Let me throw this hypothetical at you: How would you know if the protein powder you’re using is any good? It’s not like poor quality stuff would make you feel any worse, and if you didn’t add any muscle during the time you were using it, you’d likely blame it on your diet, your training program, or even your mom and pop for passing on some rotten genes. Your protein powder is probably the last thing you’d blame, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what some scurrilous protein manufacturers are counting on. Your Honor, Let Me Present My Case I’ve been involved at some level in the design, manufacture, or marketing of various high-quality protein powders for almost 30 years. While making good protein powders was a moral imperative, it was also a selfish endeavor because I wanted to personally use protein powder that works as advertised. I’m a lifter and I want to be healthier, so there’s no way in hell I’d want to contribute my efforts or expertise to something that didn’t meet my needs. But I’ve seen some things, ugly things, along the way. Below are a few of them and I’ve broken these various tactics down into two categories: “misdemeanors” and downright “crimes.” The misdemeanors are things that weren’t exactly dishonest, but end up costing you extra money for no reason, while the crimes I describe are exactly that – crimes – done with nothing but profit in mind and no regard for the consumer. Hopefully, this info will help protect you from making poor protein powder purchases in the future. Fair warning, though: At the end of the article, I’m going to act in a self-serving manner and tell you that the protein powder you should use is the one made by Biotest, the company I work for, but I’ll do it in good conscience because I know it’s a terrific, honest product. Misdemeanor – Ready-to-Drink (RTD) Protein Products The idea of grabbing a cold can of a pre-prepared protein drink out of the gym cooler as you head out the door is hugely appealing, but these drinks pose a couple of problems. First of all is the high price, but you’re not really paying for any exotic, muscle-building proteins contained in the formulation. Instead, you’re paying for water. Let me explain. The main ingredient in these products, by necessity, is water. Water weighs a lot. Water costs a lot to ship. What you’re paying for is directly related to what UPS or the USPS or Fed-Ex charges for shipping heavy items. Gasoline costs money. Jet fuel costs money. The meth long-distance truckers use to stay awake costs money. The herniated discs the workers suffer from having to hoist the heavy boxes and pallets on and off trucks costs money. To make up for those added expenses, manufacturers are forced to use lower-quality proteins. Additionally, the FDA requires that RTDs be pasteurized, so it’d be of little use to include expensive proteins in the first place because the heat from pasteurization would destroy a lot of the delicate peptides, glycomacro- and otherwise, that make certain proteins highly desirable. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still getting protein from these drinks, but as far as nitrogen-retention and all that other good, muscle-building stuff, it’s not much better than the protein in your nana’s SlimFast. Crime – Using Chinese Proteins China has long been a place where you can buy really cheap protein powder. They pay their workers really poorly and they don’t have to conform to any of those pesky regulations that plague American companies, so manufacturers can charge low prices and still make big profits. The trouble is, the lack of regulations allows them to cut a lot of corners. A few years ago, Consumer Reports did a study on 15 popular whey protein powders – several of which originated in China – and found that regular use of these products could expose their consumers to toxic levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, and lead. Not all of that contamination was intentional, though, as at least one-fifth of all farmland in China is contaminated with these aforementioned heavy metals and the cows can’t help but turn into walking chemical waste dumps. What appears to be intentional, though, is the other contaminants routinely found in Chinese protein powders, among them melamine, a chemical compound used in the production of glues, laminates, adhesives, and flame-retardants. It does not grow muscle. While this problem was supposedly taken care of after a huge, stateside ruckus, no one’s recently bothered to see if the use of melamine has resumed. It’s a mess. Then there’s the specter of other contaminants. Various non-protein “health” products from China have also been found to contain heavy metals, pharmaceutical drugs, and even DNA from endangered species like snow leopards. I can’t even venture a guess as the reason for that last one. Of course, with the advent of the trade war and the imposition of a 25% tariff on Chinese whey proteins, American manufacturers might soon be seeking alternative sources to
Origin: Protein Powder Crimes and Misdemeanors