Aek

Check out this link people.

Protein Drinks: What's in them? Consumer Reports

craft1010

It's been posted up here a few times, interesting stuff though...

strong enough?

Hardly suprising.

The supplement industry is devoid of regulation, from both a quality control perspective and fraudulent health claims perspective. Marketing spend by US supplement manufacturers would far outweight how much they actually spend on their manufacturing.

ASADA gives athletes the same information session every year.

Take supplements at your peril. You cannot guarantee their purity. Many supplement manufacturers source their ingredients from factories which also produce veterinary products among other things.

WADA has done testing and found something like 20% of off the shelf supplements are tainted, including traces of pro-hormones and steroids.

If you're going to take a supplement, stick with an Australian or NZ manufactured product, and preferably a brand that sponsored or is used by professional athletes or professional sporting clubs such as Musashi etc. Only take supplements classed as Group A supplements by the AIS.

I've recently stopped using protein powders and sugars like maltodextrin etc, after I ran out. I stuck with whole foods and have noticed zero difference to body composition, recovery times and actual performance, so I haven't bothered buying more Saved my money too.

Aek

Not all U.S companies fake thier products it's unfortunate that it only takes 3-4 companies to spoil it for the rest.

strong enough?

IMO it's not even about faking, which implies intentionally doing something to the product.

It's about contamination, and contamination is the byproduct of refining and processing food products - and in almost all cases will be unintentional. The more cautious the supplement manufacturer and they more control they have over their manufacturing process the lower risk of contamination, but risks will always be there, just like there is a risk with any kind of food manufacturing. But the more you refine a product, the greater the risk, and you can't get much more refined than turning a whole food like milk into 90%+ protein.

This test looked at only three heavy metals. What other pollutants are in the powders?

The fact is that a significant component of the price you pay for US name brand protein supplements is branding related - this is where their margin is and where they invest most heavily - the raw ingredients themselves are relatively cheap. This is what you're paying for, not quality. The quality of the raw ingredients themselves is far from guaranteed.

To my mind, the only real advantage of protein powders is convenience. this is the only reason I've ever used them.

Most people are simply better off eating real food.

You just cannot be guaranteed what you're getting with powders - whether the company is one of the bad ones or not. This article just reinforces that. I would have thought EAS had an otherwise good reputation - the products are certainly not cheap.

PTC

So lets eat fresh food

strong enough?

Hear, hear.

Joel

Thank god I have cookies n cream muscle milk lol

Aek

Actaully eating steaks and chicken is more expensive than protein powders per serve furthermore lets hope they are also Hormone free which most of the time they are not.

They are also pumped full of chimicals too.

So what do we do go organic lol that's even more expensive ????

strong enough?

Use of hormones for livestock has been illegal in Australia since the 1970s. Residue testing has confirmed that there is no presence of hormones in Australian poultry meat: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_src..._IAR_Final.pdf (see page 36 and following)

The whole hormones in chicken urban legend started due to a South American documentary looking into why girls were going through puberty at an increasingly younger age.

The far greater concern with hormones is BPA in plastic and tin food packaging, which acts as a thyroid disrputer - but you avoid this problem when you eat real fresh food.

Use of antibiotics in livestock happens, but there are regulated residue limits which are monitored by Food Standards Australia. Primary producers all pay a levy to fund residue testing. They test for it in all primary food production (eg wheat, sugar, honey etc as well). You can look up the residue results on foodstandards.gov.au. In meat the levels are extremely low.

The biggest concern really is mercury in fish, but that problem can be avoided by eating the right kind of fish. I'm lucky enough to live near a wholesaler that sells quality fresh caught Australian fish.

Grass fed free range beef is not that bad if you buy it from the source. You can get mince for $15/kg or less. Porterhouse is around $27/kg, which is the same as Coles

Of course protein powder is cheaper, if all you look at is $ per gram of protein.

The difference between spending money on protein and spending money on whole foods is quality. That was my point. I wasn't suggest protein was more expensive, it's just that the major thing justifying the price of protein is branding. The actual stuff you are paying for is much lower in quality than real food.