For most of the history of dairy, whey was the stuff you got rid of - the watery byproduct left after milk becomes cheese, fed to hogs or poured out while the actual product went to market. In 2026, with an entire nation proteinmaxxing its way through GLP-1 prescriptions and 40-gram breakfast bars, the 'cheddar' isn't in the cheese itself: America is now producing record amounts of cheese because that's how you get whey.