Protein powder is more expensive than ever, and the quality is often worse. Why? Here's the ugly inside story.
We messed up. For 27 years, we've been preaching the good news about protein – how making it the cornerstone of your diet lays the foundation for healthy body composition.
The problem? People listened.
Today, everyone, even your mom, is trying to eat more protein. The mega-corporations caught onto the trend, too, and are now adding more protein to their food products: high-protein cereals, chips, candy bars, and coffee drinks are flooding the market.
This is good news for the general population's waistlines, but bad news for the protein business. It has created a perfect storm.
The perfect protein storm
Here's a simplified breakdown of what's happening right now:
- Storm clouds appear – Dairy cows are producing less milk, and hot summers are a key culprit. When heat and humidity rise, cows eat less, drink more, and work harder to stay cool, all of which cut into milk yield. Milk is used to make cheese, and the cheese-making process gives us high-quality protein powder, like whey protein isolate. That means raw ingredient costs rise for protein powder manufacturers.
- The clouds grow darker – Given the rising demand for protein-infused foods and drinks, companies like Starbucks are buying up a lot of whey protein isolate and other proteins. Starbucks is a monster company with a lot of power. Not only are they buying up all the protein, but they're also willing to pay a premium for it so they can hoard it all. "Sell it all to us and we'll pay you more for it," they say. The two big raw protein suppliers took their offer.
- Lightning strikes – Supplement companies can barely get their hands on enough protein powder to make their products, and it costs a fortune. They now have two choices: significantly increase the cost of their products, or "cut" their products with cheap filler ingredients.
The supplement maker's dilemma
Protein costs have been rising for years, even before overheated cows and Starbucks entered the picture, and supply-chain problems that began during COVID have never fully recovered. Protein is a commodity, and margins are tight.
Supplement companies had to either charge their customers more or change their formulas. Most chose the latter. They know most of their customers aren't really paying attention to protein quality. They can stealthily alter their formulas by adding more cheap maltodextrin. Some even "spike" their products.
Amino or nitrogen spiking is a deceptive practice used to inflate the protein content listed on labels. Protein tests typically measure nitrogen levels. Shady manufacturers take advantage of this by adding cheap amino acids – all nitrogen-containing but not complete proteins – to boost the test results without actually increasing the true protein content.
The result? Consumers pay for what they think is, say, 25 grams of whey protein per scoop, when in reality, much of that protein is filler that doesn't provide the same benefits.
If you're paying 20 or 30 bucks for two pounds of protein powder, well, you're not getting what you think you're getting. But the general population, the "normies" obsessed with getting the latest Starbucks limited-edition cup, refuses to pay more for protein. To the uninformed masses, protein is protein. Honestly, they're easy to fool.
Now, as we enter a protein crisis, things are about to get worse. Expect poorer protein quality and more deceptive practices. Thanks, Starbucks.
The alternative choice
As you know, we make protein powder – Metabolic Drive (Buy at Amazon). We make it because we want to take it. We make it because nothing else on the market fits our needs.
Like all the supplement companies, we have two choices to make. Well, three, actually:
- We can downgrade Metabolic Drive to eke out a profit. But remember, we use it ourselves, and we don't put garbage into our bodies.
- We can continue making a premium protein powder and raise the price to cover (barely) our increasing manufacturing costs.
- We can stop making Metabolic Drive.
We would never decrease the quality of Metabolic Drive. That's off the table. And we really want to keep making it because we use it every day. That leaves only one option: increase the cost.
Biotest might be the sole survivor of the protein crisis. The good news? Premium protein powder is still available. The bad news? It's going to cost more – more for us and more for you, the Metabolic Drive diehard fans.
One day, it's very possible that Metabolic Drive could cost $90 per unit. We're not there yet, but the storm clouds are darkening, and the lightning strikes are getting closer.
We're going to do our very best to keep making a pedigree protein powder. No shortcuts. No compromises. Get it while you can.
