Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Review

The Best Protein Powder

Today in Products I’m Loving: Vital Proteins Pasture-Raised Grass-Fed Collagen Peptides.

Eating for Performance

Anyone who has ever tracked their macros (macro nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat) for fitness and diet purposes knows how hard it can be to get enough protein.  Even I struggle with it, and I’ve got a pretty heavy carnivorous streak.  I love meat, but if I had to choose between a hunk of chicken and pretty much any combination of bread and cheese, the latter is going to win out 90% of the time.

The thing is, I feel really good when I eat a lot of protein: my energy levels stay high, I feel full longer after eating, and my strength training performance is much better than when I skimp on the P, as the youths say (they don’t actually say that) – even when I’m eating in a caloric deficit.  So I choose to bolster my protein intake with a few types of nutritional supplements, and this is my current favorite.

Better than Whey Protein?

Oh yeah.  Here’s why I love this stuff:

#1. It’s unflavored.  One time I bought a big bag of unflavored whey protein powder, because in my head “unflavored” meant the same thing as “flavorless,” and hoo boy could I have not been more wrong about that one – it tasted like stale powdered dairy creamer that maybe someone forgot in the hot sun for a decade or too.  This collagen protein, though, is pretty close to being flavorless.  If I’m really trying to detect it, I can – but it’s very, very subtle. I usually stir it into my coffee in the morning because…

#2. It mixes really well.  Anyone who’s ever wished for death to come quickly whilst choking on an unmixed glob of protein powder knows how important this one is.  I’ve used it in hot and cold liquids and it’s mixed easily in both.

#3. It’s protein…. and that’s pretty much all.  Check out this nutritional info:

Flavored whey protein powders almost always have accompanying fats and carbs, not to mention some questionable ingredients when it comes to sweeteners and stuff, but these collagen peptides provide a nice dose of protein without all the other stuff.

#4. The benefits of ingesting collagen are numerable.  I won’t get into all of them, but there’s some really interesting research on collagen out there.  Some topics to look up: the effect of collagen supplementation on joints and connective tissue, gut health, and tissue regeneration.

#5. I get to turn my morning coffee into an easy protein delivery system.  Caffeine + Protein = a match made in heaven.