The Biggest Sucker

Posted By elissa on Jan 6, 2009 | 2 comments

I was pushing my cart through the local Fred Meyer last night, when a display in the “health food” section hit my peripheral vision…a stack of cans with “The Biggest Loser Protein” emblazoned on the front. I kept going, but after about 10 steps, I wheeled the cart around and went back to take a closer look. It was the size of the cans that filtered into my consciousness…specifically, how tiny they were.

This was confirmed upon closer inspection: the cans held a miserly 10 oz worth of protein powder – a piddling amount. Even worse, it was “cut” with “prebiotic fiber” – which is a sophisticated way of saying “cheap, inert filler.” One 17g serving provided a whopping 6g of protein from whey protein concentrate. Whoopti-do.

In other words, this “protein” powder was barely 35% protein, which is junk, by whey protein standards. It’s not hard to find good quality, commercial concentrates/isolates in the 75% – 90% range.

The kicker was that this garbage was on sale for $11.24/can. According to the GNC web site, it normally retails for $15.99 (GNC’s “sale” price is $14.99).

That’s $18 per pound at the Fred Meyer price. If you bought this stuff at GNC, you’d be paying close to $24 per pound.

I was incredulous…still am. Yeah, whey protein has gotten more expensive, but I can still buy 5 pounds of good quality stuff from Optimum Nutrition for a bit less than $9.00 a pound (from bodybuilding.com), and the same 17g “serving” provides nearly 13g of protein – double what the Loser “protein” provides. And the Optimum product comes in an array of flavors that would do Baskin Robbins proud…who needs “chocolate” or “vanilla” when you can have “Caramel Toffee Fudge,” “Rocky Road” or “Mocha Cappuccino”?

Likewise, I don’t need or want the extra fiber, but if I did, a $5.00 container of “FiberSure” would do the trick. It’s straight, clear, unflavored, non-thickening, non-gritty inulin – a prebiotic fiber that can be added to ANYTHING (like water, tea, coffee, etc.). It’s completely undetectable – great stuff.

“Biggest Loser Protein” my a**. I despise the entire concept of the show anyway. Stuff like this takes my disgust to a whole new level. They obviously think their viewers are suckers.

I really hate it when marketers take gross advantage of customer naivete, to charge inflated prices for substandard products. Needless to state, slapping a familar label on a product isn’t a guarantee of quality.