Roll Your Own (and Avoid Getting Rolled)

Posted By elissa on May 26, 2008 | 1 comment

A few days ago, I spent some time digging around for information on “Pepto Pro” – a hydrolyzed casein supplement made by DSM Food Specialties.  In the course of idly surfing around, I came across a product that uses it as an ingredient…a protein supplement by the name of “Tight Curves.”  Tight Curves is made by Bodywell Nutrition, and is marketed as the “Perfect Protein for Women Only.” 

“With your overall health, fitness, and well-being as our goal, BodyWell Nutrition and its team of scientists, and researchers formulated Tight Curves to deliver the benefits women want most. Daily use of Tight Curves promotes toned muscles, enhanced fat oxidation (fat burning), regulated moods, increased endurance, and decreased recovery time from exercise or other activity.” 

This piqued my curiosity: just what was in this supp? 

Soy protein isolate, medium chain triglyceride blend (non fat milk and disodium phosphate), canola oil blend (canola, Zea Mays concentrate, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, Mono and diglycerides), natural and artificial flavors, Casein Hydrolysate (PeptoPro™) gum blend (cellulose gum, xanthan gum, and carrageenan), Malic acid, beet color, citric acid, silica, acesulfame, potassium, sucralose

At first glance, it looked ok to me.  While the Pepto Pro is obviously label decoration (it’s way down there in the list), and the medium chain triglycerides are useless, overall, it seemed like a generally decent product.  Soy has its virtues, after all, and – combined with a small amount of casein (from nonfat milk, sodium caseinate and Pepto Pro)  – it looked like a good source of protein.  In addition,  “Tight Curves” contains a blend of black cohosh and St. John’s Wort, which may be useful for relief of menopausal symptoms and mild depression.  So while the fat oxidation claims were probably a bit of a stretch, it looked nutritious and could be beneficial to some women – good enough.  At that point, I was ready to shrug it off and go back to my search.

Until I saw the price…$40.00 for 1 pound!!!  My jaw damn near hit the floor.

Why?  Because – beyond the Pepto Pro (which is label decoration anyway) – every relevant ingredient in this supplement is quite inexpensive.  And that’s at the retail level too – the wholesale prices the manufacturer pays are even lower.  There was nothing wrong with the product, per se, but the price was virtually highway robbery!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of supplements out there like this one – fine, ingredient-wise, but vastly overpriced for what you get.  Supp companies can get away with this sort of thing, however, since most people are clueless about ingredients, and don’t realize they have alternatives.  

And what sort of alternatives are there?  Believe it or not, you can make your own supplements.

Fortunately, there are a lot of suppliers out there for individual ingredients, which is why those of us “in the know” often “roll our own.”  When you know what to look for, you can often manage to get a whole lot more, for a whole lot less.  And – if that’s not enough – you know exactly what you’re getting, vs. underdosed ingredients hidden inside “proprietary blends.”

It would be a snap to put together a supp every bit as good as “Tight Curves.”  To start: inexpensive, high-quality soy protein isolates are easy to find online.  For example,  Nutrabio sells Supro – one of the top isolates – for as little as $8.00/pound ($39.97 for a 5 pound container).  A bulk retailer like proteinfactory.com sells a soy isolate with a standardized isoflavone content for even less: $5.95/pound.  You can choose your own flavorings and sweeteners, too.  There are even inexpensive alternatives in many grocery stores, such as the Bob’s Red Mill brand.

What about the casein?  Guess what?  80% of the protein in plain old skim milk is casein.  No need to buy another powder…just mix your soy protein in milk.

And the black cohosh/St. John’s Wort?  You can get 100 caps (540 mg) black cohosh for as little as $5.40.  Likewise, 90 caps (300 mg) of St. John’s Wort can be had for $10.70.  And one cap of each gives you twice as much as the blend found in a scoop of “Tight Curves.”

The above are just examples, from some of the places I buy from.  Look around – there are plenty of other options.

So why pay $40.00 a pound for a “special” protein supplement, when you can have the equivalent for less?  You don’t need to pay top dollar for a pretty package.  Knowing how to roll your own will help keep you from getting rolled.