787: Is Processed Protein Actually Bad For You? (The Truth About Whey, Protein Bars & Deli Meat)
Fit, Healthy And Happy Podcast
Colossus Fitness
4.9 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
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First we need to define what processed protein is
Level 1 (Minimally processed):
-Why isolate, greek yogurt, pasteurized egg whites
Level 2 (processed):
-fridge Protein bars, flavored yogurts, deli meat
Whey isolate isn’t that proccessed:
* Is derived directly from a whole food (milk)
* Undergoes mechanical filtration
* Has no structural change to amino acid sequence
* Usually contains very few ingredients (often just whey + lecithin)
Compare that to:
* Protein bars with 25+ ingredients
* Deli meat with nitrites, phosphates, preservatives
* Ultra-processed foods with emulsifiers, stabilizers, flavor enhancers
Whey isolate is closer to:
* Greek yogurt (strained milk)
* Egg whites (separated egg protein)
* Tofu (coagulated soy protein)
It’s concentration — not synthetic reconstruction.
What is the concern with processed?
* Research showing data of ultra processed food correlating with higher-all cause mortality.
* Not protein specific, more high in refined carbs, seed oils and sugars
* Low in micronutrients but high in total calories
* Bloating from sugar alcohols or lactose (but this is an digestive comfort issue)
Processed protein has eben studied rigorously and science has shown
* No increase of increased mortality
* Safe for your kidneys
In general I argue any processing negatives (if any) are outweighed by the benefits of a high protein diet.
Food quality does matter but what matters the most is
* Total calorie control
* Adequate protein intake
* Fiber intake
* Micronutrient diversity
* Limiting ultra-processed food dominance
“Processed protein isn’t the villain.
Under-eating protein, overeating calories, and lacking muscle mass are.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | sugar bad carbs bad if there's one thing i know the world hates right now it's anything processed |
| 0:04.7 | it's just so easy to make villains of everything and you're kind of not you're looking at what |
| 0:08.4 | science says what's going on friend welcome to the fit, and most of all happy podcast. I'm your |
| 0:22.0 | coach and host Josh here with his co-hosting co-coach KG and I'm in the house. And today's |
| 0:28.7 | episode, Process Protein, How Much is Too Much is inspired by a lot of my clients, a lot of my |
| 0:34.4 | friends, a lot of anyone. If there's one thing I know the world hates right now, |
| 0:38.2 | it's anything processed. And everyone wants organic. They want healthy. They want all these things. |
| 0:42.8 | And in general, people say, I don't want process. I don't want to have too much protein powder. |
| 0:47.5 | I don't want protein snacks. But I don't think people really analyze why. So I actually did like |
| 0:53.2 | some research here because I have my thoughts, but I wanted to do a bit more of a deep dive. So I actually did like some research here because I have my |
| 0:54.9 | thoughts but I wanted to do a bit more of a deep dive and I want to talk about what |
| 0:59.3 | processing actually is. So I would break processing down into two different factors. So |
| 1:04.7 | processing can be described in one of two ways. It could be that there's a million |
| 1:09.6 | ingredients, bunch of different dyes, a's a million ingredients, a bunch of different |
| 1:10.9 | dyes, a bunch of different sugars, a bunch of different things like that, or it can actually |
| 1:15.4 | be that the process of making it is more complex. But that shouldn't really affect how you view |
| 1:21.1 | something. So like a tier one level one minimally processing, think of Greek yogurt. You need to |
| 1:26.9 | process to make Greek yogurt, to have non-fat Greek yogurt. You need to process to make Greek yogurt, |
| 1:28.5 | to have non-fat Greek yogurt. It needs to be processed. But they're not adding things on top. |
| 1:33.2 | They're basically taking out, right? And the same with protein powder. They actually take whole |
| 1:37.9 | milk and they'll separate the casings from the proteins and they'll filter it down to actually |
| 1:42.6 | make it. So I actually took notes on this because |
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