I’m no expert, but I’ve been drinking and trying protein drinks for the last few months. I have no idea if they are helping, but it beats not eating anything and they are quick. Add some fruit and some I can even swallow without gagging.

Jay Robb’s Whey Protein seems to be the best tasting protein I’ve tried. I still add fruit and milk and have never tried it with just water. The vanilla actually smells good when you open the package and it mixes well in a blender. The one I have now I bought at an unnamed Health Food store and even with fruit, I can still taste it. Usually a banana will mask it pretty well. But with Jay Robb’s I can actually enjoy the fruit I put in it.

My wife is lactose intolerant, so I tried Jay Robb’s Brown Rice Protein. Completely awful. It didn’t mix well in water or milk with a blender and no matter what I added, it always had the granularity and the taste of dirt. I actually had to throw out a large container, because I couldn’t find a small packet so I could try it. I figured the vanilla whey is really good, so everything from Jay Robb should be good. Oh well, lesson learned.

I’m not going to go on and on about how beneficial protein drinks are for you, but everyone and all the trainers push them, so it couldn’t hurt. There are separate drinks for your workout to help in the recovery of muscles and all that, but I read that adding a bunch of fruit will add the carbs to a protein shake to make it beneficial to drink after a workout, better than protein alone.

What to add to your protein shakes? I always get vanilla so I can mix up the fruit. Chocolate, in my opinion is good with strawberries and bananas, but not much else. Vanilla allows you to add berries of all sorts, peaches or most anything. I always add skim milk instead of water (almost the same thing right?) I suppose if you were a purist and major enthusiast you would probably just be mixing with water. For me, I prefer not gagging when I’m drinking something, even if it’s supposed to be good for you.

What’s your favorite recipe for your protein or after workout shakes?

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