Hi Mike,
Yep, ain't so good! Any time you see a list of ingredients like that, the product is probably not good. Anything artificial is not natural, and any product that would contain sucralose would never be a good choice. (Sucralose is not sugar, it's an artificial sweetener derived from sugar and converted by chemicals into a polychlorinated compound. There's a detailed discussion of it on pages 81-83 of my book The Science of Skinny. The whey protein hydrosylate is also something to skip.
Since writing The Science of Skinny, I have found three very good brands of whey protein concentrate.
These are not available in stores.
Here are the links:
All are cold pressed whey protein concentrate, not isolates, derived from grass fed cows, and free of hormones,
A good quality whey protein:
- Must be cold pressed whey protein derived from grass fed cows, and free of hormones, chemicals and sugar.
- Cold processed, since heat destroys whey’s fragile molecular structure
- Whey protein concentrate, not protein isolates
The sidebox on page 216 in The Science of Skinny explains why you should beware of whey protein isolates.
The best whey protein concentrates are cold processed since heat destroys enzymes and whey’s fragile molecular structure. The brands I recommend are done this way. That is why I am super picky about the brands of whey protein concentrate I recommend. There are only a few and I've never seen a good protein powder in any store I've been in (I travel quite a bit and have been to many natural food markets.)
When heat is used to concentrate and then further make isolate, as is done with most protein powders, the proteins are hydrolyzed and the amino acids are isolated. Any whey protein that has been hydrolyzed will contain isolated gluatmic acid, a known excitotoxin.
Again, the brands I recommend are pure whey protein concentrate. The protein is not hydrolyzed. It is because of the fact that most whey protein is hydrolyzed that I am so picky about it.