Nonsense.
There have been vitamins and protein drinks sold in stores for over 50 years. Every drug store and most grocery stores carried vitamins since the 1940s. The One-A-Day multivitamin brand appeared in 1943. My parents were born in the 1940s and they took vitamins as children. I was born in the 1960s and I took Flintstones Kids vitamins, which ere introduced in 1968.
Protein powders started showing up in drug and health food stores in the 1950s with the advent of body building becoming popular. GNC was started in the 1930s and was in every major mall across America in the 1970s, and they sold protein drinks, both liquid and powder. Remember Charles Atlas? Probably not. There have been multiple health food fads throughout American history.
Herbalife stays in business because people are gullible. The multi-level marketing business model appeals to our greed and fear of missing a good deal. None of the products offered by Tupperware, Avon, Mary Kay, Fuller Brush, Amway, and Primerica are unique in anyway and the only people getting rich are towards the top of the pyramid.