A growing controversy surrounding David protein bars — a viral favorite among wellness influencers — is drawing comparisons to the movie “Mean Girls.”
A class action lawsuit filed in January alleges that the popular bars have more than 400% more fat and 80% more calories than advertised. It has prompted a flurry of recent social media posts referring to the film’s queen-bee character Regina George, who finds out that the “healthy” diet bars she was given are actually making her gain weight, not lose it. Others likened the situation to the “Seinfeld” episode in which the “nonfat” yogurt that everyone’s obsessed with is — spoiler alert — full of fat.
On Wednesday, the company’s founder, Peter Rahal, responded in a statement on X: “No one is getting Regina Georged.”
In an interview, Rahal said the issue comes down to the way calories are calculated.
“It’s a frivolous case where they’re using the wrong measurement and method to measure calories,” he said.
The labels on David protein bars — which come in flavors like fudge brownie, blueberry pie and cake batter — list 150 calories and 2 grams of fat. But the lawsuit describes independent tests that found the bars to have 268 to 275 calories per serving and 11 to 13.5 grams of fat.
The plaintiffs say the discrepancy violates Food and Drug Administration standards, which mandate that the nutrient content of a food item not exceed the declared value by more than 20%.
But Rahal said the plaintiffs’ testing was flawed. The discrepancy, he said, has to do with an ingredient in David protein bars called esterified propoxylated glycerol, or EPG, a modified plant-based fat substitute that moves through the body without getting digested.
“This is what makes David have 150 calories,” Rahal said. “It’s really a special ingredient that allows the food to taste like fat but doesn’t have the caloric impact.”
The laboratory cited in the lawsuit, Rahal said, used a device called a bomb calorimeter to calculate the calories in David bars. That method includes the calories in nondigestible ingredients — including EPG — in its count, he added.
“The science is unequivocal. You don’t use a bomb calorimeter to measure nonnutritive things. It’s very, very basic,” Rahal said.
The calorie count listed on David protein bars, Rahal added, is based on a calculation of just the calories the body absorbs. The company complied with FDA regulations when it developed its bars, he said.
The lawsuit does not specify the method used to measure the calories. Anresco Laboratories, which did the testing, said it could not comment because of confidentiality agreements.
Amy Goodson, a registered dietitian, said EPG has been around as an ingredient since the 1980s and has gone mainstream in recent years.
“This ingredient allows you to actually put less fat grams on the food label itself, because it yields 92% less calories than a typical gram of fat would,” she said. “It’s resistant to digestive enzymes, so it’s going through your system, but it’s not actually digesting.”
That’s a confusing concept for the everyday consumer, Goodson added.
“We look at a nutrition facts label and assume that what’s on the label is what’s in the product,” she said.
David Protein, founded in 2024, quickly rose to prominence, with top names in the wellness and longevity space signing on as investors, including Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist and podcaster, and Peter Attia, a celebrity doctor and author. Last month, Attia stepped down as chief science officer at David Protein amid backlash over his emails with Jeffrey Epstein.
The hype around David bars has come amid a national obsession with protein. The new U.S. dietary guidelines, unveiled in January, place a heavy emphasis on protein, recommending it at every meal. Brands have capitalized on the craze: “Doritos Protein” chips hit store shelves this month, Starbucks is selling protein matcha, and the company Protein Pints even advertises high-protein ice cream.
Rahal said David Protein plans to fight the lawsuit.
“Any time you’re on the forefront of innovation, there’s confusion,” he said. “We stand by our product fully.”
