSITIVE to DEPENDENCIES. I\u2019m thinking about \u2018Who\u2019s going to KILL ME? How am I going to DIE?\u2019 And I think that\u2019s a really important MINDSET: You need to PROTECT any sort of DEPENDENCY you have as a brand.\u201d
\u2014Rahal<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which raises an interesting possibility: Maybe David didn\u2019t lock up EPG to dominate the market. Maybe Rahal\u2019s company did it to protect the market. Because if too many brands flood the shelves with EPG-laced products and consumers start suffering, the whole category could implode before it ever fully takes off.<\/p>\n

Rahal scoffs at the theory that there could be an oversaturation of the market and believes the actual usage limit of EPG is 40 grams per day, despite his company\u2019s clear language that \u201coverconsumption\u201d of more than two bars \u201cmay cause GI effects.\u201d Regarding large conglomerates that could have bought Epogee before him, he concedes that widespread GI distress is \u201cprobably their fear\u201d but chalks that up to the risk-averse nature of big business, compared to the gutsy plays of a start-up. <\/p>\n

Bechtel suggests the bigger companies might just be playing a wait-and-see game, allowing a more cavalier entrepreneur to take the risk for them. \u201cIt could be a point of resistance where a company would say, \u2018Okay, you go first. We\u2019re right behind you.\u2019\u200a\u201d <\/p>\n

\"goldFishing for Answers<\/p>\n

AS THE LAWSUIT <\/strong>drags on, David Protein isn\u2019t sitting still. In mid-July, the company made a surprise move that many suspected was a marketing ploy to distract attention from the EPG controversy: It launched single-serving pouches of cod. No, not a cod-flavored protein bar, but frozen, wild-caught Pacific cod, with instructions to boil before eating. <\/p>\n

On Instagram, the launch video played more like a perfume ad than a food drop. A beautiful woman dressed in a white unitard walks into a locker room, opens a steel locker, and pulls out a plate of cod. She takes a slow, sensual bite. The camera lingers on her chewing face. \u201cIntroducing Boiled Cod,\u201d the screen reads. \u201cSlightly more protein per calorie than our bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahal doubled down in a LinkedIn post, calling boiled cod \u201cthe most effective, portable protein out there.\u201d Indeed, a six-ounce serving of boiled cod contains about 23 grams of protein, zero fat, zero carbs, and about 100 calories, making it one of the leanest whole-food protein sources available. A David bar, by comparison, delivers a little bit more protein but also more calories. Side by side, cod is the healthier choice.<\/p>\n

The idea traces back to Dr. Attia and the effort, early in David Protein\u2019s prelaunch development, to coin calories-from-protein as the key quality metric and create a comparison chart showing David\u2019s protein number topping those of other bar companies. As Rahal recalls, \u201cPeter [Attia] was like, \u2018No one will trust your comparison chart if you\u2019re number one,\u2019 so he set out to find something better and came back and said, \u2018I\u2019ve found it and it\u2019s perfect! It\u2019s boiled cod. And it has to be boiled; it can\u2019t be saut\u00e9ed.\u2019\u200a\u201d Rahal thought that was \u201chilarious,\u201d he says, so he posted a picture of a piece of cod on the site to fill out his protein comparison chart. <\/p>\n

The decision to sell cod this summer lit up social media. One commenter on LinkedIn called it a \u201cchess-level move.\u201d Another joked: \u201cNext move: buy the ocean it\u2019s caught in.\u201d PR strategist Lauren Kleinman posted a lengthy argument calling David\u2019s move a master class in communications jujitsu: \u201cFrom a PR perspective, David Protein\u2019s wild cod was genius.\u2026 In the wake of the supplier controversy, the cod [launch] shifted media and consumer focus back to the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t start this company to make a QUICK BUCK and SELL IT DOWN THE ROAD. This is something we\u2019ve put YEARS OF OUR LIFE into, and we\u2019re NOT GOING TO PART with it easily.\u201d
\u2014Fugal<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But not everyone was buying it. In fact, more than one observer pointed out the unintentional irony: \u201cThat beautiful piece of cod makes their core product seem even more artificial and ultra-processed.\u201d Which raises a fair question: If the macros are so good in something as simple as a piece of fish cooked in hot water, why do we need fancy lab-engineered bars at all?<\/p>\n

Rahal\u2019s counterpoint is obvious enough: Bars are easier to carry around and eat on the run. And if you want the highest-protein, lowest-fat bar, there\u2019s one place to go. Eventually, he says, when Epogee has ramped up production, it will open back up to other customers, possibly as soon as 2026. Though he maintains that David will have \u201cmost-favored nation\u201d status with Epogee, meaning its needs will always come over those of potential competitors. <\/p>\n

The market for fat replacers, meanwhile, is expected to keep growing in the coming years, according to a recent report from the market intelligence firm Lucintel, and companies around the world are using everything from yeast fermentation to AI technology to reengineer fats. Aspiring founders are surely watching those developments with dreams of building the next big breakout brand. And David and its investors are moving as aggressively as possible to stay ahead, so they can be in position to get themselves the kind of payout that Rahal already delivered once before. <\/p>\n

Mckay Fugal doesn\u2019t have the luxury of waiting for anything. He needs access to EPG now for Defiant to stay in business. \u201cWe didn\u2019t start this company to make a quick buck and sell it down the road,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is something we\u2019ve put years of our life into, and we\u2019re not going to part with it easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Story\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Tom Foster is an award-winning journalist who writes about innovation and entrepreneurship. His work has appeared in Inc., Fast Company, Texas Monthly, and many other publications. He lives in Austin. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MCKAY FUGAL WOKE up to an email one morning this past spring that made his stomach drop. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[83683,146941,14732,105,1381,4434,146940,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-432067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-content-type-apple-news-issue","9":"tag-contentid-628b423e-1676-4700-ab99-213569eb1671","10":"tag-displaytype-long-form-article","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-locale-us","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-shorttitle-the-battle-for-the-holy-grail-of-fat-substitutes","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115221690682985967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}