Whey Protein - Natural??? Deception

[Quest]

It has been almost impossible for me to find Whey Protein Powder that is not flavored with artificial crap in it. I am taking it very serious to get my body together and to be as healthy as possible, why would I want to pollute it with artificial sweeteners of which the long term effects aren't know?

I'm really pissed off right now. I just bought a container of Whey Protein Powder from Precision Engineered.

It says Natural flavor on the front of it.(so far so good)
It says Aspartame Free on the front.(still looking good)
It say on the back Free of: artificial color, artificial flavor.(good enough for me, I'm sold)

So I buy this, get home and take a look at it again. Under ingredients Sucralose is listed??? WTF!!! /forum/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener. It is chemically manufactured from sugar, a chlorinated sucrose derivative. How can they get away with this fraudulent marketing? /forum/images/graemlins/mad.gif No one knows the long term effect that a daily dosage of sucralose has on the body.

So please, someone out there who is not only interested in looking fit, but being healthy as well, help me, and let me know what and where I can get a Whey Protein Powder that does not have ANY artificial flavors, sweeteners, etc.... /forum/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Whey Man]

That's easy...ON's Natural Whey - Gold Standard.

Protein blend (whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, whey peptides), cocoa, fructose, lecithin, and natural flavor...that's it!

Also comes in vanilla and strawberry...it just kept giving me the chocolate ingredients though when I checked them out, but I'm betting they're all basically the same.

I've actually tried it before...and if I remember correctly, I enjoyed it just fine! It's cool you're going the proven healthy route, whereas I myself am risking whatever negative effects artificial sweetners might have on my body someday just to stay away from fructose. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hope this helped! Also, my local health food store sells a whey protein that's sweetened with stevia (natural sweetner)...so you could check out your local store too (if you have one) if that sounds more appealing to you.

[Crombie]

Your other option is unflavoured whey protein. These are mostly isolates. I found it had a watered down milk flavour (compared to the "cheesey" flavour from whey years ago), and was not so bad as a PWO shake.

[Quest]

Yeah, I guess my mistake was assuming that "natural flavor" meant unflavoured. When I guess "natural flavor" means 'flavored to taste natural'? Natural tastes like crap, if I was going to get something flavored, I might as well get the ice cream flavor or something like that.

This is deliberately misleading. They make it a point to put Natural in real big letters on the front with "no aspartame" right underneath it. The only reason that this would be done is to convince health conscious people that this product was all natural when it is not.

I can't even find a website or phone number to contact this company, I guess old fashioned letter writing will have to do.

[XenoWang]

Take a look at Syntrax Nectar Natural.

[Pr4]

I like Jay Rob's whey protein. Pricey, yes. Good taste and mixes very well. Contains stevia but no artificial flavorings. The strawberry flavor is really **** good.

I've also tried NOW's Dutch Chocolate which has "no artificial sweeteners." It does contain stevia, however. My only beef is that it's very thick and rich in flavor. Very difficult to mix with oats. I think I may stop buying it.

I've also tried Designer Whey's vanilla flavor with no artificial sweetners. Had no taste whatsoever and that really grinded my gears. Optimum Nutrition's vanilla-flavored whey with zero sweeteners tastes better.

I guess I'll have to try Xeno's recommendation of Syntrax's stuff. I really like their regular powders.

I'm almost getting fed up with these non-artificial whey powders...so expensive sometimes. One brand, "WPI" has this chocolate flavored whey protein that has really bare ingredients and no artificial sweeteners. I think they use pure cocoa and I remember it tasted like bitter dark chocolate -- which I'm a huge fan of. I recommend that powder if you like dark chocolate. Otherwise, that's all I got.

[Quest]

Thanks for the suggestions!!! I'll look into some of them and do some online price shopping.

[rickck48]

I buy what's in the ABC store and use that for myself! I would think they have a great brand and not into having anything that would have a hramful effect. If your interested you can check the store on the site and try it! /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[2ndChance44]

NOW SPORTS Whey Protein Isolate 100% pure contains no sugar,salt,starch,yeast,wheat gluten,corn,soy,egg or preservative
http://www.vitaminlife.com/product-exec/PNAME/WHEY_PROTEIN_ISOLATE_PURE/product_id/48313
I have it. Doesnt taste bad,a little bland but that is what "natural unflavored" tastes like. Heck, if you can eat oatmeal and cottage cheese as much as bodybuilders do you shoud have no problem with this.

[amino]

Hey all, sorry I’m joining this thread 4 months late. =)

Gotta say, I’ve become a big fan of Stevia. I’ve searched and searched for reviews of it’s negative affects And there just don’t seem to be any. The closest thing is write-ups that go something like “The US/Canadian/Australian FDA has not approved Stevia as a sweetener.” Whoop-dee-doo. If we listened to FDA every time, wouldn’t we all be prematurely dead by now? And if the FDA really thought there was a problem with Stevia, why did they let it on the US market as an Herbal Supplement; they only said that it can’t be marketed as a sweetener.

I swear that it’s all got to do with the good-ol’boy system of the FDA helping out the guys that have invested millions, if not billions of dollars in all the artificial sweetener crap products out there. And now that a really inexpensive, easy to cultivate & process, natural solution that’s been proven in cultures for decades & centuries sits right in front of them; they treat it like this?!

Some South American cultures have been using Stevia for Centuries, if not even Millennia. And they seem to be doing just fine. Also Japan’s FDA approved Stevia as a sweetener back in the 80’s as an effort to save their population from the drastic negative affects of High-fructose Corn Syrup. Hooray for them. It’s been over 2 decades now and everything seems to be going great.

So to get to my point; I use a Whey powder that is sweetened with Stevia. And it is great. Be careful, because they have other brands that are artificially sweetened. I use MRM’s Whey Pumped 100% All Natural. The key to look for in the name is “All Natural”. And make sure the label says “100% All Natural”. The Rich Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate Flavors are pretty good. But I find that I prefer their Natural flavor.

I usually buy mine at a whole foods store, but am thinking about trying on-line now. I may try this one soon:
http://www.nutritiondome.com/mrmwhpuallna.html

I also pour these Stevia sweetened shakes into my Oatmeal instead of milk and add some Vanilla & Cinnamon. Man, is it delicious. Never thought I’d say that about Oatmeal. Also, if you add just a ½ tsp of Peanut Butter to the Shake, it is just out of this world.

I’ve also purchased pure Stevia Extract marketed as a supplement in those little sugar-like packets. Now I can take unsweetened products and sweeten them myself. NOW foods and many other companies offer them.

I’m right with you regarding avoiding being the guinea pig for artificial flavors, colors, & sweeteners. I’m disgusted with how much is out there, and how hard they are to avoid. So I just do what I can when I can. And suck it up (in LOW dosages) where I can’t.

If anyone has any negative research about Stevia, then please post. But I’m pretty much sold on it.