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Sunday, 14 February 2016

Veggie-style Protein




By Pete Ryan
Veggie-style are the new kids on the block in the supplement world.  Run by animal-advocates, veggie-style make a range of proteins, fat-burners, B12 and other products useful to vegan (and other) athletes, as well as those just into improving their health.
We were lucky enough to get two tubs of protein to try out and below I will give you my personal view of the proteins.  Before we go any further, protein powders are weird.  People vary hugely in their love/hate of them.  They seem to bring out extremes in people (or maybe the people who tend to take them are simply more extreme?).  So, if I love something, you may hate it.  Conversely, if I hate something you may love it. If possible, whenever you want to try a new protein powder see if you can get a sample or a small size to see how you will like it.  My personal preference is for a less sweet protein, which can be seen as lucky as recent studies have shown that the actual taste of sweetness, without extra calories, can cause insulin to spike and fat to be stored. However, you may have different taste buds, so just remember this is my opinion of the protein powders.  The final decision has to be yours.
With that said let’s take a general look at the proteins.  They are a mixture of proteins, blended with other ‘superfoods’ to give you around 30-40g of protein per serving and  loads of health boosting antioxidants and nutrients, with things like moringa, chlorella, maca and many others.  Both of the proteins tested are sweetened with stevia. I mixed both of these using the plant milk of my choice, I prefer powders mixed with plant milks compared to water, that is my personal choice, if you prefer water, fruit juice or whatever, then do that.

Power greens strawberry shake



Power greens is a blend of pea, rice, quinoa and hemp protein powders along with a selection of dried green plants and some other botanicals, sweetened with stevia.  It is not overly sweet and mixes fairly easily.  Like most protein powders it has a fairly strong taste, you could disguise it with fruit if necessary, but I found it palatable enough. The scoop is small.  They suggest 5 scoops for every serving.  This is a niggle, but as I usually have a shake in the morning I prefer just grabbing and doing one scoop.  Counting in the morning ....uuuggg! That is more me in the morning, than anything, but there is not too much wrong with the blend so I had to focus on some negative aspect.  Oh yea it is vaguely green as well.  You should probably expect that from a product called “Power greens”, but be warned if you aren’t expecting it. The taste wasn’t totally amazing, but nor was it awful.  I could down it no trouble first thing in the morning with zero issues.
 
Protein and moringa chocolate shake



The moringa tree has been used for 1000’s of years as a medicinal plant.  The leaves have been fed to pregnant and lactating woman to insure their babies get enough nutrients to grow and thrive. This is a blend of pea protein and rice protein with moringa and stevia to add a little sweet taste to the product. The chocolate taste is quite mild in this product.  I have tasted some very strong chocolate tasting shakes before, this one has a much milder taste. Unlike most green shakes this one can be taken by pregnant and lactating mothers (algaes have not yet been given the ok for use with these groups of people as the research into their safety isn’t finished yet).  As moringa has already been used for multiple generations in human communities with only beneficial effects, it is actually encouraged that mothers or mothers-to-be use morninga to increase their nutrient intake. This shake had the consistency of rice protein.  If you have had rice protein before, then you will know it does have a texture when mixed, not exactly powdery, but not as smooth as a pea or soya protein powder.  It is different, but not nasty.  Within a week it will become the normal texture of your shake.  You could easily add things to this shake.  The taste is not that strong, it has a mild taste, moringa doesn’t really taste at all, the chocolate is mild and the proteins are masked by the mild chocolate taste, so you could add fruit, nut butter, whatever taste you wanted if you wanted to experiment.

Overall view

These products take a different approach to protein powders than most manufacturers.  They are more ‘nutrient replacements’, than basic protein powders.  They include other botanicals that will boost your overall health and nutrient intake, so should be looked at a little differently to the average ‘off the shelf’ powder.  If you are looking for a raw product that contains lots of nutrients, if you are (or could become) a pregnant or lactating mother, or if you just want something a little bit different to the run of the mill protein shake, then these may be worth exploring.  Remember they are made with natural products so the taste may vary a little batch to batch as leaves can be picked at different times of the season, or algae harvested at different points in its growth cycle.
I thought veggie-style was interesting enough that I got us a discount code from the supplier, so if you are interested pop over to: 

 
Discount code VBB for 10% off
Side note the code works on ALL their products, not just the protein. Other note.  This is an affiliate link, so we do make a few pennies off of you using the code.

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Vegan related adverts


http://www.gorillagym.co.uk/ 

http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/

Product/company of the week


http://www.viridian-nutrition.com/home.aspx 
Viridian nutrition - vegetarian and vegan supplements



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