ready to drink protein shake

Protein Shakes are

• Nasty
• Kinda Expensive
• Thick and Nasty
• Leave you feeling bloated
• Convenience is the only pro I can think of

Steak is

• Delicious
• Low in Fat
• Extremely dense in protein
• Did I mention delicious?

So a Guy at my gym was drinking these things (over on the right). It’s a $4.00 (outrageous!) ready-to-drink can of flavored protein drink, readily available at GNC… A 12 pack will run you about $50.00, which in my opinion is INSANE! I guess this works out to roughly 8 cents per gram of protein. I can see convenience working in as a reason to have this

Rare Grilled Steak

stuff, but a diet high in meat should render it obsolete. I mean, just tonight, I went down to the grocery store and picked up a nice steak for $3.00 that has 75 Grams of Protein in it… The math on this one is 4 cents per gram of protein. The protein in a steak costs 1/2 as much as the stuff in that nasty can (this is actually one of the cheapest one’s I’ve found lately, usually its not more than $1.50 more though). Could he not wait to get home, fire up the grill and throw on a steak? I usually have time I guess if you are in a huge hurry all of the time you might need the nasty shakes.

But I have another point. People today seem to think getting enough protein is all about supplements and shakes, but it doesn’t have to be! Eat a few eggs at breakfast with some ham, toast and peanut butter, make milk your primary beverage throughout the day, have a meaty sandwich at lunch, and have a steak at dinner, and you are easily at 150 grams of protein in one day without even trying, without consuming one shake! Just eat more meat! Its really low in carbs, low in fats when its not fried; making hamburger patties at home on the grill with lean hamburger is another good source! I think people have forgotten how healthy meat is these days. Meat get a bad rap.

To further push against shakes, the amount of carbs and sugars shakes are usually loaded up with, at the end of the day, will usually transfer to a net amount of fat gain much higher than steak or any relatively lean meat in general. That shake may only say 8 grams of fat, but when you look down and it says 250 grams of total carbohydrates and another 50 grams of sugar (extreme case, read on), you know that’s just going to metabolize into fat anyways! And at that point, the everything comes back down to that single equation, are your calories in greater than your calories out (or vice versa)… Even some of the leanest ” PURE Whey Protein” powders will still struggle to hit the protein : net fat ratio of even some non-lean cuts of meat.

Just something to consider before you start downing shakes like crazy!

This post is dedicated to meat.