Understanding the recent Protein Study - A detailed explanation

[its_namex]

Recently, there have been posts about 70% of the protein in the market are mislabeled. But the study itself wasn't easy to read.

So I did a small breakdown of the most popular brands in the study.

Link to the study itself - Citizens Protein Project

Link to the brands they studied - Brands list

https://preview.redd.it/ft6wolt7hvt...bp&s=7a227253af6f693a34376eadbb92f3806fd8200e

Observations :

1. The bigger brands mostly seem to be doing fine, in terms of having a variation within 10%
2. Nutrabox is an outlier, the variation is too large to be ignored, especially because of their emphasis on being certified.
3. One Science whey - considered by @clothedinsalvation as the best in the study is actually pretty mid, claimed 83% and found only 68%, Ultimate Nutrition fares a bit better, but clearly brands like MB and ON have done very well.
4. Origin does look like the best Vegan protein.
5. WTF is Nutrela Patanjali Whey ? and why do they claim 90% and deliver 80.34% I included it because I was shocked.
6. There was no test for amino spiking, so take these claims with a grain of salt (this doesn't explain Nutrabox delivering very less though).
7. A lot of trash brands out there, but you all already know it.

I don't know who the frick this Liverdoc is or what's the issue with him is. This is basically what Testified calls - Level 1 testing. So I'd still go with Testified's recommendations personally.

Hope that explains it, and look into the study and reference linked on top to dig deeper.

Edit :

I wanted to add some stuff about heavy metals and ON because a lot of people seem to be concerned, so I'm going to copy paste, my explanation below.

Personally I found the LOQ's chosen to be fairly arbitrary. For example, they've chosen a general value of 0.025mg/kg as the LOQ for heavy metals. But every agency in the world, has different LOQ levels for the different heavy metals. Cd, Pb etc all have different levels.

Also, I found the mg/kg to be a bad example.

A better way to do this would've been to have a per serving heavy metals level.

This way, we can compare it to the permissible levels of consumption / day limits. Because the levels in a Kg bag aren't really relevant, depending on if a person is consuming 1 serving / day, or 3 servings per day.

So, for example, according to the WHO, permissible amounts of lead are 0.05 mg/(kg x bodyweight of person) per week.

So if we look at an average 65 kg person - that would be 3.5 mg / week.

According to the study, there was about 0.29 mg found in a KG of ON whey. Lets say, this is an enthusiastic person consuming 3 servings of whey per day - that translates to about 0.029 mg of lead exposure / week.

That is still 100 times lower than the amount suggested as limits by the WHO.

You see where I'm going with this. This isn't really worth getting alarmed by. It is a shitty testing process.

 

[whitceegee]

@its_namex I wanted them to study budget brands like avatar, asitis, nakpro, amul etc

 

[its_namex]

@whitceegee Would've liked to see more of those. I wonder what the selection criteria is.

 

[its_namex]

@whitceegee Would've liked to see more of those. I wonder what the selection criteria is.

 

[suzann]

@its_namex Since your post is not sensationalizing, alarming and maligning it won't capture attention.

The devil is in the details and people love sensational headlines. Especially if it somehow remotely aligns with their inferiority complex.

 

[its_namex]

@suzann When I read the other posts I realised a lot of people haven't read the study themselves. So I wanted to put it in a more easy to read format. So people can form their own opinions instead of relying on news sites to interpret the results and sensationalising.

After all, we're all here to get better. So good info is what we need, not some sensational bullshit.

 

[kylo28]

@its_namex This is actually a big scam considering the protein cost. Look at big muscles. People still buy it. They should be banned

The fact that Flipkart listing them as a best seller is insane. There should be awareness about it cuz people trust the labels and buy it

Just yesterday, I've seen some brand selling whey protein for 400rs per kg and the claimed amount was like 24g protein per serving which lasts for 28 days. People who filter out products ends up buying those scammy products

 

[joanah]

@kylo28 What else can you expect from flipkart

 

[zeljko]

@its_namex You all are concerned with advertised protien content and actual protien content? That's a secondary issue. Protiens have been found with lead and arsenic content well above dangerous levels. That's some irreversible damage to body shit right there. I want to know the names of that. That's the priority. The study should have named these too clearly.

And I looked into dude who funded 80% of the study. Absolutely Rendom guy who seems to have nothing to gain financially from this study atleast prima facie. So i would trust the study. Rest 20% of the study is funded by LiverDoc.

 

[its_namex]

@zeljko I'd initially left the notes section to highlight that itself. But most seemed to be below loq.

And they're generally in line with trustifieds results for that. So I put in the data that felt most relevant to people. The study is linked on top for anyone interested. Or if more people want to know, I can add those in as well.

 

[jenfer]

@zeljko Liver doc is an idiot, no wonder he funded the study.

 

[lyndsay68]

@its_namex Guess I’ll just stick to amul whey protein….

 

[thebman]

@its_namex Nutrabox is certified by TRUSTIFIED and i trust Arpit over the study because his process is very transparent so idk what to believe

 

[its_namex]

@thebman Same. Hope fully he makes a statement on this. Because the difference between what he found and what this study found is pretty insane. I remember he actually found slightly more than waht the company claimed.

And this study is claiming they are short by more than 10%.

 

[thebman]

@its_namex I mean it could just be bad quality control on nutraboxes part since its a relatively smol brand

 

[truthseeker316]

@its_namex Bro is bought

 

[kylo28]

@truthseeker316 U mean bought?

But surely some brands might have approached him but who knows

 

[truthseeker316]

@kylo28 Yup that's what I meant.

 

[its_namex]

@truthseeker316 While it's not impossible. He won't be able to keep it up if that's the case. Atleast for now, he comes across as trusted.

There's already some conflict of interest though, with the referral based purchases, but I can understand why he has to do that. Ideally we should support him through patron or something so he can be independent but it's not really the culture here in our country.

 

[truthseeker316]

@its_namex Yup that's what I suggested in the comment section in one of his videos. Guess what, no reply, he doesn't wanna do it this way because then the public can hold him accountable.