My protein shake sampling continues apace. Some so far have been better than others – but I’m slowly finding chocolate making it’s way onto the shake menu more and more often.
This time around, it’s Manchester company Monkey Nutrition and their Primal 26 whey protein isolate.
Why this one? It’s actually down to the sugar content. I spend a lot of time dismissing protein powders and shakes because they contain carbohydrate – though I’m not going down the zero carb route, I find it easier to maintain the level of carbohydrate in my diet by piecing stuff together myself and especially by ensuring I use a good source of carb, rather than a hit of sugar or glucose.
So when it comes to a protein shake, if I’m not just using it for a dose after training, I like to put a serving, alongside some soy milk, chia and fruit into a blender and use that for a good solid breakfast. Use frozen fruit and the texture is gorgeous, a really thick shake to sip on the way to work. Use a banana and you’ve upped your potassium intake too.
The Primal 26 is not only a refined whey protein, but there’s no sugar at all in it, and only 1g of carbohydrate per serving (around .26% a tiny amount), so it’s perfect for those who are doing no carbs. And they’re using stevia as the sweetner, so it doesn’t have that weird cooling taste like xylitol or the really artificial taste of aspartame. But it’s still sweet.
It mixes beautifully – every time I’ve used it, I’ve not needed any extra blending or shaking (or even that metal ball shaped spring you get to help blend). A good shake and it’s there, no need for extra effort, which let’s face it, after an arms day is the last thing you want. You can see just how fine it is in the packet, almost powdery in consistency.
It also goes down well too – because it actually tastes nice, there’s no face pulling and it doesn’t feel like you’re drinking it because you have to, it also digests really well, there’s no bloating afterwards and I’ve run on it as part of a breakfast too, not something I can say for a lot of products, as most leave me with runners’ cramps and discomfort.
No wonder it’s won awards.
All in all, it’s pretty darned good – I must admit I’m eyeing up the vanilla flavour too, and the next step up, their Primal 26 PRO, with the extra enzymes to help with digestion and assimilation.
But for now, I’m pretty happy with this little monkey.
With thanks to Monkey Nutrition for this small pack to review. I’m pretty impressed, though I’m hoping they at some point bring out an unflavoured protein of the same quality, so I can look at baking with it.