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When it comes to plant-based nutrition for sports, I’ve always been a “whole food first” kind of guy.
I’d rather eat dates than energy gels, and prefer to drink smoothies over sports drinks. But what about protein?
Same here. I look to food first, but if I’m going to take a supplement — or give one to my kids, two young plant-based athletes themselves — I want it to be as close to real food as possible.
Matt Frazier, Founder and Author of No Meat Athlete
But... what I found when I looked around at the plant-based protein options was appalling.
As healthy, plant-based eaters, we’re not looking for a mega-dose of protein that would make an old-school bodybuilding coach proud.
Look, if you’re trying to get 150 grams of protein a day or something crazy like that, you’re on the wrong diet. (Or at least on the wrong webpage.)
Most of us who eat plant-based for the long-term health benefits just want to be able to add a moderate amount of protein each day — to give us the peace of mind that our plant-based diet is actually an advantage to our health and for our sports... not the opposite.
You may not realize it, but when you use other plant-based protein powders, you’re consuming a whole lot more than you bargained for.
And that’s not a good thing.
A few years ago I set out to choose a plant-based protein powder for my son, a budding young vegan athlete looking to get a few more calories and in his diet.
And I was completely turned off by what I found.
The first thing I noticed was that most of the tubs or powder that line the shelves of health food stores don’t taste anything like real food. They’re almost always either sweetened with pure sugar or a sweetener like stevia or monkfruit.
Maybe a cloyingly sweet, artificial-seeming flavor is what the mass market needs in order to take their protein powder with any regularity…
... but for us, a plant-based family who eats mostly whole foods, even the “naturally sweetened” protein options were hard to choke down in our smoothies (which are just as sweet as they need to be already).
Even if that flavor in the protein powder comes from natural sweeteners, there’s nothing natural about eating something that intensely sweet.
But that’s not nearly the worst of it...
An unpleasant taste is one thing — but what dangerous carcinogens, like heavy metals? That’s another level entirely, and something I didn’t want to mess around with when it came to my family’s health.
As I did more research, I learned that the heavy metal content — arsenic, cadmium, and lead — in many of the popular brands of plant-based protein (even the organic, non-GMO forms) is downright scary.
Thankfully, many protein powders are manufactured in California, a state with strict regulations on heavy metal content, designed to protect the consumer.
But it turns out that “Proposition 65 compliant” only means that when a protein powder doesn’t meet these standards for safety, it needs to carry a small warning label that says so...
...and if your protein isn’t made in California, well, I guess you’re out of luck.
Oh, and not to mention fillers, preservatives, or pesticides in non-organic varieties.
The last thing I’d want is to think I’m doing something to help my kids perform at their best, while actually exposing them to dangerous carcinogens, every single day.
Again, I wondered…
Why is it so hard to find a clean plant-based protein?
The Industry Secret Protein Companies Don’t Want You to Know
“Our Proprietary Blend of Plant-Based Protein...”
It looks so innocent. Almost impressive, even.
We’re so used to reading “proprietary blend” on a protein label that it’s easy to assume it’s something to be proud of.
But it’s not. Instead, it’s something companies hide behind.
Because when a protein product says it’s a proprietary blend of several proteins (pea, rice, and hemp, for example), all this means is that all of those are in there.
In some (unknown, but non-zero) amount.
It doesn’t mean they’re blended equally, or even close. Could be 98% rice, 1% pea, and 1% chia in their “proprietary blend.”
And they won’t tell you that. Because they don’t have to.
But guess what else? Heavy metals also play a big part in this game.
Just like with harvests of real fruits and vegetables, soil variations lead to different levels of heavy metal content in every batch of protein powder.
(Yes, there are some heavy metals in anything you eat from the ground. And that’s okay; it’s just when they’re concentrated in some protein powders that the levels become dangerous.)
So to get a product to meet California’s strict Proposition 65 standards, manufacturers will load up their blend with whichever plant’s protein powder happened to test lowest in heavy metals for that particular batch.
And that’s where it gets really interesting...
A protein’s package will boast a “proprietary blend” of several types of protein powder. This allows them not just to avoid telling you the percentages — but also to change the percentages in every batch!
And when there’s ZERO accountability to the customer because they’re not telling you the amounts, it’s easy to see how over time, the tendency would be to slide into loading up their blend with 99% of the cheapest protein powder that happens to also be low in heavy metals (rice, perhaps).
After months of frustrating research, it was clear to me:
There had to be a better way to do plant-based protein. And I was going to do it.
That’s how Complement Protein — a cleaner, safer, simpler plant-based protein, and one I feel good about giving to my own family — was born.
Introducing Complement Protein — the World’s Cleanest, Most Honest Plant-Based Protein Powder
100% Certified Organic. Just 5 real ingredients. 22.5g of protein per serving. Prop 65 compliant to ensure the lowest heavy metal levels in the industry.
What Makes Complement Protein So Much Better?
Five big reasons:
1. Complement Protein is made with your plant-based diet in mind.
We formulated the Complement Protein to provide a complete amino acid profile, paying special attention to lycine and leucine, two amino acids that are particularly hard to get in abundance on a 100% plant-based diet.
You might say that we designed it to “complement” your plant-based diet. And you’d be right.
2. Complement Protein is fully transparent:
One of the biggest secrets in the protein industry is the lack of transparency about how much of each ingredient makes up your powder. There might be five great ingredients listed on the label, but 95% (or even 99%) of the powder could come from a single source (often rice and pea).
We're providing full transparency into the contents by printing the percentages directly on the bag so you always know exactly what's inside. And to make sure we're always kept honest, each new batch will undergo rigorous testing of everything from heavy metals and microbiology to ingredient levels and amino acid profiles.
The percentages will be right there on the label to hold us accountable to that, and if our formula ever needs to change, you’ll be the first to know.
3. We're obsessed with minimizing heavy metals:
We developed this product for our families to use, and we didn't want to be feeding them carcinogens.
So we diligently sourced the cleanest ingredients to create a formula with the lowest heavy metal content possible, while still hitting our target amino acid profile and macros.
The result is one of the very few balanced plant-based protein powders on the market that exceeds the most stringent California Prop 65 standards (which is typically 1000 times lower than what the FDA, the EPA and the WHO have set as acceptable standards) for metals.
4. Complement Protein is Certified Organic:
That's right, each ingredient is certified organic, keeping it clean for you, the farmers, and the environment.
5. Complement Protein has NO fillers or sweeteners:
Instead of padding the powder with unnecessary fillers, sweeteners, and flavors, we've stripped it down to just the five ingredients listed on the front of the package. While many protein powders taste horribly sweet — whether from sugar, artificial, or natural sweeteners, we kept them out, leaving a neutral, natural flavor that works great in smoothies and other foods.
Bonus: Complement Protein is Earth-friendly:
It's no secret that plastics are ruining our oceans and overflowing in landfills. And as you know, most protein powders come in massive, barely-half-full plastic tubs.
We wanted to do something different.
Complement Protein comes in a fully biodegradable pouch, which means you can bury it in your yard and it'll be dirt in less than a year. For real.
Ready to get started?
