Hello fellow Hermanites! I am writing this post because I am concerned with the amount of artificial sweeteners in protein powders. Sucralose is in most protein powders. The FDA considers it "generally safe" but I honestly don't trust the FDA. I am wary of anything that tricks your body into believing that you are getting something sweet. Studies have shown that your body still preemptively increases insulin because it is expecting something sweet. When it does not actually receive sugar, what happens next is debateable. However, I am neither A nutritionist or a doctor and perhaps I am misinformed so I would like to hear your opinions on artificial sweeteners. Experiences, evidence, observations, substitutions,  whatever you got. I LOVE the convenience of a protein shake but I want to be healthy as well as fit.

Daniel,

I understand your concern and it is warranted. Unfortunately, not many protein powders are artificial sweetner free. There are some brands that are if you Google search but they will be expensive and taste AWFUL. I used to use a pure egg protein powder and it was nasty. Pure BCAA protein tastes awful too.

I am very strict with my nutrition plan and eat only natural non-processed foods. The issue with artificial sweetners and insulin you describe requires you to be regularly consuming it like most Americans do - with diet soda and fat-free bullshit products. Having the small amount in a protein drink won't be as detrimental.

John

Hi man,

my protein powder doesn't contain any sweetners at all, and in all honesty I can say it doesnt taste that bad at all.

Search - Relfex Nutrition Natural Whey.

It's a UK based company who get the whey from grass fed, hormone free cattle and have no sweeteners at all. Not advirtising at all I just really like the product.I like the chocolate flavour ( which is made by using a small amount of cocoa powder,) but there are other flavours.

Hope this helps!

will definitely check that out! Thanks for the input man!

Protein supplements are something that most people use and that is without looking at the label. In my humble opinion the only protein supplement that is 100% safe is those who say “whey protein and lecithin” on the label AND NOTHING ELSE. Obviously this means that the powder will be unflavored but it also means that it does not contain anything harmfull to the body. This means that some supplements in my opinion are 100% safe, but most of them are not. This is because they CAN do harm to yout body in the long run (notice I am not saying that it will for sure). Thus, if you can find a supplements with proven safe ingridients and you know that the mix of them are safe, then by all means try it. So not only the sweetners are bad for your body ! Many supplements contain mixes, blends, chemicals and other ingridents that most people have never even heard of.

Thus, my opinion is to steer away from supplements. Just eat enough food and be healthy, I completely understand that you love the convenience of protein shakes because they are indeed very convinient ! I have used them myselves, I used them for 1 year and saw great results ! Then I stopped using them because I found out about the ingridients and what they do. Then I simply ate more food and continued to make gains. In my opinion its just not worth the risk. Who knows maybe some of the ingridents in some supplements promote cancer ?