It’s a routine practiced every day in gyms and boxes across the land—exercisers finish a session and hustle to get in their post-workout recovery meal. For decades it’s been preached that the optimal window for post-workout calories is 30 to 60 minutes following that last rep.
Typically, we tote along our powders and shaker bottle and, because we don’t want to be sub-optimal, we rush the recovery powder into the shaker bottle and flood the whole thing with 8-12 ounces of water from the nearest source. If the stars all align, and we have the lid on correctly, we can begin to shake. Sometimes we make a mess, sometimes not.
Enter Vade Nutrition’s Dissolvable Protein Scoops, inspired by the frequent mess of post-workout protein preparation. Joe and Megan Johnson of Vade Nutrition created the pods using a food grade quality film to contain exactly one serving of their whey isolate.
A Quick Whey Protein Tutorial
Whey is composed of two components—the concentrate and isolate. Quality whey provides all the key amino acids for glutathione production (cysteine, glycine, and glutamate) and contains a unique cysteine residue (glutamylcysteine) that is highly bioactive in its affinity for converting to glutathione.
Unlike the slow release properties of casein, whey is easily absorbed and therefore preferred in the post-workout window of gains.
I Give the Pods a Thumbs Up
Initially, I was skeptical of the pods packaging, but I did find it rather handy to reach into the sturdy resealable bag to pull out a serving. It mixed easily in both my blender and a shaker bottle. Each serving provides 20 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat, and 2 grams of carbohydrates.
My bag was a mix of vanilla and chocolate pods. The taste was good and I would give it 4 out of 5 stars when it comes to flavor and how easily it dissolved. Vade meets the standards for the Safe Quality Foods Program (SQF III), British Retail Consortium, and is FDA certification compliant. Clearly, the unique selling proposition here is the pod style serving. It’s also a clear winner in terms of mixing, and the taste is decent.
I think Vade’s Protein Scoops are a solid entry in the post-workout recovery product category and worthy of your consideration.
| Vade Protein Scoops At a Glance | |
|---|---|
| Features | Sturdy, resealable packaging
Chocolate and vanilla available Recipe options provided on the website Serving pod eliminates the messy post workout mixing |
| Price | $44-$67 depending on quantity chosen (about 30 cents less expensive than other recognized brands) |
