Sprout Living Epic Protein Powder Review

Before I get to my Sprout Living Epic Protein Powder review, I want to point out one thing.

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know I’m not a fan of big brands like Herbalife, PlantFusion, Garden of Life … pretty much every large protein powder company on the market.

I have even received letters from the legal teams of two major protein powder corporations to cease and desist.

Why?

Because most of them use junk ingredients, and I’m not afraid to call them out on it.

I base my protein powder reviews on two objective criteria: the ingredients and nutrition facts label.

And if you look at the ingredients and nutrition facts label for every single one of those companies above, you’ll see they use gut-disrupting additives, emulsifiers, “flavors,” and/or sugars.

Yet they market their products as “natural,” “clean,” etc.

And it works … ‘cuz people buy lots of their products.

However …

Sprout Living is one of two companies (out of hundreds) whose protein powders I actually really like, aside from Pure Food. 

In this review, I’ll tell you what I like about this company and its products and a couple things I don’t love after doing an in-depth analysis of its nutrition facts and ingredients lists.

Let’s get into it …

Who Is Sprout Living?

Sprout Living was started by a couple of brothers who have a similar mission to me (bonus points for that).

They sell vegan / plant based protein powders and superfood mixes like broccoli and kale sprout mix and coconut water mixes.

They are one of the few protein companies (along with Pure Food) to use no gums, “flavoring”, fillers or additives

Now, as I mentioned above, the way I do my reviews is by analyzing the Ingredients and Nutrition Facts. 

Let’s take a look at them for each of Sprout Living’s products …

Epic Protein Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

Sprout Living Epic Protein is available in the following flavors:

• Vanilla Lucuma
• Chocolate Maca
• Green Kingdom
• Unflavored
• Mindful Matcha
• Pro Collagen
• Real Sport
• Complete Coffee

Pros:

• Awesome multi-source organic plant protein blend
• Good source of dietary fiber
• Functional superfood ingredients

Cons:

There’s really just one big negative about Epic Protein for me: the added sugar.

Now granted, they use coconut sugar, which is a better sweetener than most because it’s lower on the glycemic index (GI).

However, all of the Epic Protein products except unflavored have 3-4 grams of added sugar:

3-4 grams may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that most people should not be eating more than 30-40 grams of added sugar per day, then you realize that each shake has 10% of your daily sugar intake. Not terrible, but for me personally, I look for health and wellness supplements without added sugar.

The Unflavored version of Epic Protein gets my full stamp of approval:

Simple Protein Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

Sprout Living all makes a line of products called Simple Protein Powders. They are available in these flavors:

• Pumpkin seed
• Pea
• Sunflower
• Watermelon seed

Here’s how Sprout describes their Simple Protein Powder:

Crafted for the purists at heart, Simple Protein is our line of 100% single ingredient protein powders made from unique whole food ingredients that contain high quality, ultra-clean, hypoallergenic and bioavailable protein as well as other inherent nutritional benefits.

Normally by this point in the review, I’d be pointing out all the red flags (see my Shakeology review for a good example).

But Sprout Living uses only clean, natural, real food ingredients (just like we do).

You won’t see any flavors, gums, fillers, additives, or added sugars that the big guys all use.

And at a price point of $.06/gram, the price is on par with other (alleged) premium powders on the market.

Sprout Living Protein Powders: The Final Verdict

Sprout Living, and particularly their Epic Protein Unflavored and Simple Proteins, is one of the VERY RARE protein powders I recommend other than my own.

I do think there’s a bit too much sugar for my liking in some of the Epic Protein products but I understand that products that taste good sell more.

*P.S. A few of you have asked me why I would recommend a competitor’s product. The reason is simple: If you decide Pure Food isn’t for you, that’s fine … but I’d much rather help people discover other good products from small businesses like Sprout Living than buy the junk that Orgain, Vega, PlantFusion, Arbonne, and all the other guys sell.