In what’s supposedly a “world first for the sports nutrition industry,” a supplement that’s being promoted as a “protein powder with sun block” is coming to a store near you!

When we first heard about a protein powder being promoted as sun block, we couldn’t help but laugh! We imagined bodybuilders and athletes everywhere smearing themselves with protein powder to protect themselves from damaging sunlight!

Anyway, once we’d stopped laughing, we decided to take a closer look at the ingredients.
The ingredient that’s supposed to offer protection against the sun is called LYC-O-MATO™ which contains 0.8%-1.3% lycopene as well as the whole range of tomato phytonutrients. The term “phyto” comes from the Greek word meaning plant, so phytonutrients simply means the nutrients from plants.

It’s true that natural lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their red colour, acts as a powerful antioxidant. However, a high-quality whey protein also has antioxidant properties. Whey contains the amino acid cysteine, which is a key ingredient for making glutathione in the body. Glutathione is known as the ‘master antioxidant’ and helps to regenerate stores of other antioxidants like Vitamin C and E.

This protein powder also contains four protein sources - whey (faster digesting), egg (medium digesting), rice (medium digesting) and micellar casein (slow digesting).

At first glance, using a blend of fast and slow proteins looks like a good idea. After all it seems to give you the best of both worlds - the fast-digesting properties of whey combined with the medium- and slow-digesting properties of egg, rice and casein.

However, what looks good on paper doesn’t always work in the real world.
And that’s what happened here. There are a number of big problems with this protein blend that make it a poor choice for anyone wanting to build muscle size and strength.

Firstly, combining fast and slow proteins will simply bring the overall digestion rate of everything down to the speed of the slowest protein - in this case, the casein. It makes me wonder why they bothered adding whey in the first place. Despite the claims made by some in the nutrition and supplement industry, there is no reliable scientific evidence to show that protein blends release protein at different rates. If somebody tells you different, ask them to show you the research… and by “research” I don’t mean an article written by the company who sells these blends! I mean an independent, peer-reviewed study published in a major scientific journal by proper researchers.

Problem two is that the supposedly new age “super protein” Oryzatein - which is just another fancy name for rice protein - has a low biological value compared to high-quality proteins such as whey. A few companies are starting to use it, and for one very simple reason: because it’s extremely cheap. Adding rice protein is an easy way to bump up the protein content while keeping costs down to an absolute minimum.

This brings us to problem three: egg whites. A whole egg (the egg white plus the yolk) does have a high biological value, which is why eggs have long been a favourite protein source for athletes and bodybuilders. The problem is that by removing the yolk you take away some vital amino acids, which then lowers the biological value of the egg.

And if you were around in the 1980’s, when protein powders containing egg whites were very popular, you’ll know that a common side effect of these powders is really bad wind and constipation. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

So, what’s our verdict on this so-called ‘world first’ protein powder?
Essentially, it’s a whey protein powder with a few cheap sources of protein thrown in to bring the cost and quality down. A protein powder with sun block may indeed be a world first, but with such a mediocre blend of ingredients, we think that it may also be the worlds last!

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