Best Vegan Protein Powder

Best Vegan Protein Powder
Heather Nicholds, C.H.N.

I always have an eye out for the best vegan protein powder. There’s protein in beans, whole grains, quinoa, nuts, seeds, curry powder, and pretty much all whole plant foods. I wrote a whole book on it if you want to learn more.

When I calculate how much protein I need as a vegan, I know I can get more than enough from the foods I eat on a regular basis (like this chickpea scramble).

So I’m not at all worried about getting enough protein on a healthy eating plan without meat, but because I’m very active (running, yoga, strength training), I find protein powders to be useful.

It might seem strange that I use protein powders when I usually focus on getting nutrients from whole foods as much as possible.

Do vegans need protein powder?

Protein powders are not necessary to get “complete” proteins (all the essential amino acids) from plant foods.

Protein powders are not necessary to get enough protein from plant foods.

So why would you take a protein powder instead of whole foods?

Why use protein powders?

Protein powders are a way to increase the percentage of protein in your diet relative to carbohydrates and fats. That’s it.

Some of the best vegan protein powders are also easier to digest and assimilate before or after a heavy workout than eating whole foods.

They’re definitely more concentrated so that you don’t have to chew your way through a big pile of greens and beans when you’re finished a workout.

So the practical reasons for using protein powders, in my opinion, are to support building and repairing muscle after workouts.

Keep in mind, though, that eating tons of protein from any source isn’t how you build muscle. Doing regular and intense strength training is the way to build muscle – protein intake is just there to support recovery and give your muscles the building blocks to grow.

You can’t eat your way to building muscle.

Protein powders can also be useful for people who are underweight, in helping them gain weight. Protein powders are fairly concentrated, and a great boost to a smoothie between meals for someone looking to put on weight.

Watch the video

Criteria For The Best Vegan Protein Powder

There are some criteria to look for in a protein powder. If you’re taking any supplements, the most important thing to consider is the quality, and protein powders are no exception.

  • Protein Source: Vegan sources include rice, hemp, pea, quinoa, and others. Whey and other animal ingredients are not vegan.
  • Degree/Method Of Processing: Even though any protein powder is going to be processed, some are done in a more natural way and have less impact on the nutrients in the food.
  • Macronutrient Breakdown: When taking a supplement to increase relative protein, it should have a good balance of protein
  • Taste & Texture: Although it’s not essential, it should be somewhat enjoyable to drink.
  • Added Ingredients: Avoid products that have a lot of chemicals or refined sugars.
  • Bonus: Some companies add digestive enzymes or probiotics, which is smart because it helps make the protein more available to your body. Others may add greens, fruit, or veggie powders to boost antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Source

There are lots of sources of vegan protein used in powders, here are the main ones:

  • Soy: This is better than whey for a lot of reasons, but it also has some issues. Mainly in digestion, so if you find that you don’t have any gas or indigestion after having some soy protein, you might be ok to stick with it. It’s really important to get an organic source to make sure it’s not genetically modified. Soy is highly processed to become a protein powder, so it’s not my favorite, but it is cheap and widely available so if comes to soy or whey for you, I’d vote for soy every time.
  • Hemp: It has a great balance of amino acids, is able to be grown sustainably and undergoes low levels of processing to become a protein powder. The texture can be gritty because it has a lot of fiber, and a lot of people don’t like the taste of it. It works perfectly in baking, to make cookies or muffins, and is also fun to add to things like veggie burgers!
  • Rice: Brown rice is sprouted and then processed into a very high-protein powder. It makes a very fine powder, so it dissolves smoothly in plain water. It can be a bit chalky, though. Most often rice protein is mixed with pea protein for complementary amino acids.
  • Pea: This is usually mixed with rice protein, to take advantage of complementary amino acids. It’s usually really well priced.
  • Blends: There are some products (like PlantFusion and Vega) that blend a few different proteins together. Rice and pea are common, but things like quinoa, amaranth, sacha inchi, alfalfa, cranberry, and artichoke proteins are becoming more common.

Vegan Protein Powder Comparison Chart

Now, here’s my comparison on the macronutrient breakdown of these proteins.

I took the nutrition facts on each of their labels (which you can check out if you want to at the links below) and equalized them all to 15g of protein to get a standardized comparison.

One thing to keep in mind when looking at the carbohydrate and fat numbers for these products is that some of them are designed to be pure protein powders, while others are meant to be nutritional shakes or meal replacement supplements. So it depends what you’re looking for.

All of these details are based on the vanilla flavor of each product.

I included whey, only as a comparison.

Brand Source Nutritional Bonus Serving* Calories* Carbs (g)* Fat (g)*
Vega Sport Performance Pea, sacha inchi, rice, hemp, alfalfa BCAA, L-glutamine, Dig enzymes 22 g 75 3 0
Vega Protein + Greens Pea, sacha inchi, rice, hemp Greens, papaya enzymes 23 g 83 5 0
Vega One Pea, sacha inchi, hemp Greens, fruit/veg, flax, probiotics, enzymes 32 g 120 8 5
PlantFusion Pea, artichoke, amaranth, quinoa L-Glutamine, Dig enzymes 21 g 86 3 1
PlantFusion Phood Pea, artichoke, amaranth, quinoa EFA, probiotics, dig enzymes, BCAA, vegan D3 38 g 167 14 6
Sprout Living Rice, pea, sacha inchi, cranberry lucuma, mesquite, vanilla, baobab 22 g 87 6 0
Yuve Rice, pea fiber, efa, l-glutamine, resveratrol, NAC, maca, chia, probiotics, berries, greens 38 g 145 17 2
Garden of Life Pea, flax, cranberry, baobab, moringa, chia, pumpkin Dig enzymes, probiotics 26 g 100 6 2
Manitoba Harvest Pro70 Hemp Produced with wind power 30 g 130 9 4
Sunwarrior Classic Rice 21 g 80 4 0
Sunwarrior Blend Pea, cranberry, hemp Cinnamon extract 20 g 79 2 2
Nutiva 15g Hemp 30 g 90 9 3
Nutiva Hi Fiber Hemp 41 g 109 16 5
Nutribiotic Organic Rice 19 g 75 3 0
NOW Pea 21 g 75 1 1
NOW Soy 18 g 68 1 1
NOW Whey 19 g 72 1 0

 

*This isn’t the serving listed on the companies nutritional information charts. This is the serving that will give you 15 grams of protein, which I calculated to equalize the comparison. The calories, fat, and carbohydrate numbers are for that serving which gives 15 grams of protein.

Although some of the hemp proteins may look high in carbs, the carb content is mostly made up of fiber and not sugars.

Amazon Associates Disclosure: Heather Nicholds is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

4 Comments

  1. Shobie Peers 5 years ago

    What a great table, thank you! As someone who has sampled many of these over the years, what are your personal favourites flavor-wise? I am trying to reduce fat intake after a few years of neglecting health post baby. Would you have any advice on how i could use a protein powder or if i should at all? Also do any of these taste good in hot drinks instead of cold smoothies? I have poor digestion which seems worse after cold food.

    • Author
      Heather Nicholds, C.H.N. 5 years ago

      Great questions! My personal faves flavor-wise are Vega, Yuve & Sprout Living – particularly the chocolate maca one… yummmm… This could definitely help balance macros if you’re reducing calories slightly, since it’s a bit harder to keep up protein requirements with less calories from plant foods. I would do one scoop daily in a smoothie to help satiety, or mixed with non-dairy milk as a mid-afternoon snack. I can’t vouch for having them hot… I feel like it could be doable with warm water/milk, but if it got too hot I expect it would clump and get a bit unappetizing… I think I would start by just slightly heating some non-dairy milk and then stir the protein in with a tiny amount of cold water (like what you would do with cornstarch) and then add to the milk when it’s done heating. OR, try my chocolate chai smoothie with a scoop of protein added. https://www.veganook.com/recipes/hot-smoothies/
      Let me know how it goes!!

  2. Shobie Peers 5 years ago

    Hi Heather, thank you for this thoughtful advice. I love those warm smoothie recipes you shared before. I have it on file and intend to make them! And i re-read your article here on protein powders. It is incredibly helpful to my making better decisions on protein intake. Wishing you well, Shobee.

Pingbacks

  1. […] whey (which is dairy) but is difficult to digest with a tendency to create gas. There are lots of plant-based protein powder mixes that are made with other forms of protein (rice, pea, quinoa, etc) – and some even include […]

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Free vegan taster meal plan + quick start guide

Download