If you are in the fitness world for over some time, then you would have certainly come across this displeasing situation – Prices of Protein supplements are continually rising.
To deal with this high-cost factor and still earn a significant profit, numerous manufacturers have found out a legal way to fool their customers.
Here’s how your so called favourite supplement brand might be cheating you –
Many suppliers add cheap fillers like Taurine and Glycine in sports supplements to spike protein levels while testing. And the worst thing, Taurine and Glycine show up as nitrogen while testing and technically a nitrogen based bond is a protein. Thus, they are certified for consumption.
But hey, what’s the problem with Taurine and Glycine?
Taurine and Glycine already occur naturally in protein, but many “profit-seeking” companies keep them adding in protein supplements so as to increase the protein number and providing you less with what you want and more with what you don’t.
And that means
25g of protein per scoop is 20g of dietary protein and 5g of cheap fillers and amino acids that have very fewer benefits.
Is there anything wrong with using fillers in supplements?
Yes. Fillers not only decrease the quality of the supplement but also cheat you on your money. Fillers like Taurine, Glycine and Soy Protein (added in Whey protein blends) are very cheap compared to their counterpart- Whey Protein Concentrate and Whey Protein Isolate.
So why pay more for cheap fillers?
How to stay away from being fooled for a spiked supplement?
It’s very simple. All you have to do is look on the list of the ingredients of the product. Avoid the product if you see Taurine or Glycine in absurd proportion.
The Transparency Problem in Sports Nutrition in India
As per the guidelines, the food suppliers have to mention the list of ingredients in descending order of their respective amount added. However, they are exempted from disclosing the actual amount the ingredient used.
This means
A company can formulate their products in such a way that it looks very promising and expensive on the outside but on the inside the package is filled with cheap fillers instead of what they promised – Expensive ingredient.
Such companies also use different terminologies to fool their customers. One such term is – “Proprietary Blend”.
According to FDA – Manufacturers are required to list all of the ingredients in a product on its label along with the amount of weight unless the ingredients are a part of a proprietary blend.
While Proprietary blend helps a company protect the ingredient combinations in their formulas, most of the time there are scammers taking shelter of this loophole.
Bottom line
Manufacturers can save a lot of money by substituting expensive protein for a few grammes cheap amino acids and still stay obedient by the law.
Moreover, if a supplier is not disclosing the exact amount of ingredients used then it only implies that there’s something he is hiding.
How does MyFitFuel differ from others?
We at MyFitFuel believe in 100% transparency. Unlike other brands, we don’t play tricks on the ingredients listing label to fool our customers and deprive them of optimum quality. Neither do we add cheap fillers in our products nor do we lie about the proportion of protein in our supplements. With MyFitFuel, every customer gets to know the exact ratio of all the ingredients used in the concerned product. Moreover, with our stand alone feature – Protein Report, we enable customers to learn what they are paying for.
