While whey protein is a staple for bodybuilders, it also functions as a good source of protein for anyone who may need extra protein in their diet. That could be a vegetarian, or perhaps an endurance athlete who constantly beats up their body and needs to recover!

Earlier this year I purchased the Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Natural Protein Powder so I could get back into the habit of whey protein supplementation. Normally I don’t go crazy with protein supplements, but since I was taking some time off the bike and spending more time in the weight room, I thought I’d add it into my diet for a while.

The Whey Gold Natural stood out to me because it was the only whey protein I could find that did not contain artificial sweeteners! It’s truly amazing how many protein powders contain aspartame, sucralose, and/or acesulfame potassium.

Even protein powders from good brands like Beverly International are full of artificial sweeteners. If you’re like me and prefer to avoid those, it’s hard to find good supplements!

The price was right, too. It was about $40 for a 5lb canister at VitaminShoppe.com, which is nearly 50% off the $75 retail price! I also ordered a 2lb tub from VitaCost.com for about $21, or roughly 40% off the $35 retail price!

So let’s look into the ingredients and nutrition facts and then do a taste test…

Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

Here are the actual ingredients for the chocolate flavor:

Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolates, Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Peptides), Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Lecithin, Natural Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Rebaudioside A, Aminogen, Lactase.

It contains various forms of whey protein, which is good. It comes to 24g protein per serving; then there are over 5 grams of BCAAs and 4 grams of Glutamine & Precursors.

(Popular recovery drinks for cyclists, such as Hammer Recoverite and First Endurance Ultragen, also contain glutamine.)

Fructose isn’t the greatest addition, but luckily it’s not high fructose corn syrup, and it only comes out to 4g sugar per serving. There is also stevia extract (a natural sweetener) which gives it sweetness without adding calories.

The real plus here is that there are no artificial sweeteners! (Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose have infiltrated nearly all other whey protein powders!) There are no artificial flavors or colors either!

(Don’t want any sugar whatsoever? Try the Any Whey Protein from Optimum Nutrition.)

Taste Test

This comes in the standard three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

Vanilla – This was a good creamy vanilla flavor. I’m not a connoisseur of whey protein powder, but this is probably the best vanilla flavored protein powder I’ve had.

It’s great when mixed with milk; kind of like the vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast. It’s not good at all when mixed in plain water, though! (Not that I recommend mixing any whey protein in water…)

Most of the time, I don’t bother with vanilla whey protein, however, it’s great for mixing into fruit smoothies or protein bars since it won’t screw up the flavor.

Chocolate – This tastes good as well. It’s similar to other whey proteins I’ve had. It’s just plain chocolate – not luxurious like rich and creamy milk chocolate, not artificial like Nesquick stuff, and not as strong as dark chocolate.

I’d say it’s most similar to chocolate Ovaltine, but still not the same. Regardless, it’s good enough I can gladly drink it every day and it doesn’t seem to get old.

Obviously it tastes better if mixed with milk, as opposed to water. But the chocolate mixed in water is actually drinkable.

Strawberry – This is very good. It tastes just like the strawberry Nesquik powder I remember drinking as a kid.

I’ve had some bad strawberry protein powder in the past, but this is way better.

I like the strawberry plain or mixed with either the chocolate or vanilla powders!

Overall, strawberry is my favorite flavor, but I think the chocolate will withstand the test of time a little better.

Mixing

This Whey Gold Natural seems to mix the same as most other whey proteins. You can actually mix it up with a spoon in a cup if you stir hard enough, and that works alright, but some still sticks to the spoon and some to the cup.

A shaker cup works much better! And of course, if you put it in a smoothie, it mixes very easily. (I’m thinking chocolate banana or strawberry banana smoothie.)

Again, let me point out that mixing the protein powder with milk is great. when mixed with water, well, the thin watery texture just isn’t that great.

My final verdict is…

Whey Gold Natural offers great nutritional value, no garbage. It tastes surprisingly good. You can find it at a very good price when on sale (although it’s still reasonable at retail price.)

This is my #1 recommendation for whey protein. It’s the only kind I’ll take.

Official website: www.OptimumNutrition.com

Buy online: www.VitaminShoppe.com or www.VitaCost.com

I eat banana smoothies all the time. They’re delicious and packed with nutrients. Plus, they are so refreshing after long days out in the sun!

My typical smoothie goes together like this…

Ingredients

1-2 cups Milk
1 Banana (chopped and frozen)
2-3 Eggs (organic)
1/2 cup Plain Yogurt
1 Tbsp Flax Seed (powder)
Dash of Vanilla (optional)
Dash of Orange juice (optional)

Preparation

First, I put everything but the milk in the blender. I don’t actually measure anything, but the proportions I listed are about right. (You can adjust as necessary.)

Then I pour in enough milk for the smoothie to blend. More milk gives you a thin smoothie, less milk gives you a thick smoothie.

Blend till you achieve the desired thickness. Add more milk if necessary.

Drink!

Notes on the ingredients:

Milk – I usually use 1% milk, but you can use skim or whole milk if desired. Ideally you can get raw milk from a local farmer.

Banana – I like to eat bananas when they are yellow with maybe a few tiny brown spots. When they get brown, I cut them up and place them in the freezer, which I then use for these smoothies. This is great for post-workout smoothies because you want higher-glycemic carbs, and bananas (especially once they turn brown) are full of high-glycemic sugar.

Eggs – Yes, I use raw eggs. That’s because I get them either from my own chickens or a local farm. And I use the whole egg, because the yolk contains many, many nutrients.

But beware, this could be dangerous! There is a risk of salmonella! Try this at your own risk! (If you can’t get fresh, local eggs, you could try something like Egg Beaters instead, but that’s pasteurized and processed, so I’m not a big fan.)

Yogurt – Make sure you get plain yogurt. This is the stuff that is not flavored nor sweetened. I get the Stonyfield Farms brand. (Most yogurt, even a vanilla flavor, contains way too much added sugar.)

Flax seed – Flax is a tasty way to get some Omega-3 fatty acids. I grind up flax seeds in the blender and then dump some in my smoothies, oatmeal, etc.

Vanilla – Used very sparingly, this can sweeten up the smoothie if you went overboard on the plain yogurt (which is a tad sour.)

Orange Juice – I really like adding a dash of OJ to my banana smoothies. Maybe just one or two tablespoons. It adds a neat flavor without taking away from the banana. (Less is more, in this case.)

In recent years, there has been a lot of marketing centering around recovery drinks. Let’s see what all the hype is about…

Are recovery drinks worth it? My coach told me no, to just eat real food. However, when I am done with spinning class, it takes me about 45 minutes to shower, meet/talk with the team, and then walk home. By the time I get home, that timeframe where you should get food into your body for recovery is over. So what is your opinion on recovery drinks? What is the best one?

Thanks,
Recovering Rebecca

Hi Rebecca,

Recovery drinks are nice from a convenience standpoint, no doubt about that, but I don’t currently use them because there are other “real food” ideas that are fairly convenient and much cheaper. For instance, a banana is cheap and would be perfect for a quick post-ride snack, since it is a natural way to get high GI carbs.

If you were at home with a blender, you could get more calories and protein with a peanut butter banana smoothie (which also happens to be delicious.)

Protein isn’t the #1 priority though. A few newer studies have shown that taking in a little protein right after a workout has a slight benefit over just carbs, so there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but carbs are still king for post-ride food.

See, before recovery drinks came on the market (and were popularized thanks to the carb/protein studies,) the time after exercise was simply known as the “glycogen window” because the #1 goal is to restock your muscle and liver glycogen stores by consuming sugars. (Your body is most apt to do this during and immediately after exercise, hence the importance of timeliness.)

The thing with protein is that it’s used to rebuild your muscles. Unlike replenishing glycogen, that rebuilding process takes days to accomplish. So you’ll be just fine as long as you’re consuming protein in your diet on a daily basis. No need to worry about getting it at exactly the right time.

What it boils down is that you’ll get the majority of the benefits of a recovery drink just with something typical, even a regular sports drink.

But if I had to pick a recovery drink…

My first choice would be Hammer Recoverite. It contains good ingredients and the price is reasonable when you consider that all recovery drinks are on the expensive side. And Hammer typically does a good job making these heavier drinks (Hammer Perpetuem, for example) taste good.

(Not to mention, the Recoverite reviews at MTBR.com are pretty convincing.)

But there are other interesting choices.

There’s a drink called First Endurance Ultragen that’s intriguing because the ingredients list is much more complete than any of the other drinks. But I’m pretty sure it’s the most expensive recovery drink available! (Roughly $3 per serving when purchased in bulk.)

Great reviews of Ultragen, too.

Last but not least, the recovery drink recommended by Joe Friel. Working with Infinit Nutrition (makers of custom sports drinks,) Friel has his own line of sports drinks, including a recovery drink.

Joe Friel is one smart dude and has some good reasons for formulating the drink as he did, so that’s certainly worth a look.

What it boils down to…

What it boils down to is, how vital is it that you feel great before every single workout? If you have a season full of races with big money on the line, yes, you need every little edge you can get, and a dedicated recovery drink could help out.

The Chocolate Milk Debate
A lot of people mention chocolate milk as a good recovery drink. It is a cheap substitute, and it contains plenty of sugar, but that stuff should be refrigerated. So in this situation, chocolate milk wouldn’t cut it due to that inconvenience.

Yearning for a Fall treat that’s fun to eat? Then let me recommend chestnuts.

Chestnuts fall off trees just like walnuts, almonds, and apples, but they seem much less common. They taste so good though, it’s worth going out of your way to find them!

If you have never had chestnuts, they’re kind of hard to describe. They’re much softer and contain more water than a walnut or almond, and they’re actually starchy, like bread.

And they have a flavor all their own!

Health benefits of chestnuts:

Don’t ask me how they do it, but chestnuts contain a wide variety of nutrients!

First, like many nuts, they are packed with protein, low in fat, and contain no cholesterol.

Second, they are very high in fiber, and very high in potassium.

They also contain good amounts of iron, zinc, and calcium.

And a serving of chestnuts even contains as much Vitamin C as a lemon!

(Plus a wide range of other nutrients in smaller quantities.)

How to prepare chestnuts:

Chestnuts aren’t hard to prepare, but there is more to it than just shelling them…

Step 1: Grab some chestnuts.

Grab some chestnuts and a microwave-safe plate.

Step 2: Slice the shell.

Start by cutting slits into each chestnut with a sharp knife. (Be careful!)

These slits prevent the chestnuts from exploding in the microwave as well as make them easier to peel later on. What I do is put one slit on each side, near the tip of the nut. If the nut is real big, I’ll put a couple extra slits in there.

Step 3: Cook.

I typically cook chestnuts in the microwave because it’s fast and requires little preparation.

Just cover the plate and place in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. (This time will depend on the microwave, so start out at about two minutes and then cook longer if necessary.

Step 4: Let them cool.

Remove the chestnuts from the microwave and let them cool. They’ll be super hot, so wait a minute before peeling them!

Step 5: Peel the shell.

Once the chestnuts have cooled off enough that you can touch them (they should still be warm,) you can peel them.

Simply grab the shell with your fingertips and peel it off, starting at the slits. If it was cut and cooked well, the shell should peel right off.

Then you’re left with a plump yellow nut that will taste delicious!

(Just watch out for black rotten sections and worms that may have been in there too!)

Roasting over an open fire?

If you want to get fancy, you could put your chestnuts in a pan and roast them over an open fire.

If no open flame is available, you could bake them in the oven, or even boil them on top of the stove.

If you are baking them, bake on a pan for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. (After putting the slits in them, of course.)

Once you take them out, lay them on a pan with a damp towel over them for 10 minutes. That will moisturize the shell so it peels off nicely.

The other option, which will be quicker than roasting or baking, is to boil them.

In this case, slit the chestnuts and drop them into a shallow pan of hot simmering water (boiling hot water would be overkill) for 1-2 minutes.

Remove them, and once you can touch them, peel them.

However you do it, chestnuts are great!

While foods like Powerbars are great for hard rides and races, it’s hard to get past the desire for “real” food. High-calorie drinks like Accelerade and Hammer Perpetuem might seem great, but liquid food for 6 hours? C’mon.

If there’s ever a good time to eat real food instead of processed bars, it’s on long endurance rides. Kind of like the rides many people do for fun in the crisp Autumn air. (Here on the East Coast, it’s the perfect time to enjoy the fall foliage.)

What we need is real food, with fat and protein along with the carbs. After all, we’re not racing, we’re just going out for a fun ride!

Here are my five favorite foods for Fall:

1) Peanut Butter on Graham Crackers

Time to switch things up a bit. Instead of a regular peanut butter sandwich, I like to take pieces of graham cracker, add natural peanut butter, and make mini sandwiches.

The natural peanut butter is full of healthy fat and protein, and you can find carbohydrate-rich graham crackers that don’t contain high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils!

If you’re adventurous, you could also throw in some dark chocolate chips.

Or if you want an even sweeter (albeit unhealthier) treat, use peanut butter cake frosting in place of the natural peanut butter.

2) Beef Jerky

Again we have some fat and protein, but with plenty of salt to keep our electrolyte reserves (and taste buds) happy! Beef jerky is oh so good, especially when you just spent the past six months living off Powerbars!

And contrary to popular belief, jerky really isn’t high in fat. The stick of elk jerky I’m eating has a total of 35 calories and 0.5g fat, while the bag of beef jerky has 100 calories and 1g fat.

(Jerky is extremely high in sodium though, with 560mg in the elk and 430mg in the beef. That’s more than double the sodium found in most sports drinks!)

3) Trail Mix or Granola

Trail mix is a perennial favorite for any kind of adventure, including hiking, biking, and everything in between. Just pick out your favorite kind of trail mix or granola and either carry a small bag of it or just dump it in your jersey pocket. Be careful if anything is prone to melting, though!

One thing I thought was cool (from a convenience standpoint) is the 2oz bag of Bear Naked granola. It’s healthy granola in a package that fits in your jersey pocket! Then you can just dump a little bit from the package straight into your mouth, without stopping.

4) Gummy Bears

Have you been eating energy gels all summer, or maybe even “energy chews” or “sport jelly beans,” but you’ve had enough already? Then go back to old-fashioned treats such as real gummy bears, jelly beans, or (one of my personal favorites) Sunkist fruit gems.

You get tons of sugar, great taste, and it will save you a lot of money over the designer candies made specifically for athletes!

(Really, energy gels and stuff like Jelly Belly Sport Beans are just candy with a tiny bit of sodium and potassium added so they can charge a premium price.)

5) Dried Fruit

Much like gummy bears, dried fruit tastes great and provides you with tons of sugar. However, it gives you a much different taste and also provides important vitamins and minerals.

I recommend dried pineapple or banana chips, but I also enjoy dried papaya and sometimes dried apricots.

This will be a welcome difference in both taste and texture if you’re getting sick of syrupy energy gels!

There you go, five snacks that give you fat, protein, sugar, nutrients, and best of all, the satisfaction of eating real food!

These are great for your epic bike rides, but they also make great snacks for all-day hiking trips and other adventures. So eat up!

*Caution: As with any nutrition changes, test them on shorter, less important rides to make sure they won’t ruin a big ride or race.