Sports nutrition is becoming more and more popular these days, so there are numerous fakes. Fake protein can often be bought as well. But, fortunately, it does not harm the body, does not affect health. However, at the same time it still harms the financial condition and our expectations. And this is very unpleasant. It is no longer a secret that fake medicines are found in expensive pharmacies. Sometimes it happens that instead of medicine, water is poured or chalk is poured. But more often they simply lower the concentration of the active substance. For example, the package says that the tablet contains 5 mg of the active substance, but in fact there may be less than one.
A similar situation can be with any food supplement, including protein. After all, sports nutrition stores are much less frequently controlled, and, moreover, they are much weaker in comparison with expensive pharmacies. You, of course, cannot take the powder for chemical analysis to a special laboratory to be told what is inside. This procedure is quite expensive. Only large trading firms can afford it. This is what the scammers are counting on. But you can still distinguish real protein from ordinary flour. We’ll tell you what to look for and how to check your purchased protein at home.
It is necessary to start the analysis of the protein at the storefront, with a detailed study of the appearance of the packaging. The pack itself must be airtight. Plastic packages are tightened with a special wide film, its ends go under the label. Any tears on the film or label must be avoided. Inexpensive protein differs from well-known expensive manufacturers by the absence of holograms on the packaging. You should also pay attention to when the protein was produced and what is its shelf life. Inexpensive protein is overdue. It is advisable to abandon the purchase also if the expiration date of the protein is approaching, since the storage conditions of the goods in the store could differ from the recommended ones.
It is known that protein and carbohydrate are substances that are soluble in water; they have different properties. They behave differently in water, dissolve differently. If you have ever diluted honey in water, then you know that it will dissolve better at high liquid temperatures. In cold water, it melts with difficulty, you have to wait a long time. The situation is reversed with protein. It, getting into hot water, curls up into lumps, then nothing breaks these lumps. Knowing about these properties, at home, you can test the protein for naturalness, using our advice.
1 tip: after purchasing, try to put a small amount of protein in warm water, look at its behavior. If the protein curls up, it means that it is real, if it starts to dissolve, then it is something else, for example, flour.
2 tip: dilute 20 g of protein powder in 100 ml of water, you should get porridge, or something like cottage cheese. We have already said that protein has the property of swelling in water. The flour does not give such a thickness. In a ratio of 1 to 5, a fairly liquid mixture is obtained.
3 tip: take 0,5 teaspoon of protein powder, try chewing it. As a rule, the protein sticks very strongly to the gums and teeth, curls up, turns into small lumps. Flour becomes a liquid gruel, you will not notice any sticking.
As you can see, all 3 tips are simple enough for home use and are available for every person, they do not require large financial costs, do not take much time, there is no need to purchase any ingredients. So you can do without laboratory tests, while saving time and money. At the same time, these 3 tips allow anyone in the future to protect themselves from purchasing and taking low-quality, fake protein. And although, according to experts, it does not cause a negative effect on the body, the harm that a poor-quality product causes in moral terms is also significant.
The body will check the quality of your protein itself. If you have been consuming protein for several months, all other things being equal, and still not seeing any changes, you should consider whether you should be wasting money, you are probably drinking an unnatural product.