Animal Whey Protein Review — Good for More Than Bodybuilders?

Animal Whey is a part of Universal Nutrition, a New Jersey-based supplement company that's been in the business for forty years. Animal is probably best known for their multivitamin called “Animal Pak” but they sell a wide variety of products like pre-workouts, muscle volumizers, testosterone support, joint support, mass gainers… yep, it's a bodybuilder's brand.

Animal Whey, however, leaves behind most of the more unusual ingredients you'll find in the aforementioned supplements to deliver a basic, all-rounder protein powder. Whether you're a bodybuilder or not, does it cover all the right bases?

Animal Whey Protein

This protein powder contains 25 grams of whey protein isolate and minimal fat, sugar, and carb content.

Animal Whey Protein Nutrition Info

One serving of the Chocolate flavor provides 125 calories, 25 grams of protein, 4 grams of carbohydrates (3 of which are fiber — that's impressive), and 1 gram of fat.

As far as micronutrients go, there's a not-too-shabby 15 percent of your calcium, 8 percent of your daily magnesium, 5 percent of your daily iron.

Animal Whey Protein

This protein powder contains 25 grams of whey protein isolate and minimal fat, sugar, and carb content.

There's nothing particularly controversial about the rest of the nutrients. There's 12 percent of your daily cholesterol and it's tiny bit high in sodium with 5 percent of the RDI, but that shouldn't be a concern to the majority of consumers.

(See our top whey protein roundup)

Animal Whey Protein Ingredients

There aren't too many bells and whistles in the ingredients list, which I like in a whey powder.

First up is the “Animal Whey Complex” made of “cross flow micro filtered whey protein isolate” and “ultra filtered whey whey protein concentrate.” Then there's cocoa, natural and artificial chocolate flavor, three gums (cellulose gum, xanthan gum, and carrageenan, which are stabilizers and thickeners), soy lecithin (for mixability), sodium chloride (that's just salt), and the artificial sweeteners acesulfame potassium and sucralose. Finally, there's an “Animal Whey digestive blend” of the digestive enzymes papain and bromelain.

The product contains lactose and there's no lactase so there's a chance, if you're extremely sensitive to lactose, that you'll have trouble digesting this, although the digestive blend certainly lowers those odds.

Animal Whey Protein Benefits and Effectiveness

Again, this is a nice, no-frills, whey protein with nothing too surprising in the ingredients list. The only thing I was a little surprised by, besides the lack of lactase, was the fact that it contains soy lecithin. Although it's great for improving mixability, a lot of bodybuilders haste anything that contains soy for fears that it'll increase estrogen. The science is pretty clear that a little lecithin won't do any harm, but nevertheless if you would rather avoid any and all soy, you might prefer a totally soy-free whey protein like Ghost or Pro Jym.

The artificial sweeteners might be a turn off for some consumers as well, particularly the acesulfame potassium, which is controversial in some circles although generally recognized as safe in small quantities.

Otherwise the macro split is great, particularly given there's just one gram of net carbs, and I liked the little boost of calcium, magnesium, and potassium it provides. It has very transparent labeling as well, listing out the precise weight of each and every amino acid, which is something that you might find useful if you're an elite bodybuilder or if you don't eat a lot of animal products or complete protein sources.

The main issue is that if you have any really severe allergies, this might be off limits: it's made in a facility that processes milk, soy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, and wheat.

Animal Whey Protein Price

It's surprisingly cheap: for a two-pound tub you'll pay about $25 for 27 servings, which makes 92 cents per serving or 3.7 cents per gram of protein. If you elect to buy the 4-pound tub, the price drops to 83 cents per serving.

That's even cheaper than the very cheap Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard and MusclePharm Combat Whey and about on par with MuscleTech Pro Premium Series Gold Whey. In other words, one of the cheapest blends of whey isolate and concentrate that I've seen.

Mixability

It mixes great! It dissolves quickly and easily, making for a smooth, milkshake texture.

Animal Whey Protein Taste

I had the chocolate flavor and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not creamy or cocoa-y, but rather malty. That might be a disappointment if you prefer milk or dark chocolate, but as someone who loves chocolate-covered malt balls, I was in heaven. I love malt chocolate. With milk, it was perfect. With water, it tastes more like malt and water. Even I'm not crazy about malt and water, so I definitely preferred it with milk.

The Takeaway

This is a really solid product. It's cheap, super low in carbs and fat, it mixes well, tastes great, and has really transparent labeling, even going to the trouble of providing the weight for each amino acid. If you have dietary restrictions, there might be some concern: there's soy, there's lactose, there's acesulfame potassium, and it's made in a facility that contains a wide variety of allergens.

But if you find you can digest almost anything, this is potentially a good pick.

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