Progenex Lab Test: More Muscle Fails to meet Label Claims
Progenex was founded in 2009 following a 2008 study conducted on a proprietary whey protein
hydrolysate that was found to enhance recovery of muscle force-generating capacity following
eccentric exercise. After 2010 nobody with an ownership stake in the company, nor anybody working
there, was a founder—a
quick look at the people claiming otherwise (their prior credentials, Linkedin
profiles, etc…) can easily verify that none had any experience in the dietary supplement industry and
their only prior experience was in (*what I will loosly categorize as) venture capitalism. In short, those
people were fundraisers, not founders.
However, when the actual founder departed, the protein from the 2008 study joined him. The 2008
protein was patented for its unique properties, including elevated levels of growth factors and 20%
more Branched Chain Amino Acids (above what would be found in a standard whey protein
hydrolysate). Multiple tests have confirmed that the new protein (currently and since 2010) in Progenex
More Muscle & Recovery is made by Glanbia, and available at the manufacturing level as Thermax
690—a
widely used commodity protein.
However, although the protein was switched from the 2008 version to the Glanbia one, without alerting
the consumer, the marketing claims were not—and
from that point in time, Progenex has been engaged
in false advertising.
First, let’s look at a bag of Progenex More Muscle, to see the claim about growth factors:
Now let’s examine the truth value of their claim…The following chart is from an enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) conducted in 2010, examining the Human Transforming Growth Factor —beta-1
levels of Progenex (please note that I condensed results by moving columns L and M into the
spot occupied by H, to allow the picture to fit):
As you can see by the red highlighted section, for all of the samples, there was no growth factor
present. This is unsurprising, because they use Glanbia to manufacture their product, and when we
examine multiple tests performed in January of 2015, of Progenex More Muscle versus Optimum
Nutrition’s Gold Standard whey protein (also made by Glanbia), we get the same negative results for
Bovine IGF-I, the most abundant growth factor found in whey:
Again, turtles all the way down. Even the most abundantly found growth factor in whey protein is
undetectable in Progenex.
Optimum Nutrition makes no claims about being growth factor enriched, nor about having 20% more
BCAAs, and we don’t see CrossFit athletes telling everyone that Gold Standard Whey (the comparitor
product) is the secret to their success. Yet these two products are identical (other than Gold Standard
Whey costing 33–50% less).
Now, let’s take a look at the claim of having 20% more BCAAs:
As you could see from the chart above, the Glanbia protein is identical to More Muscle (again, at the
risk of being repetitive, this is because Progenex uses this protein in their manufacturing). And the chart
below compares the amino acid content of various commodity
proteins (Milk Specialties Group, Hilmar, and DavisCo) to
Glanbia— where it can be seen that Glanbia has the appropriate
amount of BCAAs, perhaps even a few percent over some brands
(if we’re being generous, and ignoring the fact that this
allowance puts more than 100g of protein in their 100g sample),
but still nowhere near 20% more:
Progenex More Muscle does not meet label claims, even in the
most generous of interpretations for 20% more amino acids, and they have literally no growth factors,
enriched or otherwise. Every claim that has been made about this protein, that made it special or
different from a hundred other products, is verifiably and scientifically proven to be false.