Protein Powders, a few review posts

Last year, due to a personal issue and some exams to be performed later on, I was asked by my physician to supplement my diet with a daily protein shake for a few months. Since I am a person who eats mostly natural foods, fruits and veggies and lots of grains and beans, I wasn't familiar with protein powders in any form or nature.
However, when it comes to food I am one who loves to experiment and discover new flavors. So, knowing it would be to my benefit to incorporate said shake into my daily eats, I embarked on the medical request and went to figure out the protein world.
Little did I know that there were lots of different types of protein powders out there, many flavors, varieties and all sort of animal and plant sources they were derived from. I then decided I would little by little try some of the options and try to find one that I liked.
I found some that I liked, some I did not, and a few that I loved and ended up becoming part of my post-workout snacks and sometimes breakfast smoothies.
Some of the varieties I tried included whey protein, hemp protein, egg white protein, pea protein, brown rice protein, and even a few that had a mix of vegetarian proteins.
I was happy to find individual bags of some of them to buy so I could try before committing to buy a full tub (because protein powder ain't no cheap thing, ya' know!). Some of them didn't have said trial packets, so for a couple that I wanted to try I contacted the company asking if they offered packets or maybe sold them on their websites so I could try, and I was happy with a couple of responses I got with offers to send me in a packet or two. More than that, the two companies who sent me samples were two of the best protein powders I ended up trying!
So, during the next few posts I will be doing some reviews of some of the products I tried.
I want to make sure though that I make it clear that I am not receiving anything to do these reviews, I am only posting about the products I tried and liked, just to share my findings and as a way to keep a personal archive of foods I enjoyed.

With that said I will begin my review with the one I liked best of all: Jay Robb Unflavored Whey Protein Powder!




















This one my friends is my favorite whey protein. Well, to be quite true I didn't try many, only this and the whole foods brand, which was not that good. The reason why I liked this and stuck with it was simply because it is unsweetened, unflavored, un-everything. It is just pure whey protein isolate and works wonders on any type or flavor of shake you can ever imagine. I tried this with the most varied array of fruits: berries, bananas, papaya, mangoes, you name it. Plus it is great to make chocolate shake! Add a tbsp of cocoa, a few drops of stevia (or honey, or the sweetener of your choice), a few cubes of ice and you have a thick and delicious chocolate smoothie!
I found that the trick with this one though is not adding too much water, when it is too thin it is not all that good - or at least I like my shakes on the thick side! (And who likes watery shakes anyway?)
It also makes great Protein Ice Cream, HEAB style! (Btw, this ice cream is addicting, I had many chocolate protein ice cream this summer! Soooooo good!).
Now, I tried two of Jay Robb's flavored powders - vanilla and chocolate - and I did not like them, too much stevia, way too sweet. Another one of his line I tried was the egg white protein... blech! Horrible. I love eggs, I love egg whites, egg white omeletes, fritattas, you name it, but the smell of the powder and the slimy-eggy flavor and texture of the finished shake... not for me. Sorry Jay.
Anyway, the unflavored whey was the first protein powder I ever tried, and it is the one I use when I want to have whey protein.
So, here is the first one of my protein powder posts. Bear with me, I don't want to change things around the blog, but I want to be able to share some of my new products discoveries here too besides recipes. And I promise I won't stop posting those!! (I even have a delicious and easy quiche I am coming back to share!)
See you soon!
Ana

As an aside, please don't think that I live on protein powders. It was a phase of my life that I had to go through, one that wasn't all pleasant and which took me a year to overcome, so now that I am ok with it all I decided to share some of my findings and pictures I took of the products while I went through it. (what can I say, food blogers love to take picture of foods, right?!)
I definitely like to consume my food in real food form, no powders will ever substitute a good meal for me, and it shouldn't, for anyone.
As a nutritionist to be I have my ideals of good nutritious foods and I would never chose to go on a protein powder bonanza unless I really had to, so try not to judge.
Ana