I have been meaning to post on this issue for quite some time. In researching for the best protein powder, I get the answer as whey protein. Most commonly liked brands I found are ON, true protein, syntrax etc. The whey protein powder I use is by CEL. The only reason I bought this one was because it was the cheapest I could find. To my surprise it tastes great. Yesterday I checked for artificial sweetner content in it and I found that it contains sucralose (aka splenda). This is what I found about sucralose:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K3s8scj9Ww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn7EMipoDfY

This was ok. What was shocking to me was that each of these protein powders actually have trace amounts of heavy metals such as lead and mercury!! Link:

Customer Image Gallery for 100% Whey Protein - Gold Standard


I personally am scared to see this. Sure these are trace amounts but we take em everyday. I take about 50 grams of it every day and I'm sure that there are many that are taking more than that everyday. I want to hear what people on this forum think about this issue. In order to limit potential problems associated with protein powder, I use hemp protein 2/3 and whey protein 1/3. I'd take hemp protein alone for my protein needs but it runs expensive. Anybody know of a whey brand that is devoid of issues such as artificial sweetners and heavy metal toxins?

That's interesting. Those "recommended max" estimates tend to be super conservative. If you're worried stay away from EAS and MuscleMilk, but you should be doing that anyway because both of those are a huge ripoff.

FWIW, I get my WPC from TrueProtein, which you mentioned. No sweetener, just vanilla flavoring (you can customize it). Cheap as I've seen (although I haven't checked out CEL) and mixes very well. Might be chock-full of cadmium, for all I know, but it has been highly recommended by people I trust on this kind of thing (see signature). I wouldn't freak out too much.

Taste is fine. I usually mix it with milk and chocolate syrup, which then just tastes like thick chocolate milk (can't taste the powder at all), or with a smoothie. My girlfriend says it makes the smoothie taste a little bit weird, but I actually like it.

Thanks for your comment though, LBBS what is WPI/WPC?

Depends on the form it comes in 

When I made that comment, I was aware something funny was going to follow. I think the form that you talk about that they like is the form I think they actually don't like but just put up with and pretend that they do. Which goes back to my first point, girlfriends never like protein

I've never seen it that cheap but aside from price I don't think there's anything wrong with it. So if you can get it for $6/lb, go for it. TrueProtein is cheaper but they have to ship it, so whatever. Wouldn't worry too hard about the amino acid profile and stuff like that.

So after downing 15 pounds of protein powder in last 2-3 months I have swithced to true protein based on recommendations from this forum. I have tried, Cel whey, ON Gold whey before. True protein came in a plain carton and plain bag with no lables, I ordered 25 pounds! to get the recession wpi/wpc blend, I also ordered two natural flavors, chocolate and vanilla. Total bill was 155 some dollars so the eventual cost is $6.2/lb. Cheapest i could ever find. As for tasted, I don't mind it at all. These days my morning shakes consist of a Egg whites from 2 eggs, 60 g (2 scoops) of whey pp, 2 bananas, a spoon of dried coconut powder, a cup of skim milk. No sugar. I don't even need the flavor. It tastes yummy just like that! I use a mason's jar and a hand mixer that I bought from amazon, it cleans so easy.
(http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CSB-76BC-SmartStick-200-Watt-Immersion/dp/B000EGA6QI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1287254516&sr=8-3)
No complaints so far. Thanks for the recommendation LBBS.True protein rocks!