Non Soy Protein Powder Supplements

forward015 · June 21st, 2008, 09:00 AM

Ladies, Gents
Does anybody know of any protein powders out there that don't contain soy products, or soy by products? I have been finding out that the less soy I eat the better I feel. Kind of like Wheat Gluten, I don't seem to have an outright reaction to say I am definately allergic, but I can tell when I have had less.

**tooncesthecat** · June 21st, 2008, 09:50 AM

Most protein supps that I know about are soy-free. That is unless I am unaware of byproducts or trace amounts of soy. Are you taking a protein supp now? If so, which brand?

forward015 · June 21st, 2008, 11:43 AM

Most have it in particular, lecithin. Reading most of the labels that are out there soy is in just about all of the protein powders and bars. It is interesting because for those of us working out wanting to keep our T levels high soy contains types of estrogens. Now I'm not saying that it is the worst ever or taking everything I read as the gospel truth, but it would be nice if a brand out there does use soy products in the Proteins whey and casin.

I was taking Probolic 12hr muscle feeder, it was working awesome until I came across a couple of things warning about what process soy products can do to the thyroid.

**pliny_2001** · June 21st, 2008, 12:51 PM

Lecithin is a component of soy - but it's also found in any number of other things. I don't think that soy lecithin has any of the phytoestrogens that you're referring to, either -- it's simply of very discrete molecule that can be synthesized from oils.

I doubt if you'll be able to find any protein powder that doesn't contain it; w/o lecithin, it'll all just clump up and be a lot less useable. You may be able to find a sunflower lecithin, but that would be incredibly specialized -- and you'd probably need to shop in Europe.

If you're worried about lecithin derived from soy sources, you should also probably visit some allergen forums; b/c most protein powders are made in facilities that process, alternatingly, cow's milk, goat milk,egg, soy, rice, and nut proteins, there's also a small amount of cross "contamination" to all of these products. Find a soy-allergic message board and someone there may know of a powder that's made in a non-soy facility and has another source for its lecithin.

My advice, though, is to not care about the source of your lecithin -- it's not like it's really even a soy product.

(you said that you felt better w/ decreased soy intake, so that's a different case, but my advice to others is that the anti-soy bandwagon's gotten kind of crazy. A serving of tofu or edamame once a week isn't going to plummet your testosterone levels. Just stay away from any product that heavily modifies soy (tofu "meat," textured vegetable proteins, soy "milk") -- that stuff's awful.

EDIT: I just looked up MHP's Probolic 12hr muscle feeder -- dude, it's a soy protein powder that's sweetened by sucralose! Throw it out immediately and get your diet on track. If you're gladly eating sucralose while going after lecithin, you're spending way too much effort on minor things while ignoring the elephant in the room.

forward015 · June 22nd, 2008, 06:14 PM

I had tossed it out once I read that it was soy based a couple of days ago.

I don't take the "Soy is Evil" for gospel, but I was wanting to see if anyone had come across anything that didn't require it, Soy. A guy figures that the supplement market is in the same instance huge and specialized that there would be something not based in soy, cross contamination being all but unavoidable.