Protein Powder for PCOS
Protein powder and yoga mats go together in my opinion
My history with Protein Powder
I started to drink protein powder years ago. I tried different protein powders trying to get more dietary protein even before my polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis.
I thought I needed more protein I guess, or I saw other “fitter” people drinking it and immediately imagined I needed to be joining in to look like them.
To be honest though, most of the time I find it kind of chalky, and whey protein upsets my stomach.
What we do know is that protein intake is critical for your health. Try your best to eat protein rich foods, and supplement as you need. If you need to supplement your dietary protein with a protein shake, then look no further. I've listed below the protein powder good for women with PCOS.
What does protein powder do?
Protein is one of the three macronutrients (the three are carbohydrates, fat, and protein) and helps to build/repair muscles.
Some say it helps with weight loss, but in my humble opinion, it’s really just meant for supplementing an already well-rounded diet. During times when I've tried to use protein shakes to reduce my weight, it hasn't really done much. If anything it's made my weight increase.
Especially if you're making shakes, be aware of the calories going into them. A tablespoon of almond butter here, and a bit of yogurt, and all of a sudden you're downing something thats 400 calories.
And you're going to be hungry quickly!
That said, if you need more protein to hit your macro goals, it’s easy and can be a relatively healthy way to do that.
Protein (and fats) do help with blood sugar control, so don't shy away from making a well balanced meal (with some carbs, protein and fats). You need protein to maintain or even increase muscle mass, but be aware of your protein intake.
I think it's always best to work with a nutritionist to figure out how much dietary protein you need, and what your macros should look like.
Lose Weight with Protein Powder
My best advice if you're trying to use protein powder for weight loss especially if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome:
1) Make sure if you're sensitive to dairy or are lactose intolerant that the whey protein/ and whey protein isolate doesn't upset your stomach.
2) If you use protein powder in your smoothies (the protein is helpful for blood sugar regulation), you're aware of the calorie intake. Losing weight is hard enough as it is, no need to make it harder by adding in a calorie-heavy snack
Smoothies often make me hungry pretty fast afterward. use protein powder for muscle recovery support, or even as a meal replacement. But, be careful about using them as snacks.
3) I've reduced my protein powder intake for my PCOS diet. Expensive protein powders can make you feel like you're doing a lot for your health, but did you know that after a certain amount, protein is hard on your kidneys (and contribute to kidney stones) and if you have too much of it, protein is turned into glucose by the body (gluconeogenesis).
We know if you're having issues with insulin resistance, more glucose (and blood sugar) in your body isn't actually helpful.
Protein Powder and what's in it?
What I have learned is how little goes into assessing protein powder safety.
I saw all these influencers and fit people drinking protein powder once even twice a day, and I thought I should be doing that too!
But when I started to look into it, I realized no one really was looking after this part of the health and wellness industry.
I knew that some of the protein powder I liked was chalky tasting, I knew that it had fillers (like added sweeteners) and that I couldn't pronounce the backs of the ingredients list, but I assumed like most of us do, that if it's on the shelves for public consumption, it’s been studied and approved for safety.
Turns out I was wrong.
I decided to look into researching the best protein powder in 2020.
I had some time at home (like most of us, thanks Covid) and I like to buy the absolute best out there.
I’ll spend hours researching items on Wirecutter, blogs and Amazon to find the very best item to buy. Yes, some might call it mildly obsessive, but I like research, and I like to know about the best out there.
Back to protein—> Here's what I was looking for:
I wanted clean ingredients, low carbs, high protein, and not tons of filler. I was honestly pretty disappointed with all the “best of” lists that had the same few powders.
It turns out that some of the big brands listed were not always getting tested for hard metals.
There is so little third party testing that goes into protein powder!
So I went on a deep dive.
I had Initially wanted to start using vegan protein powder. But after some research I realized the supply chain was not traceable for many of the ingredients that were imported for some of these protein powders.
In fact, I found that certain ingredients were particularly problematic.
For example brown rice protein powder which for the most part came from abroad had very large hard metal contents, particularly arsenic.
Clean Label Project, a non-profit similar to Environmental Working Group has done thorough testing and research on protein powders. They’ve found that vegan protein powders are the worst offender when it comes to contaminants and hard metals.
They publish a report in 2018 after they tested 134 different products: “ We tested 134 of the top-selling protein powders for how clean they were. Clean Label Project has seen elevated levels of heavy metals including Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury as well as BPA leaching from packaging into the finished product.”
Source: https://cleanlabelproject.org/protein-powder-infographic/
I’ve included their infographic above as well, but some highlights of the study include:
- Products that use egg as protein were cleaner
- Products that were plant based tested worst
- 75% of plant based samples tested positive for lead
- Organic samples had 40% less BPA than non-organic
- Organic samples had up to 1.5x more arsenic, up to 4.8x more cadmium and up to 1.5x more lead.
Let’s take a minute to define some of these and what they mean for ingestion.
Lead: This one’s easy, it’s commonly discussed. But according to the CDC, “exposure of too much lead can lead to anemia weakness, kidney and brain damange.” Lead poisoning is something that really has to be avoided. A real no-no if you ask me
Arsenic: Also according to the CDC, arsenic can cause skin, lung, bladder and other cancers.
Cadmium: What the heck is cadmium? I’ve seen this one around, but had to explore it a bit. Yes it is naturally occurring, but according to the CDC, “Exposure to low levels of cadmium in air, food, water, and particularly in tobacco smoke over time may build up cadmium in the kidneys and cause kidney disease and fragile bones. Cadmium is considered a cancer-causing agent.” Yeah, turns out I don’t really want to be eating that either.
So back to protein powder, turns out the Clean Label Project report wasn’t even the first one to discover how problematic protein powders can be.
Further still, according to Harvard health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “…leaves it up to manufacturers to evaluate the safety and labeling of products. So, there's no way to know if a protein powder contains what manufacturers claim.”
Which, if you trust the corporations putting out the protein powder, then feel free to ignore pretty much all of this.
However, if you’re already feeling like you’d rather be more careful about the food you ingest, then it’s time to look at protein powders that are third party tested and have been approved by other independent sources like the Clean Label Project.
The good news is there are protein powders that are safer to use. Clean Label Project has a number of them.
Best Protein Powders for Women with PCOS
*Note: None of the below contain any soy protein or egg protein.
Gorilla Formula 23
Gorilla Formula 23
This is one that I’ve used and felt great about. You can even get it on Amazon now! It’s plant based (vegan) and as of 2022 they have vanilla and coconut flavors. It has 2 grams of carbs and 25 grams of protein
Puori
Puori
Puori is also Clean Label Project approved. It’s whey protein (so not vegan) and has 2 flavors, vanilla bourbon and Chocolate. Each serving has 21 grams of protein and 5 grams of carbohydrates.
Oziva
Oziva
Oziva plant protein is another vegan alternative. It has 30 grams of protein and less than 4 grams of carbs per 36grams. This protein is unflavored.
Komplex Nutrition
Komplex Nutrition
Komplex Nutrition comes in 3 flavors: vanilla, coconut and peanut butter and is vegan. Each serving has 25 grams of protein and 4.5-6grams of carbs (depending on the flavor).
