Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 510: The Truth About Protein Powders

Episode Date: May 18, 2017

How important is protein supplementation and how healthy are protein powders? The fitness industry tells you they are essential but the reality may be quite the opposite. In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin review the ingredients of some of the top selling protein powders on the bodybuilding.com website. Get our newest program, Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics (KB4A), which provides full expert workout programming to sculpt and shape your body using kettlebells. Only $7 at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get your Kimera Koffee at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Got a beard? Condition your beard with Big Top Beard Company’s natural oils and organic essential oil blends to make it not only feel great but smell amazing! Get Big Top Beard Company products at www.bigtopbeardcompany.com, code "mindpump" for 33% off. Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!

One of the most commonly asked questions that we get in our message boxes. What program to start with? Yeah. Like, which program should I start with? Now, for most people, that's where it started beginning. We recommend Maps and Obolic. It's the foundational program. When we recommend it, because it brings you,

it starts you off with full body type splits. It introduces you to the frequency concept of trigger sessions. With Maps Prime, though. With maps prime, because prime helps correct imbalances and helps you prime your workouts. So just being sick, that much more effective. Now, for the few times I do get messages from like competitors, like bodybuilders and bikini competitors and stuff who are stage presentation athletes who have lots of experience, great recovery ability. I'll recommend that they do maps aesthetic. And there are times where I recommend people start and maps performance and this is usually

people who are athletic minded or who are, you know, performance minded like, hey, you know, I actually just had a message the other day for someone who's going to go take a test for a police department. So he's like, which program should I do? I have, you know, three, three to get ready. Definitely maps for performance. It's like the most performance oriented maps program we have. But really for most people, they ideal sequence is to start with maps and a ball. Which is you're going to get a lot of strength at a maps and a ball in general muscle mass general speed up

your metabolism, like overall building comes from maps and a ballic. Then you go to maps performance, which is how we progress you. And maps performance is multi-plane movements. You're doing more complex exercises. You're doing mobility sessions. So you're working on control in these new ranges of motion. So you're basically becoming more,

and I hate to use the term functional because that's been sold now. So improperly, but you do, you become a lot more functional with a lot more stamina, strength endurance, power, all the things that an athlete would value. So you go to that, and then lastly, we tend to tell people to move to maps aesthetic, which probably has the most volume, wouldn't you say? Oh, it absolutely does. Each one of those programs though, everybody will benefit from. So we don't think that there's a program.

And same thing for like, this is male and female. I get a lot of times too, I get a lot of women to go, what's the program for me or I'm a woman? Like what do you guys do for women? And I say, same thing. Yeah, we absolutely refuse to market. There's no discrimination. Yes, you're the weights do not know the difference of your sex

It doesn't work that way. You're the weights don't know if it's a male or a female lifting it It it responds to the movement and it builds muscle or it burns fat. It's that simple And we just refuse to market to you know men and women separately We sell a lot more programs that way if we did the whole thing and we did pink ones and blue ones. Now that you're bringing this up, if you feel like you have metabolic damage or you feel like your metabolism is a little slow,

either because you've been dieting a lot on your own or because you've come off of a competition in your metabolism slow, definitely start in maps and a ballac. That one gives your body time to recover and really builds up the metabolic system so that you burn more calories. That's the one I start everybody on, who's got metabolic damage on.

So all three of those programs, you can get them individually or you can do a bundle which discounts them almost like 20, something more 30% off. And that's our RGB bundle, which includes Maps and Obolic Maps performance and Maps aesthetic. Now, if you want to take it a step further, you can get those three plus include maps prime, which we talked about, or and maps anywhere, which is our equipment free maps program. That's our maps super bundle, and that discounts all of them even further. So those are the two bundles, discounts, everything. If you follow them in order, you'll have at least nine months all planned out for you, at least with the super bundle, you'll have

more like 10 to 12 months of exercise programming. And this month, enrol in one of those two, and you could, your pick two t-shirts that we have available for an additional less than a dollar, and you'll get those two shirts. That's the promo going on this month. You can find all those programs and read more about them at mindpumpmedia.com. If you wanna pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.

We've talked about this before. I think we all agree. If they had a CrossFit Sport and CrossFit Fitness, and they were two in the same facility, you would just have different classes. Well, if I owned a CrossFit Box, I would definitely do that. I would definitely say, here's your CrossFit Sport classes, and then here's your CrossFit Fitness classes. Are you here because you're interested in competing or because you wanna train like a competitor,

or are you here because you're just looking to get in better shape? And it would have two different. You would be really hard to do it under one facility though. It would be, because it'd be, right. It would be tough to, you'd almost have to be like, it's separate.

That's why I don't even know how that looks right now because we should think about it. Because we'll be talking to Rob Olson, all these guys. I've thought about this a lot because I thought about how orange theory is made. Like his orange theory is similar problem, right? Similar issues. They just took out the Olympic lifts. So they just went back, they scaled it back, right? So they took the, but you still have the same issues. People over usage. So you're getting all these like, yeah, it's all intensity driven. So you get all these like aches and pains on people and they don't know how to address it. They don't know how to get to the bottom of it.

And as in a group class, I would try and teach like mobility drills and like, okay, if you this bothers you, here's some moves that you should start to incorporate before you work out. So I did my best to like, but when you're in a group setting, it's so challenging to talk to all 30 to 50 people in there. They're all dealing with different stuff. Well, to be totally objective, because I have my own, there's emotion behind it, because I saw how it was early on, and with the attitude was early on. And now seeing how it looks like it seems to be shifting, to be totally objective, there

are some negatives to group train, there's some positives also. I think because the owners of boxes have so much latitude because they do, they have, it's not a franchise, it's like an affiliation, they have incredible amount of flexibility in terms of how they can teach and you know, coach the classes and all that stuff. I think, like Mike, when we talked to Mike Blets,

I was saying, the good ones are going to rise the top and the bad ones are going to sink. And I think when you have a good instructor, we know a couple of them, right? We know a couple good instructors. That they'll place that kind of emphasis on how they teach it. And this is what I would like to reach out. If we have any CrossFit box owners,

I would say, really look at your model and how you can make it as sustainable as possible and make it, you know, in a fashion in a way to where people can progress from your average sedentary person through the process to being able to incorporate some of these lifts, like these Olympic lifts, and the squad. Well, the sport is at the pinnacle of like,

you know, going through the process of building your way up towards that. It is, and look, if you go, I train in Jiu-Jitsu for a while, and I went to MMA gyms a couple times and I'll train at them, and you had MMA classes, like these are classes for people who are looking to compete in MMA,

and then here's the instructional classes for people who just wanna learn Jiu-Jitsu and unboxing. And you know, you could box and just hit mitts and bags or you can box to do smoke. I actually think what we're built, what we're currently building could compliment what they're doing. For example, okay, so and I brought this up in the podcast with the girls who is, you know, it's very challenging for us. Because when you think about it, we're teaching a group class. We have, I mean, we have us because when you think about it, we're teaching a group class We have I mean, we have a million people out there

Okay, listening to listening to mind pump that need help and advice and training and we're giving all of them Similar advice, right? So we in a sense we're we're teaching a group class and so the biggest challenge that we've had is like Okay, well, how do we individualize that for all these hundreds of thousands of people, right? So what we're having to structure between the all the podcast the 30 days of coaching Okay, well, how do we individualize that for all these hundreds of thousands of people, right? So, what we're having to structure between all the podcasts, the 30 days of coaching, the YouTube channels, all the playlist, we're starting all the different programs like Prime, like we're starting to put all these pieces in place that when somebody who's going through goes, oh, this is a problem or, oh, this is bothering me, that they have a direction to go. And I feel like you could take that

and you could implement that into a CrossFit class. So when someone's going through a CrossFit class and they're like, oh, this bothers me, they can't stop the class and be like, oh, individualized train this one person, but we'll have the virtual tools that they could say, hey, go here, mine pumps a trusted source. We know the guys that are giving information

are giving really good information. If this is bothering you, you notice you can't do this movement, go here. Mine pumps are trusted source. We know the guys that are giving information are giving really good information. If this is bothering you, you notice you can't do this movement, go follow these steps and that we have provided those steps. So I can see us really complementing a process. Or you go through those phases like strength and then you go into like, if Olympic lifts is a skill

like, you know, that you're trying to compete in at one point. Like, there's a specific protocol where you're doing that for your four-week period and we're just sharpening the skill. We come back, we do the strength, we do the mobility, we do that kind of work, we come back up. There's a process that leads up to the actual part where it's like, okay, I've fashioned and sharpened my skill to a level where I feel like I can now kind of compete in this. But like, I feel like it's all there.

Like it's all there. Like if you just separated out and you work on all those different attributes, and then you treat it like now it's it's season. Now I'm in season, you know, in the CrossFit season. And what, now it's season. Now I'm in season, you know, in the CrossFit season and how long that season looks is, I don't know. And you know who trains or coach people like that? Some of the leaders, like, and here's what's changed my mind.

And what I mean by change my mind is my perception has changed. Pretty significantly in this in regards to CrossFit. And a lot of it has to do with that. We've met a lot of in regards to CrossFit. And a lot of it has to do with that. We've met a lot of these leaders in CrossFit like Rob Wolfe, Mike Bledsoe and some others that we've talked to. And they are fully aware of the pitfalls and they're leading the charge in terms of how to fix it.

How to fix it in a way to where it's got longevity. And they're very smart. They understand training on a level that is, it's way up there. I think Bletsau was talking about how long he trained Olympic lifting before even putting it into the fatigue based type circuits that they do and all that stuff. So I see a lot of potential progress happening just from the fact that

we've talked to these people. And the only thing that I caution is that it's all under the name of CrossFit. And unfortunately, if you have enough bad apples or bad coaches or people who kind of celebrate intensity to the names, turnish to it. You start to turnish the name and they're the ones that get all the... Well, that's where you got to ask yourself, can they come back from that? Can you come back? Is it gone too far and is the number of bad boxes in bad coaches outweighing how many

the really good ones there are out there and can it can it get its reputation back? Well, here's the real here's the question behind that even let's take it a step further I know we talk about business all the time, but you have CrossFit the brand which is flourishing right they've got CrossFit games Which is growing every year growing they've got brands behind them and sponsorships that are massive and then there's the side of the CrossFit Clubs the CrossFit boxes. Are they doing great? Are a lot of them making money or a lot of them struggling? Or a lot of them opening up and then realizing,

this is a lot of them. A lot of them are struggling and I think that that was where, what we were, it was really neat talking to Mike Blitzho about. Yeah, because you tried to solve that. Yeah, Barbell Shrugged is gonna do very, very well in the next five to 10 years plus. Working with them. Yeah, working with boxes and organizing that piece

because it's not that easy. Everybody thinks it's like, it reminds me of when I started with all my boot camp business and I started running them all over the bay and then hiring trainers underneath me to take it. Like in your head, it sounds like a great idea. Like all these classes and then they'll charge a monthly fee and I'll make a ton of money.

Then when I'm so overwhelmed with classes, I can bring a trainer underneath me and then they'll start to manage that and then I'll make a monthly fee and I'll make a ton of money. Then when I'm so overwhelmed with classes, I can bring a trainer underneath me and then they'll start to manage that and then I'll make a cut of that. Like, you know, it was a monster. And, you know, I got it running to where I was making good money, but it was a lot of work just to make good money. It wasn't like, it wasn't the type of money

that I wanted to make and what I did. Well, you still have a big overhead. I mean, just having a facility to maintain and a lot. Well, I think a lot of people, just like with any fitness trend, right? Any fitness fad that or whatever trend you want to call it, uh, you get a lot of people going in because they see the, the dollar signs. Um, I don't, you're not going to, most people don't make a ton of money owning a cross-fit box.

You just don't. You're owning a gym. You don't make a ton of money. Very few people make a lot of money, owning brick and mortar fitness facilities, and there's not a lot of people making a ton of money with crossfit, there's a lot of people who are breaking even and losing money,

and if you're going into it because you're motivated simply by the money, it's probably not a good idea. If you're motivated by, and you're passionate about it, and you're a student of the game, and you're really a fitness person, and you have some business sense, now you've got a decent mix, but you can't have one and not the other.

Like you can't be a super good trainer and no shit about business, and you can't be a super business oriented person and have no passion about fitness. Either one of those scenarios, you're probably not gonna do well. You had a lot of those with like, remember when curves opened,

all these people like, oh, I'm gonna open, the curves are so easy, and they all failed, have you failed? Yeah. Well, there was a time when you probably could and you could just ride the wave, but I think that time's over. It just reminds me, it reminds me, like, cannabis club industry, like when I got into it, you know, in San Jose, I was the first two of the first four that existed.

And, you know, now there's like 150, I think it got all the way to like two, 300 and they started scaling it back. You know, got to a point where everybody was like, oh my god, all you have to do is open a shop and get going and make all this money. And it wasn't like that. Sure, at the very beginning. It was a good old days. Yeah, it was a good old days. And that's why I always tell people it's part of the reason why I'm not. It's not the only reason why I'm out of it. But, you know, it's it's totally different now than what it was when it first started. And it was a lot easier. You didn't have to know exactly what you're doing and you could still be successful.

I'm sure the first 1,000 CrossFit boxes were probably pretty successful just by opening their doors because of the fab. Now it's momentum. Yeah, but now it's competitive. Mike was saying what you're going to see. They said the era of the dirty dingy, unorganized boxes over. Yeah, no, yeah. Now it's going to be the guys that,

the ones that rise at the top, we're going to be those guys that actually and girls that run these boxes. You have a lot more business sense behind them. And understand, like you said, like you can't just have great business sense. You also need to understand biomechanics and be able to help people.

And you need to be already trying to think of, you, if you're going to teach, you need to be more effective coach. You need, if you're going to teach the lifts that they teach in CrossFit, you don't need to be just a good trainer. You need to be a fucking excellent trainer or be smart enough to hire specialists. Look, I consider myself a pretty good trainer.

I would not coach Olympic lifts, the Olympic lifts that they use in CrossFit, but I'm smart enough to know that I would have someone to do that. Do you know what I mean? I would bring a coach in, just that. Do you know a big, big mist though that I think people don't understand when we talk about coaching

and like, because I know, and I remember talking to one of our buddies who used to coach classes, and he's like, oh, I'm a really good coach. I can get 10 people at the same time to pick up on the snatch with me and do this and that. And where I have an issue with it is like, and this I know this from firsthand, I remember training clients is,

you can stand right next to a client and show them like perfect form of a squat, you know, a thousand times over, and if they're disconnected, right? They don't have, if they're not, if the right, with the correct muscles, they have not trained to fire properly. I don't care how great of a can't replicate it. They can't replicate it because they, they, until you address those issues. And so it's not, it's not a matter of being a great coach with great cues and

great form to show you. It's like, you know, and that's what I meant the other day when I was talking to the girls on the podcast. I was like, you know, why would I have the bone I have to pick with it? This is I've spent years and I mean five plus years teaching a client a single, you know, Olympic movement. And that, that's taking me years because of the mechanics of it. Like, and I'm hesitant to do it because I can barely do it. Breaking everything has to fire optimally. It's such an accelerated, it's such a specific skill to be able to get your entire kinetic chain to do what you want when you want it on command. And to produce as much force that is required to throw this weight around it.

So it's such a, I just feel like it gets, it doesn't get enough respect, you know, and I feel it's being disrespected by just throwing it in the mix. So yeah, so I mean, that's, it's just one of those things, like you said, you gotta go to the root of it and like, and there's some, well then you've got some more people

who see an opportunity, right? You look at and go, oh shit, I know how I can organize this. Well, that was, that was blood there into it. So let's sharpen this up. That was blood. So, I mean, that was what kind of surprised me when before we got on air with him, we were talking

and we were just kind of bringing that up. And he talked about how he did Olympic lifting before he ever even got any crossfit. And then all of us right away were like, oh, really? Yeah. So how do you feel about it? Yeah. Did you see what I was going on?

Because normally, if you meet a power lifter, Olympic lifter, or even a gymnast, that's their sole sport that they do. And then their feelings on CrossFit, they normally are super anti it because it's to them. They see the form well. Well, yeah, into them, it's almost disrespectful. It's like, you're gonna throw a sport that I've trained for years on how to do. You're just gonna throw it in the mix

of all these other sports and combine it all together. And like, they normally don't like that. So I was really surprised to hear him and how he responded to that. But, I mean, you see that. He's a very intelligent business guy. And he's like, I thought CrossFit ain't going away. You know, he's like, this ain't going away,

and I can either sit here and sit on one side, talk shit about it all day long, or I can insert myself, trying to influence it in the right direction, whether I pass or fail it, and make a shit ton of money on the way there. And so there's where I have a lot of respect for what he's doing because he does.

He sees a problem and he knows that it's not gonna go away. And instead of just sitting behind doors and just talking shit about it, he's gonna go out there and he's going to try and do something to improve the sport. This seems like there's more people doing that. So I have better hopes for the future. So I'm slightly being more optimistic now for sure.

Like it took a while to, I don't know, like some of the venom to kind of go away. And I hate it. Like it's just, well, you know what, I was in that camp where I just felt like, like I felt like, because I've worked on a lot of these Olympic lists. I just felt like it was so, it was like nails on a chalkboard,

you know. Well, this reminds me, real similar to what we just recently got into with The supplements and the protein shake the doctor doctor recommended and we got in this huge You know 400 comments on fucking Instagram thing that Sal and this doctor were going back and forth with Recommending supplements and we had some people get really upset at us and it's like It's not that we're saying that none of us have used a way,

I just had a way protein shake just like fucking three days ago. So it's, I utilize it still. What we're trying to change is the culture behind it that it's being recommended as a tool for people. It's like, just like I think about like CrossFit, there's people that should be recommended to that and there's people that shouldn't be recommended. And recommending

to the masses is what I have the problem with. And that's where Mind Pump comes out and speaks out on it. And we have to kind of come that way because it may seem trivial, but it's one of those things. Like we have to sort of put our stance and challenge. Like if there's something like that out there that we know there's a better message that you could insert in that situation. And you know, like just not so much like, we hate what you're saying. It's like, I know you're coming from with that.

Like there's such a better message, check yourself on that. You know, like understand that, you know, well, why are these guys, and that was the, a lot of the comments I read was like, why don't you understand where all the hate is coming from? Just try to help people. And, you know, and I get that,

but like, and like, we've evolved, like, information has evolved. Like, really, the check is to go back and study it and go, go look at, you know, where this message came from and what we can do to change, you know, and improve on this. Well, I think two things.

First off, the doc in question. For the most part, if you, you know, I went through his social media, 90 something percent of what he says is really good. He's got great message. You know, he's an obesity specialist. I actually liked the guy. We've actually talked

to him in the past. It was just, it was the whole slim fast, based meme, eat a sensible meal and then replace this other meal with a shake and then eat another sensible meal. They compared that to a really bad diet and they're like, this is a great way to lose weight. And it's, it reminds, first off, it's that's the whole slim fast model, but it reminds me of like when you hear people say, oh God, I switched to this diet and I'm so much better, it's the best diet in the world.

And it's like, well, it's better than what you had because what you had was horrible, but it's not great. Right. And you know, the thing with supplements. Baby step. Yeah, the thing with supplements is at most, they can be used to cover a base that you're missing

and you're diet and they have convenience and all that stuff. But they should never be used to replace real food. They should never be marketed that way. And the way that they're marketed is that they are the answer to a lot of your problems. Like this is how you lose weight, you take this, and this is how you gain weight, you take this, and you know, our episode on pre-workout supplements

that we kind of broke them down. It was really popular. A lot of people sent us messages, and we're like, I don't realize how much of a waste of money these pre-workout supplements are. Well, some of our own guys that were really intelligent guys, you know, that loved if any chance they can find to challenge us. Love to speak out and challenge, which I appreciate.

Yeah, we love that. Yeah, it creates great dialogue. And I think that was really the message. So here's a couple of things. One, you're never going to see Mind Pump go on some young kids page and punk him for doing a couple of things. One, you're never gonna see Mind Pump go on some young kids page and punk him for doing a post like that. Like, we're not in the business of bullying people, whatsoever.

But if there's a doctor who puts out something like that that we think is bad information, we're going to challenge it. And mainly so people can see the dialogue that happens because I know he's not gonna just get, like, oh, you're stupid and get in a name call. Not to be afraid to challenge authority. Yes.

I feel like if you're in a position like that and you have a doctor title, everybody immediately is afraid to challenge that. You know, the challenge, the information of it. Well, and the people that were coming to his defense, were like me, somebody who might take a protein shake throughout the day, I might include a protein, but let me tell you why I do that.

I'm 220 something pounds, and for me to get even close to a one-to-one ratio of protein with missing, skipping, fasting, so that is already really challenging. So if I just came off a day where maybe I had a pretty long fast, or I didn't get that much protein the day before, then I have another day, and I happen to be in a hurry, and I'm low on protein again, I might make that choice to do that, but to market towards people

that are overweight or obese, because your obesity doctor, on using something like a protein shake as a tool for fat loss, I disagree with, because that person is not like in this dire need to make sure they get that extra 20 grams of protein. In fact, why wouldn't that be- Why don't they just fast?

Why don't they just fast? Right. Why don't they just fast? A better option would literally be instead of sensible dinner, you know, fast food meals, sensible, excuse me, sensible breakfast, fast food meal, sensible dinner, and then replace the fast food meal with protein, a better option would be sensible breakfast, skip lunch, then have a sensible dinner. That's actually the better option would be sensible breakfast, skip lunch, then have a sensible dinner.

That's actually the best option. We know this, right? Right, or have some nuts, have some fruit. I mean, we go all day, there's a million things, I think, that are, that's just it. There's a lot of things better than that shake. And the people that we're arguing with us yesterday, you're an exception to the rule.

Like, go ahead, you can have a shake. You're not an obese person who's trying to lose weight and being recommended that. You're some guy who's trying to build muscle and you're concerned that you're not going to get enough grams of protein in for the day. Let's talk about protein powders for a second. Let's get into them because we did the other day with supplements. Let's actually pull them up. Let's pull them up. Let's turn the labels around. Let's talk. Yeah, let's talk about the top ones out there. Could a critical ion. First off, let's look at the history of powdered food. Powdered food has actually been around for quite a while.

Powdered protein in particular was used as a way to, and I believe formulas were probably the first things that be created, right, when mothers couldn't produce milk. And so they tried to, you know, do powder. Isn't this stuff that we use in the war for like soldiers and stuff like that, that we'd send over there so they could, so they could get the meals while they tried to, you know, do. Isn't this stuff that we use in the war for like soldiers and stuff like that? That we'd send over there so they could get the meals while they're on the go. I mean, it was, it was a, it was never considered like a great option to replace.

It was, it was an emergency kind of option. Right. Bodybuilders started using protein powders or at, or I should say, advertising protein powders, when it became common knowledge that protein built muscle. or I should say advertising protein powders when it became common knowledge that protein built muscle. So if you're in the sport of muscle building and protein builds muscle, it's an easy sell, right? I can sell the public and say, hey, protein builds muscle, take this powder,

get this extra protein, therefore you're gonna build extra muscle. We know that's false. We know that past a certain point and it doesn't matter how much protein you eat. That number is backed by pretty conclusive science. Lots and lots of studies that show that about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. This is for lean individuals, is the upper limit, meaning any more than that is probably

you're just wasting protein or it's getting turned in energy or stored as body fat. So if you're a 200 pound athlete, you're looking at 150, 160 grams, anything over that, it's not really doing you any benefit. So there's no need to really seek out extra protein into trying to get extra protein. But what's really interesting is somewhere along the lines or somewhere along the way, protein powders became touted as health food, which is really weird. It's really, really weird because if you really break it down and I want the audience to kind of just be objective for a second, let's break this down, right? When we think of truth, truth, and truth wellness from a nutritional standpoint, that means whole natural varied food, fruit, vegetables, nuts, healthy meats, for some people that means

dairy, good fats, good proteins, good carbohydrates, right? Nowhere in that is something that comes out of a box or something that's heavily engineered a process. But for some strange reason, and this was due to the brilliant marketing behind it, protein powders turned into a health food. Like if you went to a health food store, you'd walk through and then they had protein powder. Which is very strange.

This goes back to the knowing that protein and fat are essential, right? We know that those two are essential. So if they're essential, I can scare you. I can scare you that you're not getting enough of it. You could do not, hitting your RDA. Yes, you could die. You're not getting your RDA. Muscle could fall off your body and for somebody who's deciding to exercise and lift

the weights. And then also for recovery reasons, right? So I'm going to pitch the amino acid side of it. So here's where I think we took a little bit of good information and we exaggerated the fuck out of it and we built a market around it. And now we just, because so many people are making so much money, it's got,

how many times did we almost align ourselves with the way protein? How many times? How many times did we almost align ourselves with the way protein? How many times how many times did we go back and forth and say hey listen? I still is 20 I still use them. I mean I tell you guys all the time like I still find it for me Okay, for my size I was just telling just in the other day because I've been intuitive eating for quite some time now and then just recently I started tracking again and kind of keep in track of my protein and I grossly under you protein I my whole life I was a sugar eater, carb eater,

so I naturally gravitate towards carbohydrates. And when I intuitively eat, I still kind of gravitate that direction. And when I start to actually break it down, a big guy at 200-something pounds, like I am, could actually have a day where I only got 90 grams of protein, which is really low for someone like me who's lifting as much weights as I'm lifting.

So for me, if I had a day where I'm like, oh shit, look, that's two days in a row of only like 90 to 120 grams of protein, I'm gonna have a shake before I go to bed, so I get that extra protein inside there. So I get it. I understand where it could have its place. Now I would be better off having a fucking full meal.

Which is why you even just said, like, oh, I just had one three days ago. Right. People consume protein powders several times every single day. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the people I've worked with will have a minimum of one, but usually two shakes

every single day. You probably will have less than two shakes a week. Oh yeah, no, it's my tub. I don't even know how long I've had that tub. I've had that tub for a long time. So it lasts for quite some time. Right, right. And so, and if you,

now I understand if you fall for the whole, you need to eat one and a half to two grams of protein per pound of body weight, which is complete 100% utter bullshit. But I understand if you fall for that, that protein powder's then become essential because if I'm a 200 pound guy, and I'm led to believe that I need to have 400 grams of protein,

but I have to also be within certain amount of calories, where am I gonna find all that pure protein without any fat or carbohydrates? How can you digest all of that, without something that's as easily processed as a protein powder? I mean, eat 400 grams of protein from real food. Good luck. Oh my God.

Oh, yeah. And so now powders become essential. Right. And so we need to play some hits. So number one, realize that that is not doing you any good. It's a waste of time to take that much protein on a daily basis. It's just absolutely as it doesn't help you at all.

Maybe for extreme athletes with lots of muscle in for very short periods time, there may be a little bit of a benefit. I'd even debate that. But definitely not no benefit on a regular basis. Zero. So at the most, one gram of protein per pound of body weight is where you want to be at. And if you're not lean, then you can cut that way down. I mean, if you're walking around and you're a dude and you're at 20% body fat, don't match your body weight to your protein intake because a lot of that's fat. It's probably even a lot less.

Number two, realize that protein powders are about the most processed you could get when it comes to processed food. Think of the process that goes through making food, taking real food. I mean, they sell fucking beef protein. What is that, that carnivore protein? You ever seen that?

Made from beef protein. Oh, no. Think about the process that they go through to take steak or red meat, extract the protein, separate the fat out of it, right? Because they want just protein. Oh, right, yeah, you can't have the fat. Dry it and turn it into a powder that you can mix in water

and then flavor it so it doesn't taste like a steak. That's palatable. It tastes like cookies and cream instead. That's palatable right that you'll actually drink. Think about that. The amount of engineering that goes into that. We are talking about the highest level of engineering to create an extremely processed food.

So protein powders are very, very, very, very processed. So if you're a person with health as your priority and wellness, understand that on a daily basis you are consuming something that's extremely processed and engineered to be very, very powerful. What's that power? What's that power lift here's name and he's like 400 pounds. He's like, he has one of the squat records. I was watching his Instagram. This fucker like every day takes like

literally he'll take eight ounces of steak six ounces of chicken. He'll take two avocados and a blend it and blend that fucker and just and drink. I think about it. You're like four you're like 400 pounds. He's at least three high three hundred. It high 300 Get it in and power lifting all the time So I also want people consider your the digest Digestive issues that are caused by you know, it's and if you're listening right now Don't you fucking lie to me. You know your fart smell horrible when you take protein powder stomach is very loud It is a it's like a common it's so common that if you go into a jam where you talk to bodybuilders, you talk about protein parts, everybody understands.

Oh, Lord. Everybody knows. And it's related to more often than not, the protein powder, not the necessarily the food. Well, all you got to do is find your protein shaker, like a couple days later, you left in your car. Just open that up and take a big width. Yeah. That's what's going on inside you. So think of what's happening to your digestion.

That's causing that, you know, to, that bubble guts and the farts and all that stuff. A lot of people get constipation or diarrhea. What should already be like a sign or a red flag for you that you're probably overdoing it a bit. Like come on, like if you're stomachs, you're benefiting it. Yeah, if you're, if you're, if you're shitting like diarrhea, okay? And you're, in your farting like crazy, your stomach's all bubbly, like you're probably overdoing the protein.

I think your body's telling you something, right? Not only are you overdoing it, but if your digestive system is off, if your gut is off, you're actually limiting or, you know, limiting or restricting your body's ability even to burn body fat and build muscle. Without a healthy gut, lots of systems are in jeopardy

and part of them is your ability to burn body fat and build muscle. Think about it when your stomach's messed up. How strong are you? How fit do you feel? How healthy do you feel? Think of the fact, understand the fact that many key neurotransmitters are created in the gut.

That hormone's change if your gut is off, that sleep is altered, nutrient absorption is off. So if your gut is off because you're taking a protein powder but you're telling yourself, oh, but this is building muscle, so it's helping so it's worth it. It's actually not only not building muscle for you,

it's probably taking that away from you. So if you have those problems also, you're not doing yourself any favors by taking these protein powder. Well, it doesn't help too. Like we were saying these things have been around for a long time. So we found all kinds of ways to market it too. Like now where we have like a nighttime one, we have the anabolic window is so popular. So you know, hey, you got that 30 minute window to maximize your muscle building.

So you know, it's much easier just to drink a shake real quick and go home and like make a meal. That could take an hour. You know, I don't have an hour. I only got 20, 30 minutes to hit the Santa Bob window. I gotta take this shake, dude. Yeah, it's absolute, it's false. Does it accelerate glycogen, you know, a repleation?

It does, but it doesn't mean it's not, it's not going to happen if you don't have that shake. Really where the benefit comes from is if you plan on having another workout a couple hours later, that's real hard. Then you'll benefit from having something post-workout, but it's not limited to a shake. The same thing happens with food. You can literally have a chicken breast or some tuna and some white rice, or studies have actually shown a fucking glass of milk is just as effective. Literally a glass of milk, it's got a little bit of the sugars from the lactose, it's got the proteins, it's got some of the fats.

I did a post on that a long time ago. You drink it and they've compared it to protein shakes and it's just as effective on all those levels. The difference is it's not as effective on all those levels. The difference is it's not as expensive. Let's take the number one which I see does. It's on a TV. So he went on to BodyBuilding.com and he's looking at the top 10 protein powders.

And the number one protein powder is by optimum nutrition. It's gold standard 100% way. Why don't you click on that view product and let's break it down. So let's look at their ingredients. First off, a protein blend, which comes from way protein isolate, concentrate, and peptides.

Basically, it's just way protein. Isolate, they call the purist form, right? Because they've completely removed everything else aside from the protein. Sucrose. Concentrate. Red number 42. Yeah, they got them both.

So here's the rest of the ingredients. Yeah. Lessothin, natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, sucralose, FD and C, red number 40, and then there's something called the Minogen. If you have a protein powder, it has soy also. What's laclase? Is that another sugar?

No, these are all... I were looking to grow a laclase and a red 40, 40 tree next summer. We've seen it. No, we've noticed how many of these are in sub-wants we thought we could probably grow one of those. No, lac taste is the enzyme that breaks are in sub-wants we thought we could probably grow one of those. No, lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose. So what's a red-forty-tree? So it helps people digest that.

What's a red-forty-tree look like? Exactly. What you'll find in protein powders is most of the things in the underneath ingredients are there to increase palatability or make it taste and feel better. So they try to add things that make it feel smoother to your mouth and they add things that make it dissolve really well in a shaker cup. If you look at all of the money that goes into protein powders, all the money that goes into research and development, the vast majority of it goes into palatability.

It's not going into creating this crazy, effective protein powder that's gonna be better for you. Now it says it also has soy in it, but it's promoting this as way protein specifically. It just has, less than in there, which is almost like an additive that keeps, yeah, it's an additive to keep it. I think it keeps it from clumping.

I see. So they have to put that in there because of someone's allergic to soy that they'll know that there's trace amounts of soy in there. But it's not soy protein that they're putting in there. So zero, you're not getting, you're not getting iron calcium, you're not getting vitamin A, so you're not getting any, you're not getting really any vitamins in here. We're getting mostly just a little bit of sugar and... No, a glass of milk is better for you. If you can have way, then just have a glass of fucking milk and you're good and it's cheaper and it's better for you. You know, as far as...

The difference is 10. That's a difference of 14 more grams of protein. Yeah, and here's the other thing, like if you're reading, if you're looking at this, if you're looking at your protein powder and there's like an amino acid blend that they add in there, a red flag needs to go up. Number one, if you're getting 20 grams of protein, you have all the branching amino acids you need.

Adding extra BCAAs or glutamine or whatever isn't gonna do you any good studies of shown this. If you have enough protein, you don't need that. You can't shred it. You don't need that. But if you do look at your protein powder and in the ingredients they do have,

you know, a bunch of added amino acids Here's why that's a red flag recently It's been discovered that protein powder companies were spiking Their protein powders with amino acids to full Tests into believing it had more protein than it did Because the way that they'll test protein powders is they'll look at and it did because the way that they'll test protein powders is they'll look at particular amino acids and then based off that, they'll say,

okay, this test 30 grams of protein. Well, if you're a company, you know that you can add those amino acids for cheaper than just adding extra protein. You could probably Google protein spiking and what Sal was talking about would pop up. That's just my guess, because it was popular. It's been popular for a long time. Well, a lot of protein powders were found to do this.

It wasn't like one or two. No, I remember when we first started this podcast, there was a big study that had came out. I remember that. In regards, we had just talked about supplements and then outcomes of the study that picked the top like six or seven protein shakes and all of them were less than 50% of what they said they had in it, and there was only one that was actually 50% of what they said.

So all of them were grossly overreporting the protein, and they were doing it through this protein spiking, which is what Sal was talking about where you throw all these amino acids in there. So the test shows that, oh, all because of all the amino acids added in there plus a protein. Oh, this must have 30 grams of protein. Yeah, this must have 30 grams of all those proteins. Yeah, it must have 30 grams or 40 grams of protein. No, and it's like 15 or something like that. And here's what you gotta be careful of, by the way,

if you Google what Adam said, because Doug just Googled it, you'll pull up a bunch of blogs that are gonna tell you about protein spiking that are also selling their own protein. It's a very, very small, yes. It's a very smart strategy, so if I'm a supplement company and a new story comes out that, you know, FDA or independent

lab went out and tested all these, you know, creatines and found that they all had, you know, toxic news is bad. Buy products. Then if I'm a creative manufacturer, what I'm going to do is I'm going to write an article that's going to talk about that. But then at the bottom of whatever, I'll link you to the creatine that I sell. That seems to be good. So that's optimum nutrition.

Oh, Jim. Here we go. Jim is coming up in the top. Jim is fucking shit. He's up. I think he's up there because he is bossing out bodybuilding.com. Don't they own that company? Wasn't there a lawsuit or something?

Yeah, he's known G and C. I wonder if these are, I wonder if these, these are the ones that they want. They're trying to get rid of them. I want to know if he's stupid, rich from this or not. Me, I think I partnered with a long gun. You might have been cut out. He might have been cut out of this one. You partnered with a wrong Italian.

Doug, why don't you pull that up? Let's look at the ingredients here. The ingredients. What you got in here, Jim, let's see what you got. So chocolate cookie crunch flavor. Ooh, chocolate cookie crunch. Look at the ingredients. That sounds like my, now look at that cereal. Look at that

ingredient list. This could take a day just to get through this. All right, here we go. Protein blend. It's got way protein, my cellar casing, milk protein, isolate, and egg, albumin, as the, the mix for protein. So, doesn't matter if you're drinking a protein powder that is pure way or that's this huge mix of proteins, not really. I mean, we are literally splitting hairs to the point where it's not gonna make a difference at all. It will for marketing purposes. Yeah, exactly. Like, hey, our protein's better because it has, you know, all these, because it has casing here. It's got all these other proteins that digest slower

and faster and whatever and it's the perfect blend. No, you're, you're, you're so splitting hairs, it's not going to make a difference. So that's stupid. It's stupid. It's just all marketing. The next thing that he has in there as an ingredient is non-dairy creamer, which is made for us

from sunflower oil. Oh, there we go, Doug. Thank you. Some flower oil, corn syrup solids, sodium castanate, mono and diaglyceride, diphtacium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, soy lessatin, and tocoferols. So he basically threw something in there. That's what I bought at the grocery store. Exactly.

He, first of all, the first two things in there, sunflower. I hate like it's Jim. I'm not sure. Poor Jim. You put your name on the bottle. Yeah, right. It's an heaven to you. So, sunflower oil and corn syrup solids to unhealthy ingredients that I would completely avoid.

Some flower oil is a very inflammatory fat. So it's up there with all the other vegetable oils that are highly processed that are fats you should stay away from. I mean, they're up there with, they're not quite as bad, but they're up there. What is cocoa powder Dutch process mean? Like a Dutch oven? My favorite is, let's say, what's a cocoa powder Dutch oven?

We don't love a Dutch oven. What is a cocoa powder Dutch process? I don't even understand half of it. So check this out, let me blow you guys away. Cookie bits, chocolate cookie bits. I like guar gum. You know, remember that band guar yeah, I

Did I saw them one time live it was fucking awesome? I mean I highly suggested so I'm gonna trip you guys out So here's a little brilliance in the marketing because they know that people read the ingredient list So they could have just listed some flour oil corn syrup solids sodium casini all those different things But instead what they did is they put non-dairy creamer and then in parentheses, they put the ingredients to non-dairy creamer. Now, the reason they did that is because

we've been conditioned now that if we don't understand an ingredient, it's probably not good for us, right? So what they're doing is they're explaining the ingredients. Oh, it's non-dairy creamer. Now, to the average person, like, oh, non-dairy creamer, not a big deal. Non-dairy creamer. Now, the average person like, oh, non-dairy creamer, not a big deal. Non-dairy creamer is extremely processed, invented, engineered creamer, which is the alternate

to regular creamer, which comes from dairy. And if you're trying to avoid dairy, then you shouldn't be having this protein anyway, because it's got weight. Cows are bad. Cows are good. Yeah, so. So, some flour, oil, and corn syrup,

I would avoid anyway, but they threw them in there, because what it does is it gives it a nice mouth feel. So when you mix it, it tastes creamier. So that's why the non-dairy creamers in there. Then you've got cocoa powder in there, which I think to give it a little bit of a chocolate flavor. Of course, natural and artificial flavors,

mostly artificial. Chocolate cookie bits, again, rather than just putting rice flour, sugar, tapioca starch, cocoa processed with alkali, palm oil, cornstarch, salt, natural flavors, sodium bicarbonate, and soy lessatin. Instead of just putting all that, they put, it's chocolate cookie bits, and then they put all that in there.

Of course, this is appealing again to your palate. If you're reading this and you're like, oh, protein powder, oh shit, they put chocolate cookie bits. But it has barely any carbs. This is crazy Just a bunch of yeah stuff in there to make it taste a certain way. Guargon again mouth feel and then a bunch of preservatives and sucralose This is a chemical shit storm of a protein powder

so if you were gonna buy a protein powder and your choices were this and optimum nutrition, based on the ingredients, I would go with optimum. Of course, my advice would be to go with neither. And just eat food. Why, they both have that. Because this one has a lot more random shit in there. It probably tastes better.

Well, this is also, okay, so since you said that said that the flavor of it probably this is something that I if like because I always like you know Taylor was talking about this the other day when he had Dr. Ruscio's like you know a lot of the great stuff that you just share Right now just went over a lot of people's head and I think an easy way to tell people like when you read the back to the Ingredients if there's a lot of things that you can't sound out Yeah, and you don't know what it is and it's really long take caution That's just a red flag right away. I've never in my life Found something that's healthy for me and the ingredients list is fucking long It's just doesn't it. It's not that they don't they don't go hand in hand, right?

So if it's something really healthy for you normally it's going to have a very very short I think it's like five ingredients somebody told me a long time. Oh, is that what I mean? And I've always kind of gone off of that. Well, if you're buying way protein, if you want way protein powder, you know what should, you know what the ingredients should say? Way way protein. That's it. No one way. No color, no flavor. Just wait, maybe, maybe another ingredient prevents, maybe to prevent clumping. You know, and that's pretty much it.

And just mix that shit in your shake or cup and drink it. And stop being a pussy and trying to drink, you know, fricking milkshake. It's like, if you want something to taste good, you'll drink a goddamn milkshake. I don't get that. Yeah, separate your options there. Yeah, but I mean, again, making a treat and delicious.

Again, it's got a shit ton of stuff in it. And if you're drinking this every single day, which by the way, well, again, a while ago, I got into a debate with Jim Stepanning and because he was telling people to consume an incredible amount of protein and he was telling people to take four servings a day

of this powder. Think about that now for a second. Half of your protein every single day, a quarter to half of your protein, every day comes from this laboratory creation. And you're gonna do that long term. Do you really think that's gonna be a good idea? Probably not.

No, I don't think it's a good idea. And I don't think that you cannot not have, or not have a protein way. I think there's, it can be something you can utilize. I think the choices that I think we're trying to get to people that understand is that if you're somebody who is missing your protein intake grossly and you don't have time to get a meal

and you're trying to get that in, there is a lot better choices than the cinnamon swirl, chocolate bit, using cream way. If that's your your reason behind doing it, where we got, I think where we got into this whole battle and how this conversation got started was because of this doctor and mind pump going back and forth on recommending it to the masses as a good option in replace of burger and fries. And it's like the top of the shit pile.

Like it's, okay, so what? Yeah, it's a different, it's another option, but it's still not an ideal fucking option for people. And I feel like people in... And grandmother use those expressions. In a position like we are in, or he is in as a doctor, we have a higher responsibility to educate and inform people. And the one off, so the idiots that we're arguing

or debating or getting it all, getting it personal with us, like you're okay, you're one off, bro. You know, you're somebody who cycles for four hours, lifts weights like crazy, you have a low body fat, you have a hard time getting the protein in, you don't have time to sit down and make your meal. Sure, by all means, go get your all pure way protein shake in and do that. But when we're talking about people

that are, if you're an obese doctor, your your audience are a lot of fat people and a lot of fat people that struggle with their food choices and teaching them to replace that with some artificially sweetened bullshit fucking shake instead of burgers and french fries. It's the top of the shit pile. It's the next least worst thing for them to do and it's not a tool. Well, everybody's argument was like, oh, he's just helping giving them an option for a tool. No, it's not a tool. It's not a tool at all. It'd be a tool for the other guys, the exceptions to the rule, the one percenters, the ones that actually, the athletes, the ones that probably could use it and probably know more about their body. But when you're talking to the general population

like what we do on mind pump, that's why we share stuff like this. It's not that we, I don't take away shake every once in a while, it's that I know I'm not like most people. I'm most people are not training seven days a week in a way and have 200 pounds of lean body mass on them. Most people have about 130 to 150 pounds tops of muscle on their body and they're overweight and if anything they can cut out a meal.

They don't need to be replaced in or they can have some nuts or have some fruit or a million other options besides the shit. Yeah, I want, you know, the other thing too is we're constantly chasing taste without substance. So what I mean by that is I want something that's sweet, but I don't want sugars or carbohydrates. Right. And this is, this is kind of hacking the, or at least hijacking your body's natural systems of perception. And you want to ask yourself, why your body perceives tastes to begin with? Like, why do we even taste things? Why is that an important evolutionary trait

that humans have? Like, why should I taste things? What if I just tasted nothing, but I just ate? You're trying to identify whether it has nutrients that are not that you need. That's what's happening. Like, for, again, we evolved to when we sensed or we perceived this taste of sweetness,

it was accompanied by a fast burning source of energy, some type of a natural sugar or carbohydrate, and it was accompanied by certain nutrients that were found primarily in foods that tasted that way. Like vitamin C, for example, vitamin C is difficult to find unless you eat good sources of fruits and certain vegetables. And so it makes sense that when you tasted sweet,

you craved it and you ate it. And fruit was kind of hard to find for the most part. You didn't find a lot of it if it grew naturally. And when you did find it, you ate the hell out of it. So what happens if we seek out taste without a macronutrient? Well, it changes a few things. Number one, it changes. Think about it this way. Your body is now expecting sugar or carbohydrates, but it doesn't get any. It still pretends like it gets it in terms of how the chemicals and the hormones react in the body, but now it's not getting

it. So it's kind of being fooled a a little bit. Your brain's, you know, centers that perceive this particular type of taste start to get altered to the point where you're now regular sweet, no longer taste sweet, to where you need these artificial, you know, engineered sweet taste. So now when I do go to eat fruit, it tastes bland, or I go to eat regular food, it tastes, doesn't taste satisfying. I need to have this extreme, you know, type of flavor. So this is what you're doing when you're consuming these types of things, which is why, you know, people have such a tough time giving up their protein. This is why I love the taste. This is why we're so passionate about it too, is that we know this from, you know, I know this not, and I said this on that thread was,

I know this not from the, you know, hundreds of people's lives that I've changed. I know this because of the thousands of people I failed because I told clients, here have these bars and use this when, next time you're hungry, don't eat, don't go through McDonald's, have this bar instead.

Hey, here's some of these shakes, like make sure you have this shake right after your workout or if next time you want to go through McDonald's again, have this bar instead. Hey, here's some of these shakes. Like, make sure you have this shake right after your workout or if next time you want to go through McDonald's again, have this shake instead. And I failed them all. I wasn't helping them. I wasn't getting to the root cause. So when I see a post like that, that's where the passion comes from. It's not that nobody should have a way protein shake. The people we're talking to are not the people that fully understand and calculate out their macros and know that they're only getting 60 grams of protein so they need this shake to get an extra thing.

We're not talking to those people. We're talking to the rest of the fucking world, which is the majority. Well, like we said, if you're eating adequate protein to build muscle, it's about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, which means you can easily get it from food and it'll fit your calories and do all that stuff. You don't have to drink it. You can't, you'll get it. I want to stop you there, though.

You can, especially if you're the average person who's probably got 100 to 150 pounds of lean mass on you. It can be challenging for somebody who's got over 200. I get that. Sure. I get that and understand that, but I also think that..., even a even a big guy, you know, like you you're you're not doing two shakes every day. No, you know, I'm saying that what I've worked it into their meal. Yeah, it becomes exactly because it's their diet. It's an emergency like it's an emergency and it's something that you actually seen meal plans where you see it show up. Like meal three. Oh, well, I mean, I did that.

I did that. I mean, we did that. I did that as a trainer for many years. For many years, I would wreck, which is like how that post was, which was the sensible breakfast, the shake for lunch, and then the meal for dinner. I mean, that was, we were taught that

when we were going through training, the whole apex thing. We talked about this the other day on the podcast was you know when we were taught to sell supplements We would tell people to eat these shakes and bars and replace of meals and restrict the calories and we were pitching the same bullshit that it's a Tool it's a tool to help these people lose weight. No, it's not not when 80% of them get fat again We're not fucking helping. Yeah, that's like how cereal made its way into being a balanced part of your breakfast. Yeah, exactly. Serial is dog shit.

Yeah, and you gotta think, you know, how do we define success? Because you're, because what's gonna happen is people will show studies and be like, look, all these people lost weight. Yeah, no, no, no, no. If you lost weight, you still haven't succeeded. If you gain it back, you failed.

If you lost weight, you're healthy and fit. If you gain it back, you failed. If you lost weight, you're healthy and fit, and it's always, that's it. Now that's your new lifestyle, and you've lost weight and it never comes back. Now you can call that a success. Very, very easy. I don't know where I heard it first, but someone said it great, where they said, America does not have a weight loss program, a problem. We do not.

We do not have a weight loss program. We know that we just don't keep up. Yes, we lose millions of pounds as a nation every single year. The problem that we have. We put on more. That's the problem. The problem is that nobody keeps it off and that that should be everybody. You know, I don't care who you are, but that should throw up a flag for everybody.

And I especially think it should throw up a flag for those doctors and people in professional positions that have been in those positions for a long time or that are speaking to the masses that this message is not a good message. That's all I'm saying. We're not saying you can't take a protein shake. We're not saying, we're not demonizing protein shakes. No, not that at all.

I use them, okay? It's that what we're trying to do is let people know that it's not a good message for the masses. If you're that anomaly, if you're that one off, if you're that athlete, fucking take it. Use it judiciously, understand that it's not ideal that you should be eating whole foods, but you're in a pinch, you're in a bind,

have your fucking shake every once in a while. Good for you. The rest of the people should not be taught that this is a good replacement for real food. For the most part, you should not be having a protein shake every single day. I have a protein shake even at home and the way I use it is kind of like the way Adam does or every once in a while I'll make myself a smoothie type of treat or whatever and I use

it for flavor or to add a little bit of protein just because I don't feel like I'm not blending chicken breast or whatever, like other people, like that body body we were talking about. But it's gonna last me a long time. I just don't use it that often. So the number three on this list of the top 10 was Muscle Tech, Nitro Tech, and it's a Cinnamon Swirl flavor.

Let's go into Swirl. It's a Cinnamon Swirl. Yeah. This one's got all the added. Well, this one sounds like it's a really wonky. Nitro, amino matrix. This one has nitro. And this one has amino acids added to it. That to me is always a big red flag. First of all, you don't need to add the the BCAA. So you're paying for this. This is probably how they get it from 20 to 30 grams of protein. People are excited. One gram of sugar. Wow. Yes. I'm

doing good. No, they have a huge way protein blend. I guess that's now become the thing. It's supposed to look a lot like, oh, it's a blend. Therefore, it's a bit more. Yes, it's a bit more, right? Artificial sweeteners, more sunflower-lessothin, gum blend, which is to give it that feeling of smoothness. Enziplex, which is just pepane and amylase, which are enzymes that help

break down protein, of course sucralose. I will say this about sucralose, by the way, sucralose is by far the most popular artificial sweetener you'll find in your protein powder. sucralose has been demonstrated to alter microbiome, or at least your gut flora. So it does alter gut flora, not a good idea. You don't wanna do that. Every once in a while, probably not a big deal. If you eat it on a regular basis, you may be harming your gut. And after five to 10 years, you may find that you all of a sudden

can no longer digest protein powders. All of a sudden you've become, you know, intolerant to dairy. And you say may because this is an area that we're still learning about. We are, but you won't find a single gut health specialist that thinks that sucralose is a good idea on a daily basis, it's just not.

Which is, and this is just so people that have been listening to the show for a minute or maybe you haven't, like there's, whatever we have, somebody that is a special, and you either nutritionist specialist or somebody that's a gut health specialist, and we bring this question up, that's always the answer is to I would be very,

very, I would, if you're gonna take something like that into your diet, I would definitely minimize the amount of it that you allow in there. It's in a lot of food out there though. It's in a ton of food. It is because again, we're chasing flavor, right? We're chasing that particular, you know, sweet or whatever. You know, I'll tell you what, for the most part, most of the popular protein, first of all, don't, you don't need to take a protein powder. That's my

advice. But if you want to, if you really, really want to take one, seek out one that is organic, has not flavor, minimal, why flavor ingredients, no flavor with some strawberries and blueberries. No flavor, but if you want to get a flavored one, then get the ones that are organic and naturally flavored, and they'll probably be flavored with a steppe. You know what's crazy to me is if you take, a lot of people don't realize this. If you take a half a cup of blueberries

and three strawberries, you know how little calories that is? Not much. And how much flavor that you get from three whole strawberries and a half a cup to a cup of blueberries The calories are very low. So that's how I would take my shakes I'd add a banana because I like bananas too You go and you add that in with some ice and either some almond or coconut milk or water If you want to go really low on calories and you get a plain ass way plain with no flavoring no nothing And then you throw it in there.

And then you make your own, and then you can play with things and you can add it with different types of fruits. And so I'm getting some good natural fruits in there, some good antioxidant, some good real-whole foods with this plain ass way by itself. So if you're somebody who's seeking that extra gram to 10 to 20 grams of protein, you absolutely feel you need it because you can't seem to find a way to get all the protein through whole foods on a very regular basis, then I get it. Now, Doug, can you look up because I want to, for people who can't have dairy or, you know, vegans or whatever, vegans might be a good, they might be a category of people

that would do well with a protein powder just because it's hard to get adequate protein with a big end diet. No, look up, look up, warrior blend. Click on that and let's look at the ingredients if there's an ingredient area. Well, here you go. So it's got a protein blend, P protein, hemp seed protein, and goji berry.

Is that it? Let's double check on that because if that's it, that's not bad at all. That's awesome though. I mean, that's what you're looking for. You're trying to find these, if you're gonna, if you feel like you can't break free of your way protein and you need it and you're diet,

this is what you're looking for. You're looking for a blend. Let's see what it says, is it say organic stavia? Oh no, it says sea salt, other ingredients. Oh yeah, yeah, they do have some other ingredients down at the bottom. Yeah, blow that up.

Thank you. It's got organic vanilla flavor. I don't like that it has a proprietary one. Organic, well, so you know, okay, so here's why they're going to do that with vegan proteins. Because vegan sources of protein are sometimes limited in certain amino acids, so you'll get more complete protein.

This is why vegans are always encouraged to combine like rice and beans and proteins together, because your body will utilize however much protein it can, but then if it's limited by one amino acid being low, one essential or whatever, then it's actually not very bioavailable. So it's going to be very rare to find a vegan protein that's not a blend, although hemp, pea and soy are actually pretty good on their own. Okay, so there you go. Snap, is they have a stevia? Yeah, so this has vanilla flavor blend, guar gum, which gives it that that that texture, sea salt and stevia. So is stevia a good substitute for artificial flavor.

It's a better choice. It's a better choice. Is it ideal now? No. Again, you are talking about something that is giving you that sweet signal to your brain. That's not delivering carbohydrates or sugars and could change how your brain perceives certain foods.

Also, stevia not entirely sold on how it affects the microbiome. I'm in a bet, it's a lot better than artificial sweeteners, but having even that on an every single day basis, probably not the best idea. So this is actually a protein that I've had in the past that every once in a while, and when I say every once in a while, probably at the most once a month,

more like once every of the month, where I'll throw it in a smoothie or something like that. That's warrior blend by sun warrior. So I guess at the end of the day, here's the advice. Whole foods, nothing comes close to Whole Foods in terms of health, muscle building, fat loss. The way your brain is gonna perceive the way you taste certain things, digestion, like everything, across the board, Whole Foods, superior.

You don't need protein powders, you're better off without them. That being said, if you are one of those people that may need protein powder here and there, then go for organic, minimally, minimum amount of ingredients, non artificially flavored, non artificially colored type protein powders. Those are the ones we recommend. The two that we just randomly pulled up. Maybe a little more expensive and it may look like like your serving size is less, right?

But that's, you know, you want to seek more of the quality, right? And plus the serving amount that you're going to use is going to be less than like what all your other people are going to recommend. So it's going to last you a decent amount. I also want to make a point that our bodies don't run on this perfect 24 hour clock. So don't look at it just like as a one day snapshot. So when I made the point that I actually utilize way protein shakes every now and then, it's

because I've strung like two or three days in a row that I've noticed I've been really low on protein. Because first of all, having some low protein days actually ends up benefiting me. Because we've talked about that over saturating our body with too much protein, then it de-synthetizes it, right? So when I have like a day or two of low protein, I don't even sweat at whatsoever. Now, I start pushing three, four, five, a week straight where I'm consistently not hitting my targets.

That's where you see me kind of introduce that. Don't look at it just for that one day. If that one day you're low, but yesterday, you probably ate over 20 grams of protein. You're fine. You're totally fine, because it doesn't work that way. It's like an average. It's like it doesn't work on a 24 hour clock because this day you're low on protein, you're fine. You're totally fine because it doesn't work that way. It's like an average. It's like it doesn't work on a 24 hour clock because this day you're low on protein, but yesterday

you weren't. Don't look at it like that. Look, start looking at your nutrition like a snapshot of like a week and pay attention. And if it is something that you're consistently missing, then I could understand putting it in there. But for a single day, you know, one day of low protein, actually, probably do more good than it's going to do harm. You're not going to lose pounds of muscle off your body with even missing your protein targets for an entire week. Because it's not pounds. And if you really want to drink your calories, post workout and dairy's not a problem,

have a glass of non fat milk or ideally have a glass of whole whole milk. By the way, and the reason why I said nonfat, because you got people freaking out about, I don't wanna have extra calories from the fat or whatever. But I'll also tell you this, there's now been some studies that have shown that nonfat milk connected to things like diabetes and health issues, whole milk far healthier for you.

And of course, don't forget the fat soluble vitamins that are in milk, require fat to be utilized. So going the non-fat route actually is far worse for you. You're better off with whole milk or get some like whole fat, you know, Greek yogurt or whole fat cottage cheese or if you can't have dairy, can it tune a fish, super fucking easy and a fruit. Boom, there's your post

workout. I wonder what the stats are on nonfat and slim milk over the last three to five years compared to like the 15 10 to 15 nonfat milk sales have dropped and whole milk is starting to go up. Yeah, I would be I've never given my kids fat free milk. It's so not good for always whole milk. It's like it's very, very, it's not. And I grew up on 2% and then when I first got into training lifting, then I went to even my kids fat free milk. It's so not good for always whole milk. It's like, it's very, very, it's not healthy.

I grew up on 2% and then when I first got into training lifting, then I went to a slim, which is one, right? And then I went to nonfat. So for years as a trainer, it was nonfat, nonfat milk forever. The healthiest part of milk is the fat. Right. That's the funny part. It is. That's the funny part of the whole thing.

It's crazy. And it tastes fucking amazing. Anyway, so. So there you go. There's your advice right there. If you want to drink something, post workout, grab yourself a glass, a whole milk, or eat a can of tuna fish or something like that. If you absolutely have to take protein powder and you just just something that you have to have in your nutrition, aim for the organic, non artificially colored, non artificially flavored varieties of protein. And I hope people understand where we're coming from on this. Like I feel like we get misunderstood when we get into these like, you know, battles

on Instagram with doctors that are out there. No, I think I think we made our point pretty well. I mean, we're not anti-supplement. I mean, we got to be very clear. We're not anti-supplement. We're pro supplements used properly. What do we wanna use them for deficiencies? That's it.

Supplements have, there's definitely a need for supplements. If you have low vitamin D or certain minerals or low or like Adam was saying, if you're one of those people that, you know, you're just deficient in protein or, you know, if you're an athlete and you're just, you're trying to squeeze out another half percent performance because you're training at that level or something like creatine, which has lots of benefits, especially for vegans.

That's where supplements can come into play. But supplements don't replace food, and they probably should not be a staple part of your every single day life unless you're one of those rare individuals. You're not healthy just because you're eating supplements. And then there are categories of supplements that are complete waste of fucking time, like pre-workout supplements. You can just throw them away completely.

So with that being said, we offer 30 days of coaching for free, and it's still available, it's still for free, at minepumpmedia.com. Just go to the site, opt in. You're going to get tons of free information from us, and it gets updated by us, which means you'll always have it and you'll always get it updated. Also you can find us on Instagram. We answer questions on Instagram all the time.

We answer them on air for our Q&A episodes. The Instagram page is Mind Pump Media or you can find our individual pages. I'm Mind Pump Sal, Justin's Mind Pump Justin and Adam is Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps on the ball, maps for performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

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