Excellent - short term use for vegetarian body building
Note: as my title suggests I am vegetarian so part of my review will touch on that, particularly the pancreatin. I was 215lbs, 6ft2" and 13-14% body fat. It is hard to gain at that point because you burn too fast, and getting enough calories in my standard vegetarian diet was difficult. I was at 215lbs for a few years and had trouble getting past that plateau. After one container of this stuff following my normal diet over a week I am at 221lbs with only a slight 0.1-0.2 increase in body fat. Of course I am doing fairly hard-core work-outs as well to keep body fat down. This is a short-term-use product designed to spike calories, not just protein. You can take in 215grams of protein a day, it's easy enough with all the concentrates out there, but if you aren't also increasing caloric intake you will have trouble gaining at a certain point. You'll need way more than a standard 2,000 calories. This is all natural which is why I chose it. I didn't want artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, or fillers. As of 06-22-13 The reviews about taste being bad I think are way off base. This mixes very easily, adding almost no bulk to liquids, similar to whey proteins consistency. The taste, when mixed with milk, makes a thicker, slightly sweeter, and slight vanilla hint, other than that there is absolutely zero other flavors noticeable by me. Mixed with water, it tastes similar to vanilla soy milk. Maybe they changed the formula, or maybe the people who wrote badly about taste need artificial flavors and sweeteners as is typical in gain formulas. I think this stuff has its place in a natural body building regimen, but should probably not be used solidly for extended periods because it is not a "whole food". It is missing things like beneficial phytochecmicals found in nuts, beans, fruits, veggies etc. Short term though it is awesome and definitely works. The ingredient list is as follows: Whey (from milk), sunflower oil, maltodextrin, soy protein isolate, calcium caseinate, sodium caseinate, soy lechithin, potassium phosphate, mono- and diglycerides, natural flavor (includes soybean extract), guar gum, xanthan gum, tocopherols, apple fiber, corn bran, pea fiber, hydrolyzed whey protein, papain, egg white, bromelain, pancreatin. There are no GMO's and it is gluten free. Most soy is GMO-soy if they don't state it isn't. For example 90% of vegetable oil in super markets is GMO soy. I like that this is clearly non-GMO. On a side note, some body builders are paranoid about soy because they think it is estrongenic, I won't go into the debate here, but unless you're a pro body builder or consuming massive amounts of soy, eating some in a mix isn't going to feminize you or make you loose even one rep. Pre-workout this stuff works and gives easily available carb-fuel. Banging out reps after carb-loaded is a lot easier and the testosterone boost from lifting will more than offset a minor plant-based phytoestrogin. The last ingredient, pancreatin, may not be vegetarian. I haven't looked into it honestly, but I know it can be either plant or animal based. Likely it is animal based otherwise I wouldn't see why Naturade wouldn't advertise the product as vegetarian. As a vegetarian I would give this at least one less star because of the sketchy pancreatin, but I realize only 4% of the US is vegetarian. And honestly, I would rather have all-natural with some trace product than a chemical $h1t-storm. That is my honest review of this product. Hope that helps! Read more
