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Protein scam or not?

OKIE

OKIE

New member
A friend of mine told me that his masters class at a local University tested 3 dfferent protein powers to actually see how much protein they contained. @ of them were from the US and the other was from German laboratories. The two from the US claimed to have over 30g of protein per serving, but actually had closer to 17g. The German brand actually exceeded its claim of 33g of protein. He said companies in the US can get away with this because they just have to be within aroound 25% of its label to meet US standards, while German standards specify that its products must meet or exceed the label. How much of this is true?
 
there are now hundreds of suppliers these days that sell supplments. what you said is one of the main reasons to buy them from big, reputable companys like EAS, Optimum, Met Rx etc.

so I'm sure that very well could be true. there are a lot of little bull shit scam companys out there especailly on the Internet.
 
Officially they have to be within 5% of the label claims in the US.

Meeting or exceeding the label isn't always good take saturated fat. oh look its legal we have 80grams of saturated fat and we only claim to have 5 and look we exceed calories too our new dieters twinkies only have 5 calories but yet we go beyond and exceed this claim since they really have 800.

What your friend said ranges from outright wrong (25% us) to sketchy generalization to a point that the statement means nothing. I wonder if this *study* wasn't funded by a german protein producing company.

Its true some companies to vary wild from the label claims this happens more in herbal ingredients than actual food required labels which are more strictly governed.
 
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I think that what makes it all inconsistant are the way we measure, a scoop is not always a scoop, a powder can be more "fluffier" or compact, so youll get more protien with one than the other, the comparison should be gram to gram, in other words, 100 grams of this stuff compared to 100 grams of that. even then, you could have moisture that throws that out of whack
 
If this is true, then I should probably start buying from the manufactors or places like protein factory, or if possible to buy german company protein in the US. At least with protein factory and manufactors you know what your getting...."80% WPC" for example.

If companies do this on purpose then I'm sure they exceed the amount of saturated fat and carbs and decrease the amount of protein.
 
Actually, I believe one of the powders tested was from MetRX, and he wasn't certain what % the US standard had to be held to, only that German companies are held to a much higher standard. The study was not funded by a German company, it was funded by the University. I don't know all the details, but I'll see what more I can find out w/o getting anyone in trouble.
 
What i don't understand is why can't at least some companies come out and be reputable. Seems like everything is a scam now a days.
 
Yea, I would think with all the government "protection" that underdosing would be a federal crime, but with whole pharmcuetical industry scam in play it probably is only rational to believe that protection is not a primary objective.
 
In the business i'm in if i would tell my client "yup i'm done, everything is 100% complete" and it wasn't i'm sure they would either not pay me or take me to court. I'm guessing multi-billion dollar companies are excluded from this practice.
 
protein powders are just supplements, not drugs.
So the FDA is "less strict" for sup. manufacturer than for the pharmaceutical industry.

Just stick with reputable brands: they can't cheat too much
 
Anthrax said it right... they are not going to be checking out all protein powders for their % claim. Believe me they wont. You're held more at the mercy of their words... Just buy from reputable companies that's all i can tell you. If you think Proteinfactory is reputable then get it from them, i've heard a few stories about them as well where the protein they sold didn't add up. Just be careful.
 
Yah guys, especially newbies. be careful when you are purchasing supps, including protein. Always try to buy from a legit company such as Eas, Metrex, Prolab,Cytodyne, Twinlab, Biotest, Etc. You should know who is reputable, if you dont ask a mod or do a search in the posts. Now, if you are 100% certain that a smaller comp. products ie: Protein, meets label claims, then go for it. Always, Always, Always, "DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU". Happy Holidays to ya all, Rotty
 
I agree w/ you guys. Anthrax was right...no one really monitors the supplement industry very closely. Think about all the BS that is sold out there with outrageous claims. Why should some protein powders be any different? I like the protein factory, but I wish someone could test their product for its validity just to be certain.
 
one i do have faith in is Optimum Nutrition. They also claimed that it was "impossible" to reach 80% protein from whey unless you added some isolate to it. If that's true Proteinfactory is lying. And i know optimum has 4 different kinds of whey in there, and i do believe what they claim it does have.
 
Protein power and supplements

I remember a few years ago reading a book called supplement review. Several products were taken off of shelfs to be analized and compared to what the labels claimed. All the big brand names were included and the testing was done by a company that was not in the supplement industry. Anyhow the results were printed in this book for all the brand names and their best selling supplements. It was amazing to see just how bad some company ripped off the customer. They were suppose to do another book the following year but did not do so because of lawsuits by the companys that were pissed off by their ratings. Muscletech was one of the companys that had a lawsuit due to their sells dropping after the rating. They wanted the lab people doing the supplement review to take another sample, shipped directly from muscle tech instead of letting them take it off the shelfs at supplement stores. The lab reviews techs refused to alter their sampling methods to suit muscletech.
 
In the computer industry we habe lots of magazines, whose journalists test hardware and software and write opinions about it. If some piece of hardware does not work, they write about it. If some software crashes constantly, they say it. In entertainment there are film critics and if they don't like a movie, they voice their opinion. Yet in bodybuilding, i cannot remember a mag which tested protein powder, bars or some other supplements and compared the results. They talk about certain nutrients and present scientifics studies, but never talk about actual products on the market and how well they test in the lab. Maybe chemical lab testing is more expensive than watching a movie or running a piece of software and writing about it, i don't know. But there should be a market for this kind of research. It is not the purpose of some goverment bureaucrat to watch these companies, this is usually the job of journalists to research and present results.
 
Punschkrapfen said:
Yet in bodybuilding, i cannot remember a mag which tested protein powder, bars or some other supplements and compared the results. They talk about certain nutrients and present scientifics studies, but never talk about actual products on the market and how well they test in the lab. Maybe chemical lab testing is more expensive than watching a movie or running a piece of software and writing about it, i don't know. But there should be a market for this kind of research.
Click to expand...

Closest thing we have to this are those independent websites that test a few products out. Although we here can't test these products out for purity or see if they meet label claims, these boards do offer a great deal of help b/c we get lots of customer feedback w/ both good and bad info on products.
 
Read a copy of supplent reveiw. The was a unbias company who took several products from all the big name companys, and had each product analized to see if it matched label claims. Only a few companys actually matched their labels. Some were actually over and some only had 50% of what they were claiming. The book is a good buy because you will learn which companys are good and which companys like ripping off the customer. They were later on taken to court by the companys who did not do so good. Guess, what musce tech was one of the companys.
 
Dr.Noe said:
Read a copy of supplent reveiw. The was a unbias company who took several products from all the big name companys, and had each product analized to see if it matched label claims. Only a few companys actually matched their labels. Some were actually over and some only had 50% of what they were claiming. The book is a good buy because you will learn which companys are good and which companys like ripping off the customer. They were later on taken to court by the companys who did not do so good. Guess, what musce tech was one of the companys.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? The supplement review I've seen is published by Bill Phillips of EAS. He makes it pretty clear who he is, so you msut have a different one.
 
I read a while back when they checked the protein content in whey products, Optimum's was the closest to the label. Others were close, and still you know there will always be those that never were even close to the claims. Same thing w/ other supplements.
 
sguthrie said:


Are you sure? The supplement review I've seen is published by Bill Phillips of EAS. He makes it pretty clear who he is, so you msut have a different one.
Click to expand...

I still have the book, when I get home I will check the name out.
 
Sorry guys, I had the name of the book wrong, it's called lab test review. Looking at some of muscle techs crap..their label showed 6 grams of creatine in creatine 6000-ES, the test came back showing there was only 2 grams. All your big companys are in this book, and amazing how many of them are ripping us off. There were some companys that were dead on also.
 
Some time ago, I came across some threads about that book on usenet. If I remember correctly, they were sued by at least one big supplement company. How did optimum's protein do, percentage wise?
 
I think I remember Optimum's protein doing poorly in an independant lab analysis. May have changed since then but I'm not willing to gamble.

Agreed. Go with what you have faith in.
 
yeah i actually heard the same thing awhile ago i don't know if it was in an add or an actually study though
 
chillin408 said:
Some time ago, I came across some threads about that book on usenet. If I remember correctly, they were sued by at least one big supplement company. How did optimum's protein do, percentage wise?
Click to expand...

Looking at the book, they did not have good measuring controls Their creatine was 35.7% under the label claiim. Their protein did better and was 34.6 over the label claim. Sodium was 128% over the label claim.
 
I use Holland & Barret. I get it very cheap (half price). I figure if you cannot trust H&B (BODY FORTRESS RANGE) you can't trust anyone....... besides, it tastes gross - therefore it has got to be honest!
 
Of course it is scam.Tell me all of you what did you gain from it or did you see any improvement from it.
I dont think so
 
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