Protein Powders - how to evaluate the good, bad & ugly
There seems to be many newbies on here (as opposed to older newbies like me - ha!) who are asking lots of questions about protein. Some of them are being led down the garden path by doctor's offices that have lots of options for protein powders. However, those offices haven't done research into high-quality vs low-quality and haven't explained issues of bio-availability of different proteins to their patients. I'm cutting-and-pasting some information in here for people to consider. I'm taking this from a website so it's not my thoughts, just some things to consider. Remember, look for the PDCAAS (protein digestibility corrected amino acid score) on your protein powders! This is how you assess the quality of your protein powder. You want to purchase protein powders that score a 1.0.
WATCH OUT FOR SOY PROTEIN We don’t know of anyone who thinks soy protein is better than whey protein. There is also a growing consensus that soy is inferior even though more and more companies are using it, because it’s much cheaper. WATCH OUT FOR RICE PROTEIN It’s cheaper, but the protein quality score is lower, and even worse, it's frequently high in the toxic heavy metal cadmium WATCH OUT FOR PEA PROTEIN It’s cheaper, but the protein quality score is lower. WATCH OUT FOR CONCENTRATES AND CASEINATES You commonly see whey protein CONCENTRATE and calcium CASEINATE on the labels of the lower quality brands. Concentrates have more sugars such as lactose and less protein. Lactose is an inexpensive sugar that can cause stomach upset. CASEINATE can come from foreign sources -- countries that don’t have anything like an FDA. WATCH OUT FOR AMINO ACIDS SUCH AS TAURINE AND CREATINE Taurine has little or no value for adult humans, creatine is not an essential amino acid, it isn’t even a non-essential amino acid. But it has nitrogen, so on a typical protein test, it helps boost what LOOKS like protein for the test. And companies count it. Why do they use it? It costs only about one-quarter the cost of high quality protein (it is almost always from China). WATCH OUT FOR SUGAR ALCOHOLS Sugar alcohols usually cause digestive upset including gas and diarrhea. You can recognize them because they often end with "ITOL" in their name. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Erithritol. Perhaps the worst is XYLITOL because it is made primarily in a particularly dirty plant in China. FALSE VALUE Often these brands try to LOOK like a good value. Maybe you PAY less. But you GET a LOT less. They are a worse value in the end. Remember, it’s your health. |
Tracy 5'3" HW: 235 SW: 218 CW: 132 M1: -22 M2: -13 M3: -12 M4: -9 M5: -8 M6: -10 M7: -4
Goal reached in 7 months and 1 week!
Lower Body Lift w/Dr. Barnthouse 7-8-15
Hi Tracy,
I've enjoyed your posts and comments. Thank you for this information on protein powders. I've had a terrible time finding powders without atificial sweeteners! The artificial sweeteners give me thrush so I consider myself "allergic". I found a Gold Standard Natural Whey Protein that works great and Kees protein juice is also all natural. I had to search high and low for these two liquid protein sources though so I thought I'd share.
