The Best Protein Powder Mix

The best protein powder mix is one you make at home.

I buy a few simple, healthy ingredients, and in five minutes, I have my protein mix. I make a protein drink every morning.

Why would you want a protein mix? Inadequate protein intake can lead to muscle loss. There are various recommendations, but I tell my patients to eat at least 1 gram of protein daily for every kilogram of weight. There are 2.2 pounds per kilogram, so if you weigh 150 pounds, you weigh about 68 kg. It is not that difficult to eat 70 g of protein a day, but you have to think about it–weighing, counting, and measuring. I don’t like to do that. If you read my book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, Second Edition, then you know I don’t like to weigh, measure, or count.

A morning protein drink is about 25 g of protein, making it very easy for me to get to my 60 g of protein for the day. (I’m pretty small.) The recipe is so simple that you can remember it without trying. I make fifteen days’ worth of protein mix at a time, so it is very easy. You don’t need special equipment, though a blender bottle or something similar helps.

Any protein base should work, though no study has ever shown that any protein powder is better than whey, and whey happens to be the cheapest. If you‘re a vegan, I recommend pea protein, but whey is better for muscle growth. If you’re milk intolerant, you may not be able to tolerate whey, so you can use pea, soy, or whatever you want. I can guarantee that the whey powder works, but I don’t see why pea protein wouldn’t be fine.

I have tried several whey products, and I like the one by Now Sports (part of Now Foods). I do write for their natural health foundation, but I used Now products years before working for them. This recipe will work with other brands, so buy what you like if you’re worried that I’m overly biased toward Now Foods. I have also tried several different ratios of protein powder and the other ingredients, and I like this recipe the best, but if you want to tweak it, of course, you can.

This is not really a fully homemade mix. I don‘t milk the cow or make the whey powder myself, but this mix is better than the premade mixes. There is no added sugar, and the only sweetener is pure stevia. Some zero-sugar, non-nutritive sweeteners have recently been linked to stroke and other medical problems. There are issues with some of these studies, but stevia, to my knowledge, has never been linked to any medical problem. (The stevia packets have other ingredients that may not be healthy.)

I prefer mixing my few simple ingredients so I know exactly what I’m consuming. Optimum Nutrition, my favorite premade protein powder, usually has sweeteners and other ingredients I don’t want, though it’s probably fine to consume.

So, this is the recipe for Homemade Chocolate Protein Mix. I use the scoop that comes with the whey powder, which is about 28 g and 1/3 cup.

Note that on January 3, 2024, I started adding cinnamon, a healthy, tasty spice. Try it or not.

Ingredients:

• 15 scoops of unflavored whey powder (isolate slightly preferred over concentrate). 
• 10 tablespoons unsweetened baking chocolate powder (I use Hershey’s or Nestlé.)
• 1 teaspoon pure stevia powder. (I have only tried the Now Foods brand.)
• ½ teaspoon table salt (optional)
• 5 tablespoons Cinnamon, preferably Ceylon (optional)

Directions:

Transfer all the ingredients to a gallon-size Ziploc bag or other suitable container. Seal the bag and shake it. Make sure it’s fully sealed before you shake it vigorously, or you will have a serious mess to clean up. I have found that you don’t have to eliminate all the tiny clumps of powder and chocolate because when you mix the drink in the blender bottle, they dissolve.

I use about eight ounces of cold water with the mix, but many people use milk or a milk substitute. Suit yourself. Whether you drink the protein first thing in the morning or right before or after a workout is a topic for another post. I do it every morning.