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0.36g of protein per pound (of your ideal body weight) perhaps may be enough for bodily functions but it's not enough to gain muscle specially women who are premenopausal.

I saw a lot of jokes after the election that the US has a lead poisoning problem (irritability, difficulty concentrating, mood disorders) and, welp…huh, considering the main protein powder user…huh…

I fully believe everything you wrote about lead levels in protein powders and the study itself, it's just this part seems... imprecise and a bit editorial.

ty for your reporting on this!

UPSHOT: Is it soil? Plant based, especially pea protein = worst offenders. It's still not that simple. But, YIKES- "Federal regulations also don’t generally require supplement makers to prove their products are safe, and there are no federal limits for the amount of heavy metals they can contain."

Thanks for this. I honestly just assumed 'I am taking protien supliments' was something people did when they were attempting to massively cut calories (while not wanting to lose a lot of muscle), -or- when they were swapping to a vegan/vegeterian diet and hadn't sorted out various levels yet.

not saying it’s good but is that the one where a serving is 315g (6 scoops)? it’s worth pointing out that it’s a 1230 calorie serving, so it really could be half someone’s daily intake of food

Saay I didn't see it mentioned, but did you test companies like Herbalife? I have family members in that cult.

that rebuttal just makes me think we should have MORE contaminant reporting. I would like to know ALL of the foods that have lots of lead in them, please.

to be fair: for a “mass gainer”, lead seems like a highly efficient way to accomplish the goal

Premier Protein, literally the bestselling shake, isn’t even mentioned. Why is that?

How can we figure out if other brands have lead? I drink a lot of fairlife.

Does CR also do any testing for melamine contamination?

I use a different Vega plant based product than the one mentioned. Should I be worried?

Thank you for your work on this!!

Has a similar testing process/methodology been applied to collagen supplements? They are also protein based, but have a different focus/purpose… wondering if this translates to those also.

Labdoor is a lovely website that tests powders, and helps inform me on which ones to buy.

Was Huel black the only version of Huel that was tested?

7.7 mcg per Serving (!) is insane. Supplements are limited by EU food law to be below 3 mcg per kg, so a 30g serving may not have >0.09 mcg.

Thank you for this. The ensure plant based shake has been a mainstay for my kids for months.

Am shocked. Unbelievable.

I'm confused by the article using the same photo for two of the optimum nutrition products. One is 100% whey and is deemed ok, while the other is simply 'protein shake' and is worse. But they look the same? Could really use some UPCs or a table or something...

i knew my fat lazy lifestyle was Virtuous

Probably not, as it turns out. I think, anyways.

I think the main reason for this is that protein is the only one of the three macronutrients that has never had a diet centered on avoiding it. Carbs and fat have had decades of bad PR in different ways, so protein is the only one you can slap on a label as a feature or health benefit.

I think it was Consumer Reports that did a story a few years ago that said the land where rices were grown had a lot of arsenic. This is loverly when 1 cannot tolerate gluten. I wonder what used to grow where some of the ingredients in the protein drinks are from.

The average adult is doing way too little exercise! Americans get adequate pro as an average, but many people don't.

It’s an extremely odd idea that anyone above the poverty line would need protein supplements. If you eat a balanced diet, why on earth would you need more protein? What for?

Leafy green maxing just doesn't have the same appeal, I guess.

"The study shows that U.S. dietary guidelines “promote a false equivalence that all proteins are equal, which indeed, they are not,” she writes. " You're probably eating enough protein, but maybe not the right mix share.google/1SRJBEm8CvyK...

Thank you for reporting on this topic. Have you thought about this in terms of waste? Considering the outsized env footprint of US populations, it’s stunning to see how much of this footprint is just waste. Like consuming so much protein just to have it pass through our bodies with no real benefit.

Alt text retrieved

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Histidine metabolite - imidazole propionate (ImP), produced by microorganisms, is associated with the extent of atherosclerosis in mice and in two independent human cohorts.

Please consider adding alt text to posts with images as folx who rely on screen readers for vision loss deserve equitable access to information, & you can update your settings on BlueSky so that you cannot post images without alt text, so you are prompted to add it if you might otherwise forget! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

For people with kidney issues, high protein is also bad.

Of course we get ample protein. This is about capitalism selling us something we don’t need.

Unless they state Vitamin C from acerola cherry or Vitamin D from lichen, something to indicate it’s from a plant, your vitamin/mineral is usually synthetic and there’s less HM concern. But it will almost never be zero.

Thank you so much for this great tip!

This year I'm guessing it will only be the ones that have done something to catch the eye (and ire) of Trump

Should we assume that if a very popular product isn’t included, it has safe levels of lead? Because I’m kinda shocked not to see Premier on this list; it’s available at literally every grocery and drug store within 10 minutes‘ drive from my house, including being one of the few options at Costco