Best Vegan Protein Powder

I always have an eye out for the best vegan protein powder. There’s protein in beans, whole grains, quinoa, nuts, seeds, curry powder, and pretty much all whole plant foods. I wrote a whole book on it if you want to learn more.

When I calculate how much protein I need as a vegan, I know I can get more than enough from the foods I eat on a regular basis (like this chickpea scramble).

So I’m not at all worried about getting enough protein on a healthy eating plan without meat, but because I’m very active (running, yoga, strength training), I find protein powders to be useful.

It might seem strange that I use protein powders when I usually focus on getting nutrients from whole foods as much as possible.

Do vegans need protein powder?

Protein powders are not necessary to get “complete” proteins (all the essential amino acids) from plant foods.

Protein powders are not necessary to get enough protein from plant foods.

So why would you take a protein powder instead of whole foods?

Why use protein powders?

Protein powders are a way to increase the percentage of protein in your diet relative to carbohydrates and fats. That’s it.

Some of the best vegan protein powders are also easier to digest and assimilate before or after a heavy workout than eating whole foods.

They’re definitely more concentrated so that you don’t have to chew your way through a big pile of greens and beans when you’re finished a workout.

So the practical reasons for using protein powders, in my opinion, are to support building and repairing muscle after workouts.

Keep in mind, though, that eating tons of protein from any source isn’t how you build muscle. Doing regular and intense strength training is the way to build muscle – protein intake is just there to support recovery and give your muscles the building blocks to grow.

You can’t eat your way to building muscle.

Protein powders can also be useful for people who are underweight, in helping them gain weight. Protein powders are fairly concentrated, and a great boost to a smoothie between meals for someone looking to put on weight.

Watch the video

Criteria For The Best Vegan Protein Powder

There are some criteria to look for in a protein powder. If you’re taking any supplements, the most important thing to consider is the quality, and protein powders are no exception.

• Protein Source: Vegan sources include rice, hemp, pea, quinoa, and others. Whey and other animal ingredients are not vegan.
• Degree/Method Of Processing: Even though any protein powder is going to be processed, some are done in a more natural way and have less impact on the nutrients in the food.
• Macronutrient Breakdown: When taking a supplement to increase relative protein, it should have a good balance of protein
• Taste & Texture: Although it’s not essential, it should be somewhat enjoyable to drink.
• Added Ingredients: Avoid products that have a lot of chemicals or refined sugars.
• Bonus: Some companies add digestive enzymes or probiotics, which is smart because it helps make the protein more available to your body. Others may add greens, fruit, or veggie powders to boost antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Source

There are lots of sources of vegan protein used in powders, here are the main ones:

• Soy: This is better than whey for a lot of reasons, but it also has some issues. Mainly in digestion, so if you find that you don’t have any gas or indigestion after having some soy protein, you might be ok to stick with it. It’s really important to get an organic source to make sure it’s not genetically modified. Soy is highly processed to become a protein powder, so it’s not my favorite, but it is cheap and widely available so if comes to soy or whey for you, I’d vote for soy every time.
• Hemp: It has a great balance of amino acids, is able to be grown sustainably and undergoes low levels of processing to become a protein powder. The texture can be gritty because it has a lot of fiber, and a lot of people don’t like the taste of it. It works perfectly in baking, to make cookies or muffins, and is also fun to add to things like veggie burgers!
• Rice: Brown rice is sprouted and then processed into a very high-protein powder. It makes a very fine powder, so it dissolves smoothly in plain water. It can be a bit chalky, though. Most often rice protein is mixed with pea protein for complementary amino acids.
• Pea: This is usually mixed with rice protein, to take advantage of complementary amino acids. It’s usually really well priced.
• Blends: There are some products (like PlantFusion and Vega) that blend a few different proteins together. Rice and pea are common, but things like quinoa, amaranth, sacha inchi, alfalfa, cranberry, and artichoke proteins are becoming more common.

Vegan Protein Powder Comparison Chart

Now, here’s my comparison on the macronutrient breakdown of these proteins.

I took the nutrition facts on each of their labels (which you can check out if you want to at the links below) and equalized them all to 15g of protein to get a standardized comparison.

One thing to keep in mind when looking at the carbohydrate and fat numbers for these products is that some of them are designed to be pure protein powders, while others are meant to be nutritional shakes or meal replacement supplements. So it depends what you’re looking for.

All of these details are based on the vanilla flavor of each product.

I included whey, only as a comparison.

Brand	Source	Nutritional Bonus	Serving*	Calories*	Carbs (g)*	Fat (g)*
Vega Sport Performance	Pea, sacha inchi, rice, hemp, alfalfa	BCAA, L-glutamine, Dig enzymes	22 g	75	3	0
Vega Protein + Greens	Pea, sacha inchi, rice, hemp	Greens, papaya enzymes	23 g	83	5	0
Vega One	Pea, sacha inchi, hemp	Greens, fruit/veg, flax, probiotics, enzymes	32 g	120	8	5
PlantFusion	Pea, artichoke, amaranth, quinoa	L-Glutamine, Dig enzymes	21 g	86	3	1
PlantFusion Phood	Pea, artichoke, amaranth, quinoa	EFA, probiotics, dig enzymes, BCAA, vegan D3	38 g	167	14	6
Sprout Living	Rice, pea, sacha inchi, cranberry	lucuma, mesquite, vanilla, baobab	22 g	87	6	0
Yuve	Rice, pea	fiber, efa, l-glutamine, resveratrol, NAC, maca, chia, probiotics, berries, greens	38 g	145	17	2
Garden of Life	Pea, flax, cranberry, baobab, moringa, chia, pumpkin	Dig enzymes, probiotics	26 g	100	6	2
Manitoba Harvest Pro70	Hemp	Produced with wind power	30 g	130	9	4
Sunwarrior Classic	Rice		21 g	80	4	0
Sunwarrior Blend	Pea, cranberry, hemp	Cinnamon extract	20 g	79	2	2
Nutiva 15g	Hemp		30 g	90	9	3
Nutiva Hi Fiber	Hemp		41 g	109	16	5
Nutribiotic Organic	Rice		19 g	75	3	0
NOW	Pea		21 g	75	1	1
NOW	Soy		18 g	68	1	1
NOW	Whey		19 g	72	1	0

 

*This isn’t the serving listed on the companies nutritional information charts. This is the serving that will give you 15 grams of protein, which I calculated to equalize the comparison. The calories, fat, and carbohydrate numbers are for that serving which gives 15 grams of protein.

Although some of the hemp proteins may look high in carbs, the carb content is mostly made up of fiber and not sugars.

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