The problem with 5% is that their product line is just a lot of garbage. All they sold was the same shit every other supplement company sells, but like Mr. Roberts said, the reason it sold was the personality of the spokesman, rather than the products themselves. Looking at his website, it’s hard to even find the ingredients of the products he sold — it’s attempted to be sold in “stacks” (i.e.: multiple products together to try and get the end user to buy them as a packaged deal , thinking they all work ‘synergistically’, when this is far from true — that’s a sure sign that marketing is taking the place of the power of the ingredients themselves. But, here are a few examples of lazy, sloppily designed products with no real thought put into them. One product in particular called “Real Food”. So, when people on the a supplements forum tell a new kid to the bodybuilding scene to eat “Real Food”, he’ll probably assume that this is what they mean. But what’s in it? Just carbs from dried fruit & veggie powder. No protein. Here’s the ingredients: Pounded Yam 10g, Oats 7g, Sweet Potato 10g, Blueberry Fruit Powder 500mg. Total carbs 20g, protein 1g.
So in what way is this “Real Food”? Answer: It’s not. You could maybe get away with calling it a carb loading drink, but that’s all. No fats, no carbs — that’s not food. That’s cheap powdered veggies sold at the exorbitant price of $43 for 60 servings.
Then there’s egg white “crystals”. 25g of protein for $51!! for a 30 day serving size. Take a look at Rose Acre Farm egg white powder protein or liquid egg whites, or Liquid Egg Whites International. Why would a “crystalized egg white” be superior to these and double to triple the price? Granted, egg white prices have gone up since, as rumor has it, McDonalds cornered the egg white market for their egg white Egg McMuffins and the price of egg white raws have gone up significantly.
I had heard Rich Piana was against whey protein, and I would have to ask why? Whey is the perfect protein source for bodybuilders on the go (unless you have seriously lactose intolerance issues, but I have lactose interolance and I can take whey protein isolate and hydrolyzed whey protein just fine — even without lactase enzymes), and only someone with no scientific background or scientific training (e.g.: Rich Piana) would be against something like this. The more likely reason is to sell a more expensive form of protein.
Anyway, I could go on and on reviewing his 5% Nutrition line, but needless to say it’s overhyped, overrated, overpriced, & underdosed. That’s true of probably 90% of products in the sports nutrition market today, which is why you should only buy the individual ingredients yourself and not fancy mixes/blends with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in — often in a proprietary blend. It may be more convenient to have everything already blended for you, but the majority of the time you’re going to have ingredients in the formulas you buy that have something you don’t want, don’t need, or is under or overdosed of what you want (underdosed such as in the amount of creatine in preworkout products, overdosed such as the amount of caffeine in a preworkout product). Just my 2¢.
