[@RenaissancePeriodization] The Truth About Protein Cereal (Worth It or Not?)

Link: https://youtu.be/T_V7VX7f430

Duration: 28 min

Short Summary

Dr. Mike reviewed eight protein cereals, ranking Truly cereal first for its ultra high quality protein ingredients and great taste, followed by Legion Protein Cereal Cinnamon Crunch for exceptional flavor despite texture issues. Cheerios with Protein ranked last due to underwhelming taste and low-quality protein, while Magic Spoon peanut butter was criticized for tasting "like plain grain without sweetness."

Key Quotes

1. "If you expect protein cereal to taste as good as regular cereal, you're probably going to have a bad time. If you expect protein cereal to taste like high protein medicine that helps you get jacked, you're going to have an amazing time and be super pleasantly surprised." (00:00:01)
2. "For these cereals that are low in protein, and the protein quality is not great, you can't just eat them and be like, I met my protein goals. If you're using the RP Diet Coach app, using any other kind of diet tracker, I would say dividing their protein contribution by half or even just taking a third of it and then using that for protein and then taking the other half or 2/3 of that protein and counting it towards carbs is probably a real good idea for these cereals if you're going to get pnicity." (00:08:01)
3. "The number one ingredient on here for protein is wheat gluten. That's not very good news because that is not a high quality protein. We also have wheat protein isolate as the second ingredient which again is a very low quality protein. We also have pea protein concentrate on top of that and then all the other stuff like almonds, yellow corn flour, strawberries, salt, etc. etc etc. So, while as a percent it's a ton of protein, the protein quality in here, every single one of these protein ingredients is not the gold standard of whey or casein or egg or even soy protein. So, not ideal." (00:03:22)
4. "If your ghost cereal smells like it went bad, that's just how high protein cereal smells with high quality protein, I might add." (00:11:06)
5. "This is amazing. Maximum crunch factor. It makes your milk ridiculous colors and tastes amazing. It's super sweet. It tastes like oddly like bubble gum or something. I love it. And also amazing protein to calorie ratio, high quality proteins, truly cereal." (00:14:01)

Detailed Summary

Protein Cereal Review: Rankings and Nutritional Analysis

Dr. Mike reviewed eight high-protein cereals, evaluating each based on protein quality, quantity, and taste. The review covered cereals with protein-to-calorie ratios ranging from 19% to 42.5%.

Nutritional Standouts

• Truly cereal (1st place): 18g protein in 170 calories with casein as the #1 ingredient, whey protein concentrate #2, and avocado oil #3, earning praise for having "ultra high quality protein" and great taste
• Legion Protein Cereal Cinnamon Crunch (2nd place): 17g protein in 170 calories (40% protein), praised for exceptional taste but noted for becoming prickly and dissolving rapidly in milk
• Ghost cereal: 18g protein in 170 calories (42.5% ratio), with milk protein concentrate as the #1 ingredient, described as "pretty goddamn good" with convincing peanut butter flavor
• Magic Spoon: 13g protein in 150 calories (~34.5% protein calories), using a milk protein blend (casein and whey protein concentrate)

Lowest Performers

• Cheerios with Protein (8th/last place): 8g protein in 150 calories (~21% protein), criticized for "underwhelming taste" and low quality protein
• Premier Protein: 20g protein in 180 calories, but wheat gluten is the #1 ingredient indicating low-quality protein; rated as "dry, tasteless, with a strange aftertaste"
• Kashi Go cereal: Lowest protein-to-calorie ratio at 19% (10g protein per 210 calories), containing only soy flakes as protein source; described as tasting "like eating bark"

Practical Recommendations

Dr. Mike recommended that for low-quality protein cereals, users should divide their protein contribution by half or count only a third as actual protein when using diet tracking apps like RP Diet Coach. Fair Life milk was used throughout taste tests as the "unbelievable high protein, low-fat, low carb milk product" choice.

Personal Context

One speaker noted growing up in the Soviet Union where breakfast cereals did not exist as an option at stores, providing personal context for their cereal consumption habits.

Full Transcript

Show transcript

I was not ready for that.
Oh god.
Yo, it's like eating grains. It doesn't
have any grains in it. How the hell does
that work? Wa. That's a hell of a smell.
Did this go bad? You're serious?
What the
Scott?
>> Yeah. you. I quit. They don't pay me
enough for this shit.
Hey guys, Dr. Mike here for RP Strength.
I am going to be trying a whole bunch of
high protein cereals so you can figure
out which ones you want to try first,
which ones you want to try second, and
which ones you maybe don't want to try.
Let's get it done.
Guys, protein cereals are an amazing
product category, but something really
helpful to couch your expectations that
if you expect protein cereal to taste as
good as regular cereal, you're probably
going to have a bad time. If you expect
protein cereal to taste like high
protein medicine that helps you get
jacked, you're going to have an amazing
time and be super pleasantly surprised.
So, with that in store,
let's go to cereal number one.
All right, first on our list is
Premier Protein. High protein cereal
that is naturally flavored mixed berry
almond. Well, that sounds mighty fine
and it's from the fine folks at Post.
It's a big company. Let's find out how
it tastes.
question. Are you the kind of person
that pours the milk in first and then
the cereal? Or are you the kind of
person that pours in the cereal first
and then the milk? And reminder, if you
have an exceptionally strong opinion
about this, you're probably insane. But
since I'm definitely insane, I'm just
going to pour this milk from a really
high height and have it splash all over
me, just like Fair Life intended. And
we're using Fair Life because it is
itself an unbelievable high protein,
low-fat, lowARB milk product.
As Grandpa Israel used to say, nothing
natural enters this body.
As some of you know, I'm a real big fan
of exceptionally literate sarcastic
humor. Did I say literate? I meant
literal sarcastic humor. I can't get
over this claim. This product is made of
100% yum. Interesting claim. And it says
deliciousness. No, it's even less
grammatically informed. Delicious never
tasted so good. Huh.
First, the good stuff. The 180 calories
of Premier Protein is loaded with 20
grams of protein, which means when you
do the math, about 44 12% of the
calories in this box are made of
protein, which for us looks like the
leader of the pack in protein
concentration first, which is
unbelievable. The number one ingredient
on here for protein is wheat gluten.
That's not very good news because that
is not a high quality protein. We also
have wheat protein isolate as the second
ingredient which again is a very low
quality protein. We also have pea
protein concentrate on top of that and
then all the other stuff like almonds,
yellow corn flour, strawberries, salt,
etc. etc etc. So, while as a percent
it's a ton of protein, the protein
quality in here, every single one of
these protein ingredients is not the
gold standard of whey or casein or egg
or even soy protein. So, not ideal. As
far as tastes, you know what? It tastes
100% fine. It's an awesome super duper
crunch, and it maintains its crunch even
after being soaked in milk for quite
some time, unlike carbohydrate-based
cereal. On the nutritional qualities,
on taste, it tastes great. But really, I
have no anchoring for how it tastes
because I have to try more cereals after
this. Let's try more cereals.
>> More cereals.
>> Let's do it.
>> Guys, I have to share something with
you. If I had three wishes, my first
wish would be to be g
would be to gain Dragon Ball Z powers.
Easy. My second wish would be for world
peace uh and prosperity. Peace plus
prosperity. I don't know. But my third
wish would be to eat a chocolate
flavored protein cereal. I know that
sounds crazy. There's no way anyone's
made that. Aha.
And I get three wishes back. Cocoa
flavored grainfree cereal. Now this is
going to be curious.
Wo, the ingredients list is super
straightforward. Chickpea, tapioca, pea
protein, organic cane sugar, cocoa,
natural flavors, sea salt, and monk
fruit extract. On our index, three
wishes has 130 calories per serving, but
only 8 g of protein. So, right about 24
1/2% of this total calories is protein,
which puts it pretty low on our list.
So, this doesn't have a huge protein
punch. And because of the chickpea pea
protein situation, the protein quality
is also not going to be so high. And
because it's just ate protein, you know,
it really is just a little sprinkling of
protein. And as far as protein you can
actually use to build muscle, it's going
to be on the low end. Which means Three
Wishes cereal is going to have to be
damn tasty cuz if it doesn't have a crap
ton of protein in it, at least going to
taste good or one would think.
Okay, smells pretty good.
Ooh, Scott, these are big Cheerio
looking things in here. I love that.
>> Big gibts, as I think you would say.
>> Giblé, as the French say. Folks, I
encourage you in your own private lives
to use the term giblets for anything
that is small and numerous.
Three wishes.
Exceptionally crunchy, amazing mouth
feel, and maybe one of the most cocoaest
things I've tasted in a long time.
Sweet, but not too sweet.
Oh, that's good stuff. I love the taste.
I love the texture. I would eat this if
it had no protein at all. And because it
doesn't have much protein, no problem.
Especially with some Fair Life Milk,
this is just a great cereal. And it's
grain-free. You have a lot of feelings
about grains or your stomach doesn't
like them, this is definitely something
to look into.
Next cereal, Cheerios Protein. Family
size. Cheerios with protein has 8 g of
protein loaded into 150 calories giving
it 21 roughly 21 12% of its calories are
coming from protein. That uh is the
second lowest on our list not a high
protein food. The ingredients are whole
grain oats amazing healthy sugar sweet
tea protein typically not a high quality
source of protein cornstarch corn syrup
canola and or sunflower oil. salt,
caramel flavor, try potassium phosphate,
natural flavor, vitamin E, and uh and
there's a lot of other vitamins and
stuff. Cool. All right. Well, it's
nutritious,
pretty low in protein, and probably
doesn't have high quality protein. So,
the big take-home, folks, for these
cereals that are low in protein, and the
protein quality is not great, you can't
just eat them and be like, I met my
protein goals. If you're using the RP
Diet Coach app, using any other kind of
diet tracker, I would say dividing their
protein contribution by half or even
just taking a third of it and then using
that for protein and then taking the
other half or 2/3 of that protein and
counting it towards carbs is probably a
real good idea for these cereals if
you're going to get pnicity. But since
we have Fair Life Milk, we're good to go
today.
Smells strong. some kind of something
kind of chemical smell which I love.
And this is cookies and creme. Scott,
why why do the French spell cream like
that? All wrong.
>> Oh, it's very sophisticated.
>> So sophisticated.
>> I'm trying to be fancy.
>> I feel like I'm a foreign dignitary.
>> Strange aftertaste. They don't taste
bad. They don't taste that great. I'm
biased. I'm not a big fan of cookies and
cream, but this ain't it for me, man.
Fair play to the uh General Mills
Corporation. I don't love the taste, and
unfortunately, the protein quality and
quantity is subpar. This one kind of
goes bottom of the pile for me
currently, but this could change.
Sorry, I got scared. There's a ghost
down here. Ghosts are scary, remember?
Now, Ghost, a fine corporation that
makes a lot of other amazing protein
products. Let's see how they stack up.
18 g of protein smooshed into 170
calories, which gives us, according to
our chart, a 42 1.5% protein calories
ratioed to regular calories to overall
calories. That is one of the chart
toppers for today. And if I know
anything about ghost, I'm going to guess
this is some high quality protein
ingredients. Milk protein concentrate.
Boom. Right off hand, milk protein is
one of the highest quality protein
sources available. Milk protein
concentrate is exactly what you want to
see is rank one ingredient in a
technically high protein food. So right
away, ghost comes out swinging. And even
though it's ethereal and can't actually
make contact with anything it's
punching, it's sure trying. That's a
ghost joke. Scott, did you get that
joke? Woo. Great. Yeah. Thanks you. All
right. Sodium caseinate, which is a form
of casein, which is a high quality slow
adjusting protein. Soy protein isolate,
which is also high quality. And this is
peanut butter flavored, which I usually
am a big fan of. Let's dig in.
I was not ready for that.
Public service announcement. If your
ghost cereal smells like it went bad,
that's just how high protein cereal
smells with high quality protein, I
might add.
Let's stop smelling it and start eating
it. Oh shit, it's a little too much. But
I do need my protein.
Sorry, ghost. Still scary.
All right,
I did not improve things.
Because of the nature of the kind of
protein they're using, it's not as
crunchy, but it's not overly sweet. It
does convincingly taste like peanut
butter. And I'd say it's pretty goddamn
good. Not bad. Ghost,
>> that cereal kind of reminded me of if
you squint it like Reese's Puff cereal.
>> If you squinted at Reese's Puff cereal
through a protein shaker, this would be
it. So, for protein quality and
quantity, amazing. For taste, pretty
good. For smell, just don't smell it and
you'll be fine.
Truly makes a cereal with high protein.
Ooh, and it's fruity. I love it. Look at
these colors. It has 18 g of protein in
170 calories, which means that it is
tied as our second highest protein
concentration cereal per calories, which
is awesome. Ingredients-wise, rank one
ingredient is casein, which is an ultra
high quality protein. Rank two
ingredient is whey protein concentrate.
Interestingly enough, rank three is
avocado oil, which is actually really
great for your health. It's got some
MCTs in there. It's got all kinds of
white people flavorings like monk fruit
juice. Sounds great. So, it's nice and
healthy and exactly the kind of protein
that gets you jacked. So, yes, you can
put Trulie's fruity cereal in a little
baggie, take it for a snack, and just by
itself, it is a high protein meal.
That's huge. So, this is one of the
brands that had a bunch of flavors, and
we just tried the ones that were rated
the most popular. We can also try the
ones that were not rated the most
popular. If you want to see that, stick
around towards the end. Oh shit.
Oh, that smells really good. It smells
like a fresh pack of bubble gum. Scott,
do you know that smell? Oh, delightfully
artificial. I love it. My god, that
smells like happiness.
Get out of here, bowl.
Just got to ask me something.
>> Do you like that cereal, Mike?
>> This is amazing. Maximum crunch factor.
It makes your milk ridiculous colors and
tastes amazing. It's super sweet. It
tastes like oddly like bubble gum or
something. I love it. And also amazing
protein to calorie ratio, high quality
proteins, truly cereal.
For now, you're rank one in my book.
Goatated. Oh, literal goats are an
ingredient. That makes sense.
I am Legion. Legion's such a serious
brand name. Legion has
17 gram of protein and 170 calories
which gives it 40% of its calories come
from protein which is very very high.
Excellent. Now number one ingredient on
here is milk protein bites which is made
of milk protein concentrate soluble
tapioca fiber and tapioca starch and
then all the rest of it is not protein
related. So you're getting all your
protein basically from milk protein
which is amazing. Just a high quality
protein source. This cereal can be eaten
by itself and check the boxes for
protein for you. Phenomenal. Let's dig
in. Ooh, it smells great. Oh, it's got
to be cinnamon, right? Cinnamon crunch.
Smells like advertised.
Cheers.
Holy shit.
That's really good, man. It dissolves in
your mouth really quickly. It is
crunchy. It is sweet. Prao of cinnamon.
This is damn good. And crossword puzzle.
Scott, you think chat GPT can do this
pretty well at this point?
>> I bet.
>> God, it's got to just see everything,
huh? Every joke I had to pretend to read
something out of here led into very
politically incorrect things. I'll just
shut the up.
Kashi go cereal. Typically something you
take when you're
a little stuffed up and boy does it sure
get things going if you know what I
mean. And if you don't it's going to
make you poop a lot cuz it has an
inordinate amount of fiber. 10 g of
fiber per serving. That's a crapload.
Ton of soluble and a bunch of insoluble.
This will have you right as rain in no
time. But now it claims to have protein
in it. 10 grams of protein for every 210
calories, which gives us the lowest
protein to calorie ratio of our entire
list for today at just right around 19%
of the calories in here are going to be
from protein. Now, ingredients wise, soy
flakes, puffed whole grain blend, brown
rice syrup, semieet chocolate. There's
nothing on here that has protein except
for soy flakes. Now, soy is typically a
complete protein source and a very high
quality one at that. So, yeah, you will
get 10 real grams of protein out of this
cereal in most cases, which is nice and
you can definitely put that into the
bank. But it's just 10 g and for 210
calories, that's not ideal. But maybe it
tastes amazing. I got to be careful how
much of this I eat cuz you're going to
go right through.
Ooh, these are interesting looking
giblets. Let's see how the cookie
crumbles.
I didn't do my smell test.
Smells like a leaf pile in the fall.
Holy shit. This is hard to chew.
Couldn't really taste the fiber. This is
like eating bark. Cocoa flavored bark.
It tastes wholesome. It tastes like it's
healthy for you. That doesn't mean it
tastes great, but it tastes like
something real. Very, very semieet. Very
light touch on the chocolate. This is
what I would describe as an adult taste.
Do your taxes, argue with your
significant other, bitch about picking
up the kids from school, and have
yourself some Kashigo cereal. Fits the
bill.
Careful. Eating too much of this, you
get big ass chewy muscles like me. End
up looking like a juggernaut by
accident.
Fruity and enlarged to show texture.
There's a woman dry seemingly riding
some sort of beast that is beyond
Christendom. The art's cool, very magic.
13 g of protein squeezed into 150
calories, which gives us magic spoon
cereal. A roughly 34 1/2% of the
calories are from protein, which is
good. It's not the lowest on our list.
It's not the highest, but it's up there.
Number one ingredient is milk. protein
blend which is made of casein and whey
protein concentrate. So again, the 13 g
of protein in here, Dems is real grams
and that's real protein.
Oh yeah, it smells exactly like Froot
Loops, which is a good sign.
>> Scott, did you know that when I grew up
in the Soviet Union as a child, we did
not have breakfast cereals as an option
at the store? That just didn't exist.
What did you guys eat for breakfast?
>> Pain.
>> Yeah.
>> Very damn good. The smell is excellent.
The texture is good. It's crunchy. It's
a little slimy. The taste I would How
would I summarize the taste?
Two can Sam shows up for work, but he's
hung over. There's a couple stains on
his shirt. His nose looks really red, if
you know what I mean. Last night was
tough. He's got sunglasses on, huge just
dark eyes, and you're like, "Sam, what's
good, man? You ready to work?" And he's
like, "Uh, I'm here. Okay, I'm here."
And then sometimes that's enough. That's
what that cereal would be. The two can
Sam's here, but it not at his best.
However, Froot Loops are a high water
mark. This is still a goddamn good
cereal. Plus, with the protein in it
being high quality, sure gets my stamp
of approval. All right, let's rank all
of these eight cereals to see which one
I like the best. Now, I'm weird, you
guys. I have strange taste buds and
after co barely any taste buds. So, take
this with a giant grain of salt and even
a grain of wheat.
In eighth place,
Cheerios with protein. Fair play,
General Mills. Fair play. But, uh, the
combination of this not being high
quality protein and the taste being
underwhelming,
at least there's a lot of it in here for
families. Rank seven, premier protein.
Low quality protein all the way up and
down unfortunately, even though it has a
lot of protein. Kind of dry, kind of
mostly tasteless, strange aftertaste.
Not my jam. Rank six, Kashi Goline. Just
not a lot of protein, but a decent
quality protein. a crap ton of fiber if
you want to be healthy and shit like
that. The only reason it gets a pretty
low ranking here is cuz some of the
other cereals are just goddamn good. I
like this. It's totally fine. Rank five,
Ghost. Scary, but uh most of the
products that I've had from Ghost are
better than this. And maybe it's a
little biased cuz I hold Ghost in such a
high regard and still do. Everyone gets
a thing that I don't like every now and
again. I would tell you this. Don't take
my word for it. go out there and get
this Ghost cereal and try it yourself.
You might like it. I wasn't a huge fan,
but uh the macros are great. So, there
is that. And again, the reason Ghost
didn't do so well, there's a lot of good
competitors on this list today. I've
heard a lot about Magic Spoon. It's
ranked fourth today on our list, so it
makes the top half, which means it's
damn good cuz our list is kind of
stacked. It's a good cereal. You know,
when you expect Fruity Pebbles and then
you get something that's a lot
healthier, it's just not going to taste
like how you think. And so, it is a fine
cereal and has milk protein in it, which
means it's really high quality. That
means you can take this around, put in a
little baggie, chew it, and feel better
than other people because you're
attending to your protein needs and
they're not. This cereal seemingly has
no high quality protein in it. And at 8
g of protein per 130 calories, seemingly
not so much protein at all. But damn,
it's good, you guys. And it's got all
kinds of other stuff in it like
chickpeas and organic cane sugar. Stuff
you can feel proud about, I think.
Anyway, this makes the top three. It's
ranked third. This just tastes good. And
the mouth feel is exceptional. The
crunch is like none other. There's a
picture of the Wishing Grads on here. Is
that who started this company?
>> I guess so. Well, they look like
friendly folks who know how to make a
good cereal. In second place, Legion
Protein Cereal Cinnamon Crunch. I can
just keep eating this. It's that good.
The only reason that it did not rank
first was because the mouth feels a
little prickly and it uh really rapidly
in milk and saliva just goes down to
like you're drinking sand. I know that
sounds crazy and it's not that
dangerous, but that was the only
downside. Other than that, this is
unbelievable and has high quality
protein product in it. So does work as a
primary protein source. It came, it saw
and
literally person by person, villager,
farmer,
child
slaughtered its competitors intimately
with a Roman shortsord so it could feel
the blood gargling. truly cereal has no
equal. I would just eat this all the
time. And because it has ultra high
quality protein as its number one
ingredient and a ton of protein at that
and not so many calories, the actual
contents of it are just a bonus to the
fact that it tastes really good and
somehow smells even better. Truly, you
guys did a magical, magical thing and I
commend you. Rank one, guys. If you like
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you hit that join button below, your
life will get measurably better. All
right, back to the video. All right,
that was our whole list of our favorite
cereals. Now we move on to the stupid
part of the show where I eat cereals
that were described as maybe not ideal.
Guys, the following is light-hearted.
I'm an idiot, full of myself, a barely
functioning penis. So if your cereal is
something we're kind of clowning on,
remember we're stupid. And folks out
there, go get all these cereals, even
the bad ones, cuz they're probably
pretty good cuz my tastes are all
backwards. All right, let's make me
suffer.
First up in our not so great possibly
cereals. Truly, but this time chocolate
peanut butter.
I'm hopeful truly is pretty goddamn
good, but Scott says not all the flavors
are the best.
They have better flavors. I kept wanting
for something to happen, like a good
taste, to emerge, but it never did.
>> Dad exists.
>> It's like the more that one lingers
around, the more you're like,
>> this might not be it.
Next cereal.
Magic spoon. This time with an elephant
riding a man of purple racial descent.
Peanut butter flavored. Pretty great
macros. Let's find out how magical it
is.
Cheers.
Oh god.
Yo,
that's not really sweet at all. It's
like eating grains. Just just the grain
part. It doesn't have any grains in it.
How the hell does that work?
Magic Spoon, you guys are great.
I don't know about this. Do you ever
wonder why you grew up but your cereal
didn't? Magic Spoon reimagines the same
sweet deliciousnesses of your favorite
childhood cereal with no artificial
ingredients, complete protein, and no
gluten or grains.
Trippy imagination. That's all I'm going
to say. This ain't it.
Magic spoon with a psychedelic captain
riding a oneeyed cat. I wonder if they
um if initially met and engaged in
non-ritualized combat and the captain
blinded the cat and sumearily enslaved
the cat. Probably not what happened.
Chocolate chip cookie. The cat looks
pissed. Tastes like you mother or I'm
going to take revenge on you sooner or
later. All right,
smell test.
Wo, that's a hell of a smell, Scott.
They tried to put little chocolate chip
cookies on here. They're really just
like little colored patches of brown.
All right.
Did this go bad? You're serious?
What the
Scott?
>> Yes,
>> you. I quit.
>> They don't pay me enough for this shit.