The Real Food Scale
We assessed 64 of the most widely sold protein brands across the UK, US and Australia, ingredient by ingredient. 473 ingredients in total. We graded every one of them, and ourselves, against a single question: how far is it from real food?
59.4% of protein supplements are ultra-processed.
38 of the 64 brands rely on artificial ingredients in the core of their recipe. The irony is that many market themselves as clean, natural or real. Yet, until now, there has been no standard.
Most of the market failed.
8 of the 10 best-selling brands in the study are Tier D.
The world’s number-one whey powder. The UK’s largest sports nutrition brand. The best-known complete-meal shake. All ultra-processed. If you take a protein supplement, the odds are you are already drinking one of them.
get gut symptoms from their shake. Bloating, Gas and Cramping.
Riedl et al., 2024. Clinical study of 352 protein supplement users.
The symptoms are not just from the lactose in whey, they are from the additives too; emulsifiers, synthetic sweeteners and gums. Switching from whey to pea does not fix the problem. In the Real Food Scale study, every brand with an emulsifier in their formula is a Tier D.
Your protein shouldn’t read like a lab inventory.
These are the most common Tier 3 ingredients across the 64 brands. None of them exist without a lab. This is what “ultra-processed” looks like on a label.
A sweetener made by chlorinating sugar. Alters the gut microbiome.
A thickener grown by bacterial fermentation. Linked to gut disruption.
A synthetic sweetener. Nothing about it came from a plant.
A manufactured mineral salt, added to support a nutrition claim.
Synthetic vitamin B12, built around a cyanide molecule in a lab.
A legal term that can hold 100+ undisclosed compounds and solvents.
These ingredients aren’t outliers — they’re the baseline. That’s why we built a scale to grade them.
Three tiers of ingredient. Four grades of brand.
Every ingredient is scored Tier 1 to Tier 3 by how far it has travelled from real food. A brand is then graded by how these tiered ingredients make-up their product.
Dried, ground or pressed, but otherwise intact. Whole egg, bone broth, raw cacao, dates, sea salt.
From real food, but heavily isolated with solvents/ethanol/chemicals. Whey protein isolate, pea isolate, stevia, “natural flavours”.
Manufactured, not grown. Sucralose, xanthan gum, carrageenan, synthetic vitamins.
Real food.
Every ingredient is Tier 1. Nothing artifical, anywhere.
Mostly real food.
A Tier 1 protein with a mix of Tier 1 and Tier 2 ingredients throughout.
Real food elements.
A Tier 2 protein, no Tier 3 in the core. Up to half the vitamins may be synthetic.
Ultra-processed.
One Tier 3 ingredient in a core category such as flavours is enough.
Four shakes, graded.
The study revealed the core categories of ingredients used in protein supplements. See how real life brands show up in each category that defines their A - D tier.
The clean-label paradox
The brands shouting “clean” the loudest are often the ones hiding the most.
“Natural”, “Clean”, “No artificial anything”, “Whole food.” Every brand below leads with a version of that promise, and means it. Each is also Tier D. The pattern repeats: the marketing points at the best ingredient in the range, and the one that fails the grade sits where the shopper never looks.
Founded by a well-known wellness figure on an open rejection of ultra-processed food. Regenerative farms, clean-food awards, real credibility built on ingredients mattering.
Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids. A synthetic emulsifier used as a flavour carrier.
It is the exact kind of industrial additive the brand exists to reject. One tier 3 ingredient, in a core category, is all the Scale needs.
A US brand founded by a Registered Dietitian, with “No Artificial Anything” trademarked as its centrepiece. Grass-fed, traceable, third-party tested. Its protein powders are among the cleanest in the database.
The range beside the protein: isolated BCAAs, a Tier 3 vitamin premix, and a synthetic electrolyte blend.
The trademark was built around the protein. It purposely hides the long tail made up of almost entirely tier 3 ingredients.
A UK plant brand sold on the power of nutrient-dense plant food, stocked in major health chains. Its marketing rejects artificial ingredients, and its protein itself is genuinely clean.
The micronutrient range: 8 of its 12 long-tail ingredients are synthetic, including B12, magnesium, calcium and a D3/K2 blend.
A genuinely clean protein becomes the shop window for a synthetic vitamin stack the shopper never reads.
The badges do not catch it either. NSF, Informed Sport and USP verify banned substances, contaminants and label accuracy. None of them assess processing level. A product can be certified, organic, and still built on synthetic sweeteners and manufactured vitamins.
Three brands scored A. WholeFuel is one of them.
No isolated protein; egg, bone broth or a protein concentrate. No emulsifier; un-isolated proteins maintain their own. No artificial sweeteners; coconut sugar or dates. No added vitamins; if nothing if stripped out, there is nothing to replace.
WholeFuel is tier A, every one of its Nine ingredients is Tier 1. The Read Food Scale applies to WholeFuel as it does to every other brand.
SCALE
Get started, with zero risk.
We are so confident that you’ll never go back. Not happy within 30 days? Just let us know and we’ll refund you in full, no questions asked.
Read the full whitepaper
The page gives you the headline. The whitepaper gives you the research & findings, scientific evidence, methodology and citations.
Citations and methodology
Riedl et al. (2024), digestive symptom prevalence. Hall et al. (2019), ultra-processed food and caloric intake. Monteiro, NOVA classification. Ségurel & Bon (2017), lactase persistence. Koo & Stein (2024), whole egg DIAAS. Market sizing: Grand View Research, $6.51B, 7.59% CAGR.
Brands were selected by market prominence across the UK, US and Australia, and assessed on their hero product range. A brand’s grade is set by the most processed ingredient in its core categories (protein, sweetener, flavour, emulsifier). WholeFuel was included and assessed on identical terms.