Stop Wasting Money On Protein Powders

Are you wasting money on protein supplements? With the market set to explode from $28 billion to $55 billion, are we buying into health or just clever marketing? And far from being a tool for building muscle, could these supplements be causing us to gain weight?

Protein powders have become a popular dietary staple, driven by aggressive marketing and the food industry's focus on capitalising on health trends rather than genuine consumer needs, and they have a huge incentive to do so - the market for protein supplements is vast, offering companies significant financial incentives to produce these products. It is not just driven by food companies; 

influencers are also highly incentivised to push these products due to the high level of commissions paid!

Having researched a course on the food industry and UPFs, I can tell you this is the perfect situation for food companies and fits right into the playbook of taking a good story about an essential nutrient that is easily available in our diets and using it to market a reconstituted “food” product that is only for profit not to nourish us. Let’s dive in.

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You can also watch this video on my YouTube channel.

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The Truth about Protein

It is true that protein is an essential part of our diets. Proteins are the building blocks of our body, primarily responsible for the growth, maintenance, and repair of tissues and more, including:

• Supporting muscle mass maintenance

• Improves metabolic flexibility

• Enhances satiety (fullness) and blood sugar stability

• Aids in enzyme and hormone production

  
  

One of the main things that scares people is the thought they are not getting enough protein for the basic maintenance of their bodies, so let's look at that:

Protein requirement for maintenance

Many people overestimate their daily protein requirements, believing that more protein equates to better health outcomes. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein is about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is sufficient for most adults to avoid deficiency. 

There are two interesting facts about that recommendation. The first is the way these are worked out by scientists, and it is all based on averages. After all, none of us are the same; some people will need more, and some will need less. When government and health authorities produced the recommendations, they wanted to make sure that they covered as many people as possible; as such, the recommendation is actually set right at the high end of the requirement at the level that covers 98% of people.

What that means is that if you meet these levels, most of you are actually getting way more than you need for your daily requirements. The second interesting thing about the recommendation is this - it can actually be really easy and really cheap to meet this with basic foods.

What the daily requirement actually looks like

This has got to be the craziest thing about the whole industry. At these recommendations, most people are going to be looking to eat about 50-100 grams of protein a day, and this is so easy to achieve with basic and often cheap whole foods. Achieving 30-40 grams of natural protein in a single meal is quite feasible, even on a tight budget. The key is to combine protein-rich ingredients like lean meats, fish, eggs, legumes, and dairy products.

And, in fact, the statistics show that there is no evidence of a deficiency in modern Western diets. Adults in the US and Europe easily meet this requirement on a daily basis through their normal diets.

If you are worried about where to get good sources of real protein, visit the link in the description for this free PDF from the My BMB program!

https://www.my-bmb.com/protein 

Also, some of you may be wondering about protein for building muscles and recommendations from experts like Peter Attia for protein intakes, which are double the RDA - if so, you may be interested in the MY BMB program, where I deep dive into protein and these recommendations.

Plant-Based Diets

Another argument is that people on plant-based diets need to supplement their diet with extra protein. However, this is not true at all. Plants can be a great source of protein, especially legumes (beans), which come in an incredible variety.

In fact, you should really be trying to get a good amount of plant-based protein in your diet due to the amazing additional benefit of dietary fibres, which can contribute to good gut health, which is really important for your health and for maintaining a healthy weight.

There is a catch when it comes to plant protein, which is that plant proteins have a different amino acid profile to meats. What this means is that if you are relying on a plant diet, you need to use protein supplementation to get the full range of amino acids your body needs.

And, this is not a bad thing at all; it just means that you need to eat a variety of different foods - eat the rainbow - and when you start to discover all these amazing foods, you are opening up an existing range of tastes and flavours you probably didn’t even know existed.

Disrupting the food matrix

It is so unfair that protein powders and bars are often marketed as healthy and convenient solutions for meeting dietary needs but come with significant drawbacks.

These products are typically classified as ultra-processed foods (UPFs), containing additives such as emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners that enhance flavour but may disrupt metabolic processes.

Our bodies have evolved to break down real foods slowly due to the food matrix and in different parts of our digestive system. Taking these predigested protein supplements causes rapid absorption of the protein in a way our bodies weren't designed for. The rapid absorption of predigested proteins in these products can cause insulin spikes, leading to potential metabolic imbalances that can cause weight gain.

Even worse, many of these contain added sugars under various names, contributing to unnecessary caloric intake without providing nutritional benefits. In addition, the satiety effect of real protein is missing in these supplements, which can also lead to the consumption of excess calories via these powders.

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To sum up, don’t waste money on protein supplements and avoid marketing tricks like “added protein” this is just another way for food companies to turn real foods into UPFs to improve profitability.

 For optimal health, it is recommended to focus on obtaining protein from whole food sources that provide high-quality protein along with essential vitamins and minerals. 

These natural sources not only support muscle maintenance but also contribute to overall metabolic flexibility by stabilising blood sugar levels and enhancing satiety. Plant-based proteins are particularly beneficial as they come with dietary fiber that aids digestion and supports gut health.

If you are tired of wasting money on protein supplements and want to learn the truth about UPFs, deep dive into real foods and nutrients, then why not check out the My BMB program?

The program is focused on giving you the unbiased information you need to make choices for you that nourish your body.

In addition, our meditations help you take that information and program your mind to create a supporting and encouraging inner voice that supports you in creating long-term change