Protein Powders

A lot of you asked me this in my last week’s Q&A and so I thought I’d answer it in more detail here. And the surprise answer is – NONE.

Now if your goal is to become a body builder and develop those bulging muscles in a short period of time, I am not talking to you.

But if your goal is to be fit, build healthy muscle mass, lose weight, prevent diseases in the future and achieve all this in a natural healthy way, then this post is for you!

WHAT’S WRONG WITH PROTEIN POWDERS ?

When you pick a protein rich food like say – beans or peas they come as a package with a little bit of carbohydrate, fat, micro-nutrients, fibre and resistant starch. In short – it’s a wholesome food, our body can recognize it and has the ability to break down and process.

A protein powder in contrast is a fragmented food extracted from a whole food. We all know we need to stay away from sugar, maida, biscuits and chips because they are fragmented (processed foods), then why is a protein powder excused from this list?

You only need to go through the list of ingredients in your protein powder to understand what else it contains apart from protein. 90% of the powders will contain added sugar, artificial flavors, colour and a whole lot of chemicals to trick your senses and make it palatable. How does that make it healthy?

Taking protein powders even for a short period of time can cause constipation, bloating, gas, digestive issues, smelly sweat. The problem our body faces with regular consumption of protein isolate is getting rid of the excess plus its toxic residue. And hence can cause uric acid or kidney issues.

I went through the ingredient lists of some of the cleanest, healthiest protein powders in the market and found them to contain chemicals that aid their digestion. Now you know why. Because our body is practically incapable of digesting the isolate on its own!

Another food for thought – How did athletes, body builders, construction workers, and people in general who did a lot more labour get by before the first protein powder was invented in the 1950’s ? Hmm..

This entire hype about protein is not so much about your health, but more to scare you into buying into a multi-billion dollar protein supplement industry. Now you get it. Are you still going to ask which protein supplement to go for ?

If you’re working out for 1-2 hours daily, you absolutely can get by on protein from (you guessed it 😉 ) – FOOD. You sure won’t grow muscles overnight, and you will need to work out consistently, and get good sleep to help assimilate the protein you consume. But believe me this is the healthiest way. Head to my blog post on protein to know how much protein is needed by the body, and how you can fulfill it 🙂