Okay, here’s your definitive guide to buying protein.
First of all, always buy directly from the manufacturer’s website. In case that’s not possible for whatever reason, the next best option is Healthkart (online or offline store). Avoid Amazon and local retailers (chances of getting counterfeit / adulterated products).
Now, coming to protein…
There are 3 levels of protein. In ascending order of digestibility (also can be interchanged with “quality”) and price both, they are:
- Concentrate
- Isolate
- hydrolysate
You also find blends (concentrate + isolate) that sit between 1 and 2.
Stay away from concentrate if you don’t have great digestion and / or if you have lactose intolerance.
Stay away from blends if you have weak digestion and / or lactose intolerance. As a lactose intolerant, I have digestion problems with blends too.
Isolate digests easier, has much less (almost negligible) lactose and is priced midway. So it’s best bang for your buck.
Prefer unflavored raw isolate, since flavoring introduces different binding agents that mess with the digestibility.
So just get any unflavored isolate from a well-known brand and you’re set. It doesn’t matter which brand. Once you know what good quality protein is like, they’re all basically the same. The game then is about price.
If you want a brand recommendation, I’m currently using Asitis unflavored isolate. Earlier I was using naturaltein but it got too expensive, so I shifted to this. The Asitis unflavored isolate that is practically identical to the naturaltein one I was taking. I suspect both may be importing from the same dairy, I don’t know.
I trust Trustifed. The man’s got multiple court cases on him and gets death threats ffs.
tl;dr: Buy any unflavored isolate (for best digestible + bang for your buck) from a non-publicly disgraced brand, from their own website, and you’re set.