What is the cheapest and healthiest
protein source and where should you buy
it? We're going to put protein sources
head-to-head. We're going to go shopping
for real [music] to give you guys the
answers because, interestingly enough,
it's more complex than it seems. Let's
go.
>> [music]
>> All right, guys. Our first stop is Aldi,
an amazing store with ultra-low prices.
And we're going to get some cheap
protein here. But the problem is how do
we actually measure cheap and protein?
Sounds pretty straightforward, but it's
not because we have to contend with the
total weight of the food, how much of
that food is protein, how many calories
does it have that come along for the
ride, what is the packaging size, and a
whole host of other variables. So, we're
going to try to condense and make sense
of what gram for gram, pound for pound,
adjustment for adjustment is actually
the best protein value for your dollar.
[music] Let's do it.
Whole eggs, frozen chicken breast,
boneless chicken thighs, chunk light
tuna, non-fat Greek yogurt, cottage
cheese, whole chicken, and canned
chicken breast.
Look at the size of these breasts. Huh?
Am I right? Hey.
Boneless chicken thighs.
Breasts for the tests,
thighs for the guys?
>> [music]
>> Ugh, I've got chicken water on me. Why
can't it just be hot dog flavored water?
Man, dude, they have so much amazing
off-brand soda. I'm obsessed with
off-brand soda. I'm obsessed with
off-brand everything to be completely
honest.
So, we got to Aldi and the actual
chicken breast, the non-frozen stuff is
14 cents per ounce. And the two
competitor frozen products we were going
to buy are 19 and 18 respectively. And
so, we're actually just going to buy the
regular stuff cuz this time it won.
Oh, yeah.
>> [music]
>> Secret diet hack.
>> [music]
>> Hey.
What you doing? My uncle's name was
Spoosalini. Sicilian pear, they called
him.
That was super fast. Aldi's a really
well-organized store. We got everything
we needed real quick. Now, time to jet.
>> [music]
>> We're done shopping at Aldi. We couldn't
get everything at Aldi cuz their
selection's a little bit limited, and so
we're going to fill out the rest of our
selection at Costco. Once we get that
stuff, we're going to take stock, see
what's good, see what's bad, see what
the cheapest protein source is, and
uh maybe pontificate about life. Just
kidding. Let's go do the protein thing.
>> [music]
>> All right, folks. We're at Costco, which
typically sells very, very cheap food
and [music] very cheap protein sources,
but it sells it in bulk. That doesn't
always beat [music] the other prices.
Let's get the stuff we couldn't get at
Aldi. Let's compare the prices, see
what's going on.
>> [music]
>> You'll always leave Costco with a bunch
of you don't need, but you're going
to be really happy about it. Living
large.
>> I watched some videos a lot.
>> Very cool, man. We're filming one right
now, hypothetically.
>> Are you?
>> I didn't know you lived in Michigan
before.
>> I do, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
>> I saw the Hodgetwins [music] in here,
too, one time.
>> Yeah. God, I know. That's right. They're
from the area.
>> Yeah, awesome.
>> Yeah. Are they jacked in real life?
>> Pretty solid.
>> That's awesome.
>> You're bigger, though.
>> Oh, stop. Get out of here.
>> Man, that's just you saying that.
>> Likewise, man. Have a good one. Take
care. Of course.
Hey Scott, do you need vitamins, but
like a lot of vitamins?
>> [music]
>> That's it. Just two kinds of protein.
>> This one's actually cheaper, Mike.
>> No way. Oh, dude, it's got a ton of
carbs and in it.
>> Oh, does it?
>> Oh, yeah. I think there's no nothing's
going to beat uh Gold Standard.
>> Oh, they're quail eggs.
>> Woah.
>> Like don't rich guys only eat quail
eggs?
>> Hey.
Look at this body. You think anything
touches a buck quail?
My dad used to eat them raw back in
Russia. I don't know why.
Quails. [laughter]
Cool.
More expensive, unfortunately, here.
Aldi wins.
Oh.
Like 13 g of protein. Like, is that a
lot? What are the calories? Guys, now
that protein is like the sought-after
thing, and you know, it was big and
people are losing weight, it's really
funny to notice how advertising has
changed in marketing. They'll have like
a random container of a random food that
was always like super low protein, and
they're like, "Now, like like 3 g of
protein." And it's like, "That's not a
lot." Like, compared to calories, it's
not a lot. Perfect example.
Let's do the math.
14 protein, 44 carbs, not fiber, 15 fat.
More fat than protein. Not a
bodybuilding food, folks. May I? Thank
you so much.
It's pizza.
So good.
Instantly convinced by marketing.
>> [music]
>> Yeah, it's coiled in here. So, tofu's
refrigerated food. But, the question is
where the is it going to be? Tofu.
Boom. 10 g of protein. Fact.
>> [music]
>> Done.
>> [music]
[music]
>> All right, we're done at Costco. We have
everything we need. We're going to go
total up and check out what the actual
best protein deal for the money is.
NOW.
>> [applause]
>> ALL RIGHT, GUYS. WE GOT ALL THE STUFF.
WE bought 12 ultra-cheap, high-protein
sources from Aldi and Costco. The first
thing I'm going to do is talk about
which sources are the most economical in
money per gram of protein. In last
place, tear emoji react, is canned
chicken. And you would think like,
"Canned chicken, isn't that made from
like children that
go and out on the street and from the
orphanage and are never seen again?"
Yes. So, how come it's so expensive?
Well, because children are rare. No, but
seriously, it's because the canned
chicken is actually pre-prepared. So,
you open the canned chicken, you drain
out the water, or if you're disgusting,
you don't drain out the water, you can
just eat it. And almost always and
almost everywhere pre-prepared products
are going to cost way more than the
stuff you have to cook. Cuz you know,
they have to pay the process / people
that cooked it. Canned chicken is
awesome. It's not the tastiest thing in
the world, but it's great to keep around
in your shelves because it lasts, I
think, like nuclear apocalypse times,
forever. And it's awesome to have in a
pinch. If you want to take it on a road
trip or something, it doesn't go bad
under any circumstances, also good for
that. But as a go-to cheapest protein
source, that it is not. Canned chicken
breast is around 5.7 cents per gram of
protein, which is already really cheap.
But next up, second to last, but doing
way better, is boneless, skinless
chicken thighs. They are at 3.9 cents
per gram of protein. You do have to cook
them yourself. However, you're making
way better financial decision than with
that pre-made canned stuff. And chicken
thighs are two other things that I want
to talk to you guys about. First of all,
they are not as high fat as people
think. They only typically have like
four or five grams of fat for like every
20 grams of protein. And most of your
regular chicken breast is going to have
something to the tune of like two or
three grams. So, it's maybe [music]
double the fat, but it's still very low
fat. The other thing is, it's delicious.
These taste so much better. So, if you
can afford any modicum of fat in your
diet, this is an amazing and really
cheap choice. But, it is not even close
to the cheapest. For that, we move on to
our next contender. Next up is low-fat
cottage cheese. At the same 3.9 cents
per gram of protein, it's basically tied
with the chicken thighs. But, while
chicken thighs are delicious and
amazing, low-fat cottage cheese, in my
personal, humble, and generally useful
opinion, looks and tastes like throw up.
Cottage cheese people, get at me in the
comments. And if you put pineapples in
it, it's like pineapples with throw up.
JK, technically speaking, low-fat
cottage cheese is great. And it's got
good news, it's small curd. Doesn't that
make you want to eat it more?
Next up, tied again at 3.9 cents with
chicken thighs and low-fat cottage
cheese, is good old whey protein. In
this case, Gold Standard Optimum
Nutrition, just like grandma used to
eat, just like mom used to eat. It's
very good in macros, it's super
convenient, it's super storable, and
like I've been saying for about forever,
protein powders actually really cheap.
And a lot of folks will say stuff like,
"Man, I can't afford protein powder."
But, this is actually like cheap, but
it's not the cheapest like on the
internet. This stuff is even cheaper
than we got it and is right in the mix,
ultra competitive with all these other
cheap protein sources. And isn't a
meat-based, and so it's a bit of a
different thing, kind of like a dessert
flavor, and means that if you want
protein shakes in your life, you can
almost certainly afford them. Next up,
surprisingly, liquid egg whites from
Costco. Unbelievable macros, they're
like universal to be used in cooking,
and they're all around really awesome.
And so, we'll have more to say about
them on the macros end of this analysis,
but on the price end, they are very
competitive. And like, it's really great
because a lot of folks do this thing
where they get the whole eggs and they
portion out the whites by themselves.
People used to that back in the day.
Good old industry solved that problem
and believe it or not, it's just not
expensive. Especially if you have access
to Costco, you're doing really well for
yourself.
God. Whole chickens next.
There's a range for whole chicken. It
really depends on the chicken. It really
depends on how much you get in there and
get the protein going. Right around 3
cents per gram of protein, which is
really good. The upside of the whole
chicken is that it's relatively cheap.
The downside of the whole chicken is
that like, man,
you got to prepare the crap out of it.
You got to pick it apart. If you like
the whole chicken experience, which is
also an adult film I used to be in cast
in,
ah, memories.
Then you'll love this, but it's not for
me. I prefer my stuff pre-processed.
It's a great choice and it's made by
Simply Nature. Sure looks like a lot of
plastic for Simply Nature, but I'm just
being a dick.
Nonfat Greek yogurt, plain, is at 3.1
cents per gram of protein, which is a
really, really good. It doesn't taste
like much, but it doesn't have that
offensive chunkiness of cottage cheese.
It mixes with a ton of different stuff
and it's all around just awesome and
super good for your health. The Greeks
are an amazing peoples. Are you guys
tired of chunk-heavy tuna? New
chunk-light tuna. Scott, I don't know
what that means.
But the good news is, at 2.9 cents per
gram of protein, it is incredibly
competitive and travels well. You can
mix it with almost anything. Tuna with
strawberry cheesecake? Amazing. Try it
tomorrow. On a serious note though,
tuna's goated. [music] The real problem
with tuna is it does have a little bit
of a mercury issue. So, it turns out
that if you eat too much of it, it's
probably not great. I would eat it a few
times a week and probably no more. So,
definitely don't do that thing where you
take chunk light tuna and then uh and
then put it in as like four out of five
meals of the day five days a week. From
what I understand of this, might be
outdated, albacore is actually uh a bit
worse for the mercury stuff, but I don't
think chunk light is uh exactly safe
from the mercury thing. It's totally
fine in moderation. Just don't go
overkill cuz it's super cheap. And it is
super cheap. Let me tell you guys a
story about tofu. It was in a really
awesome relationship and it had a
thought it had trust. But it was busy
working nights trying to make ends meet,
going to college, kind of left its
fitness on the wayside. [music]
And all of a sudden, extra firm tofu got
a little got a little text from its
boyfriend. And the boyfriend was like,
"Hey hey hey tofu, I just like I just
want you to know I really like you as a
person, but it's just like a physical
thing to me. I need something tough and
toned." And so regular tofu was like,
"Just [music] absolutely not." And it
went and got itself a revenge body and
turned into extra firm tofu. And Zach
was his name wanted back and extra firm
tofu was like, "Uh I'm like dating
billionaires and stuff now, so like no
thanks." And believe it or not, extra
firm tofu, at 2.8 cents per gram of
protein, is cheap cheap cheap. And look,
if you actually know how to cook, you
can make it look like this. Otherwise,
it's a gelatinous white blob that tastes
like nothing. Are you guys tired of
stale chicken breast? Fresh chicken
breast, as [laughter] we labeled it in
our analysis, is next on our list and
actually ranks as the third cheapest
source of protein if you get it at Aldi
in our particular situation in the
metropolitan Detroit area. I mean, the
macros are amazing. And look at the size
of these things, man. Every time they
have some on the front like, "Oh,
no antibiotics, no growth hormones." I'm
like, "What am I paying for then? Pump
it up." This is awesome.
In second place, believe it or not, an
all-time classic,
fat-free milk at 2.3 cents per gram of
protein. This is the king of kings. And
honestly, like if you get your your milk
Kirkland at Costco, like oh my god, it's
unbelievable. I've been a huge proponent
of milk for a really long time.
Especially if you're a woman of a
certain sh- No, I'm kidding. All right.
Milk is kind of goated, right? Like
great-grandpa drank it to get huge back
in 1907 when he was building the
railroads. Grandpa loved it and won
World War II for us. Dad thought it was
great in the Vietnam era. And then you
also should drink it because it'll make
you jack, jack, jack and damn near for
free. Fat-free milk is awesome. You can
add it to a bunch of recipes. You can
add it to any kind of meal with just a
good old-fashioned glass. Two thumbs up
for second place. And a rank one, the
cheapest protein source per dollar at
two cents per gram of protein, whole
eggs from the great American German
institution of Aldi. Phenomenal.
Ultra-high protein, plenty of calories,
too. We'll talk about that in the next
section. Whole eggs are goated. They're
literally the cheapest source of protein
if you only care about the protein and
the price, which brings us to our next
second and final level of analysis. What
is of these ultra-cheap protein foods,
the food that has the least, the
intermediate, and the most grams of
protein per 100 calories? Why is that
important? Because there are
fundamentally two ends of a spectrum
when you're trying to get in your
protein. On one end of the spectrum is
your calories are pretty open. You have
some rice, you have some pasta, you have
some veggies here and there. And getting
your protein, whether it comes with a
little bit of carbs, a little bit of
fat, or a lot of bit of both, doesn't
much matter because you just mold your
meals to around it. Think of these as
you're just being young and just gaining
weight and gaining muscle. Then, if
you're low on on the budget, you just
take the ranked one sources from this
list like eggs, milk, etc. and yolo.
Eggs have a crap load of fat in them.
Not bad fat, but a crap load of fat
calories nonetheless. Whole [music] milk
has a ton. The fat-free milk that we got
still has 12 g of carbs for every 8 g of
protein. So, it's not exactly a lean
protein food. But, if you need protein
and your calories are straight and you
can make it fit, this list is for you.
But, this next list is for that other
end of the spectrum where you are
calorie constrained and you still want
to keep it budget-friendly, which it all
of these are, but within that
constraint, you want to make it so that
per the calories you're eating, you're
getting the highest amount of protein
possible. So, this next list is going to
start out with the food that doesn't do
the best job at this and goes all the
way to the food that, [music] for
already being cheap, has the most
protein punch per calorie. Last on our
list is whole eggs. And isn't that a
trip, you guys? It was first on our list
for price, but for protein per calorie,
it's last on our list, which makes total
sense because for every 6 g of protein,
from memory, eggs have about 4 and 1/2 g
of fat and 0 g of carbs. So, 4 and 1/2 g
of fat. Remember, protein is 4 calories
per gram, fat is 9 calories per gram.
And if you adjust the protein down, it's
actually even lower. So, actually the
majority of your calories from eggs come
from fat, but as long as you eat it in
relative moderation, the fats that come
from eggs are actually quite healthy.
So, if your blood work is good, you're
young, it works for your body, and
you're bulking, or you're cutting and
maintaining or something like that, but
you've kept your calories all figured
out, this is a great source, a amazing
source of protein. You just have to
understand some extra calories are
coming along for the ride. And if you
need to constrain your calories like
crazy but keep your protein high, you
might want to wait until later in this
list where you get to the really, really
lean protein sources. Tofu's back, baby.
You You can't tell me anymore that I
don't have a good body. And it is extra
firm.
But, oh, tofu, I'm so sorry. You're
actually still too fat. Scott, can you
imagine you're a girl and you have this
incredible transformation cuz your ex is
like, "You're too fat." But then you
show up and he's like, "You're still too
fat." What a disaster. Let's take a look
here at this protein situation. 10 g of
protein, which is great per serving. 3 g
of carbs, two, which are fiber. So,
basically a gram of carb, which is
great, but five whole grams of fat
[music] means that protein per 100
calories for whole eggs was at an 8.6.
For extra firm tofu, it's a little bit
better. It's 10 g, but not much better.
Again, something you can have in a
balanced diet, but if you want the
ultimate super lean source, this ain't
it. Remember those 12 g of carbs I was
talking about that come for the ride
with the 8 g of protein in fat-free
milk? Yeah, they're biting us in the
butt. Third to last, fat-free milk, tied
with extra firm tofu at 10 g per 100
calories, 10 g of protein. It's awesome,
amazing around the workout window, so
you can still have it through every
phase of dieting, but if you really need
to constrain your calories, you really
need to cut some carbs,
milk's got to go.
Yeah.
Whole chicken. Scott, there's this juice
that's on it. Whole chicken's great.
Depending on the whole chicken and
depending how much in there you get and
if you crunch on the bones, it's going
to be something like 13 g of protein per
100 calories, which is getting pretty
good. Not something that's ideally in
the lean category, but an amazing part
of a super balanced high-protein diet.
Next up, low-fat cottage cheese doing
better, 13.3 g, 13.3 g of protein per
100 calories of the stuff. Scott, do you
think it's false advertising to put
these blueberries on here and not
include blueberries in there?
>> Yeah, they're not doing anything. They
tend to make it look more
>> Look, it could be better if you did
extra work and bought extra stuff. I'm
kidding. I don't mean to pick on low-fat
cottage cheese. It's just It's just I
just hate it.
Cheers.
Proving my point from earlier, rounding
out the bottom half, but at the top of
the bottom half, are chicken thighs. And
chicken thighs on this nutritional label
are mislabeled like crazy because it's
got a total 10 g of fat and 19 g of
protein. But if you cut off the fat
giblets and in most analyses that have
that updated, it's more like 20 g of
protein and 5 g or so of fat, which
makes the chicken thighs
really an amazing choice. Unless you are
just cutting calories like wild and
going extra low fat, you can usually eat
chicken thighs instead of breasts if you
prefer the taste. Let me say that
another way. You can just eat them
instead because they taste better. Plain
nonfat Greek yogurt. It tastes like
something, but boy does it have a crap
load of protein and basically nothing
else. 6 g of carbs, 16 g of protein, 0 g
of fat, just 90 calories per serving.
Plain nonfat Greek yogurt comes in at 17
g of protein per 100 calories. Man, that
is a huge vast majority of the calories
in here coming from protein. Phenomenal.
Now, this brand versus what I'm telling
you data-wise is going to be a little
bit different because every nonfat Greek
yogurt has a little bit different of a
recipe, higher or lower protein, higher
or lower carbs. But they're all damn
good and an amazing choice, especially
as we enter into the second half of the
leanest, most high protein sources of
food per the calorie. [music]
Canned chicken breast is next at 18.3
g of protein per 100 calories. What
chicken breast that is in a can lacks in
price and lacks in taste, it makes up
for in being amazing macros. This
particular can has 11 g of protein, 1 g
of carbon, just 1 g of fat. That's damn
good. This is starting to get to be an
almost pure protein food. Phenomenal.
Next up, tied for second place, liquid
egg whites. Liquid egg whites in many
cases have something like almost or
close to a gram of carbohydrate, but
zero fat and 5 g of protein, which means
they're not exactly pure protein, but
honestly, guys, with these last several
ones, we're just splitting hairs. As far
as I'm concerned, egg whites are
basically pure protein. [music] So, if
you like them, this is rank one on my
list. At 20 g of protein per 100
calories is whey protein powder. Depends
on the brand you get, plus or minus, but
it's really damn good. This is almost a
pure protein product, and again, like
liquid egg whites, is just [music]
unbelievable. Can't go wrong with it.
Tied for second place on our list. Also
tied for second place is chicken breast.
It's real close. Some cuts of chicken
breast are going to be a little leaner
and thus nudge into one and a half
place. Some are going to be a little
fattier and thus be still really tied
for second place, but chicken breast is
damn near as lean as stuff gets. It just
gets one notch leaner from here for our
winner, which I'll announce next. I
mean, right now. Chicken breast is
great.
Chunk light tuna. 23.6
g of protein per 100 calories, which is
damn near as close as it gets in the
real world to a pure protein food. Some
of these cans of tuna are labeled as
basically zero fat. Some are half a gram
of fat with a whopping 33 g of protein.
That's one hell of a ratio. This is damn
near as lean as it gets. Tuna,
incredible value, and almost pure
protein. I would say, Scott, that tuna
is up there in like [music] damn near
some of the best protein you can take
in, but so is chicken breast, so is whey
protein powder, and really so are all of
these foods. But if you're really
looking for extremes, tuna's the place
to go. Remember, you don't want to eat
too much of it all the time, otherwise
it's amazing. Guys, here's the deal. All
of these are ultra cheap. If you really
want to save money, bias towards the
cheaper ones and open up some calories
in your diet to make sure that because
the cheaper ones don't have the ideal
protein per calories, they can fit in.
If you're really budgeting, but you're
really cutting down on calories, bias
towards the ones that have the most
protein per 100 calories and you're
still saving mega bucks while really,
really cutting down on your overall
calorie intake and maximizing your
protein. I would say in this list of 12
foods, there are no wrong answers. And
buying in bulk from stores like Aldi,
stores like Costco, and a bunch of other
places like your neighborhood Walmart is
a really swell idea. I think if I
learned anything from doing this video,
it's that man, all things considered,
protein and getting a lot of healthy
protein in doesn't really cost that much
and doesn't have to come with tons of
excess fat or carbohydrates. And if
you're willing to cook, or in the case
of chicken breast and tuna, not even
willing to cook, the chicken breast in a
can that is, then you're good to go. So,
hopefully you learned something in this
video and we can make sense of what's
going on. You are empowered to make
awesome economical choices that are also
great for your physique. All right,
that's it. Guys, I'm going to begin
filming right now with Scott the video
guy for our next video in which I'm
going to eat every single one of the
foods discussed in its raw form all in
one sitting. Should I start with the
whole chicken uncooked right out of the
bag or the 5 lb of whey protein with a
spoon? Let us know in the comments and
we'll see you next time.
>> Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.