Find out whether to buy domestic brands of sports nutrition and how to identify a good brand of protein or gainer. Today, on the domestic sports nutrition market, you can find a lot of products from Russian companies. Today we will tell you the whole truth about the Russian sports food: raw materials, cost, tricks. Everything that will be discussed today is based on conversations with heads of domestic companies, personal assessments of production and recipes, etc. We will not mention the names of the brands, as the case may end in court.
Raw materials used for sports nutrition
Most of the raw materials for the production of domestic sports food are supplied from outside the country. In our state at the moment there are no enterprises that could produce the necessary components, even proteins. The main suppliers of components for the production of protein mixtures are European countries, as well as Argentina. For the rest of the products, raw materials are purchased mostly from Indonesia and China.
It should be noted that there were no big claims to the quality of raw materials and it is quite high-quality so that the final product is effective. It should also be said that there are also not many enterprises in the world that produce ingredients for creating a sports food. If at the same time we take into account their geographic location in relation to Russia, then there are even fewer of them.
It is quite clear that the remoteness of the supplier of raw materials will inevitably lead to an increase in the cost of the final product. As a result, almost all domestic companies produce their products from one raw material.
The cost of domestic sports food
It should be admitted that most of the domestic sports supplements are overpriced. For example, let's take whey isolate, which, taking into account all production costs, should cost no more than 1900 rubles per kilo. This cost is with a trade margin, because the manufacturer must make a profit from the sale of his products.
In fact, we can see mark-ups of at least 70 percent, and some companies are trying to reduce the cost of production so much that the mark-up is 100 percent. From all of the above, we can conclude that if you find whey protein in the store, the cost of which is in the above limit, then you can count on its good quality.
If the cost of the product turned out to be lower, then it will definitely not be of high quality. Let's take another example - casein. The cost of this protein, taking into account all costs, should be from 1,500 to 1,800 rubles per kilo. We can easily find domestic products and at 1200 rubles per kilo. This is an unrealistic cost, as it turns out to be below cost.
The quality of the domestic sports food
So we come to the main question, speaking the truth about the Russian sports food, namely its quality. Over the past years, dozens of brands have appeared, but the opinions of athletes about the quality of their products are depressing. Now we are deliberately not talking about personal impressions, but focusing on the feedback from other athletes.
In this regard, the question arises - why, with sufficiently good raw materials, the final product turns out to be of poor quality? For example, protein supplements in the presence of raw materials are not very difficult to make. And the thing is that the majority of domestic brands are doing everything possible to reduce the cost of production as much as possible.
To do this, you can use various methods and we will now tell you about the most "popular" ones. The same protein can be diluted with taurine. This amine is the cheapest. At the same time, during the examination, taurine will be considered a protein compound and everything seems to be honest. However, there can be no more than half of the total amount of real proteins in a product.
You can safely mix a cheap protein with an expensive one, thereby reducing the cost of the total cost of the supplement. Let's say soy protein compounds are added to whey. Our people and not only athletes, very often do not pay attention to the composition of any product, including a sports supplement. Sometimes a manufacturer makes a supplement that contains only 60 percent of the BCAA or other component. At the same time, this amount is indicated on the package, but you just do not look at the package and you do not know about it.
What conclusions can be drawn from today's conversation. Let's start again with raw materials, which practically do not differ in their quality from those used by Western companies. However, the quality of the final product is significantly inferior to them due to the desire to reduce the cost of production. We talked about some of the tricks of the companies used for this a little higher. Just for the sake of interest, pay attention to domestic gainers and ask yourself why there are no products containing at least 30 percent of protein compounds.
Our companies can produce relatively inexpensive and fairly high-quality sports nutrition. However, for most people it is not enough that the same protein will cost 30 percent less than its European counterpart. You always want to buy even cheaper.
Here is another reason for the poor quality of domestic sports food. If a consumer is ready to buy a cheap and low-quality product, then why should the manufacturers not release it? In many ways, we ourselves are to blame here, not domestic brands. In conclusion, I would like to say that in our country there are companies that produce quality products. Unfortunately, they can be counted on one hand. And for this, one hand is quite enough.
For more information on sports nutrition, see this video:
