Truvani Review: Healthiest Protein Brand?

Truvani Review: Healthiest Protein Brand?


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Truvani is a supplement brand that sells a wide variety of products, but is best known for their protein products. The company describes their protein powder as "Gut Friendly Plant Based Protein."

But do Truvani products contain a protein dose that's effective for muscle building? Which Truvani protein powder is the healthiest option? Are Truvani's protein bars healthy? And how do real Truvani customers rate and describe the taste and overall product experience?

In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Truvani's protein powders and protein based based on clinical studies to give our take on whether or not they're likely to support muscle building, and whether or not they're healthy.

We'll feature unsponsored customer reviews of the brand, and provide a cost comparison to show which retailer sells Truvani for the best prices.

Truvani Protein Powder Review

Truvani Vanilla Protein Powder ingredients

The ingredients in Truvani Vanilla Protein Powder are shown above.

Organic pea protein is an excellent choice for a vegan protein, because it's a "complete" protein containing all essential amino acids.

Truvani's protein powder provides 20 grams (g) of protein per serving, which is within the optimal range for post-workout muscle building according to a 2018 medical review.

Organic vanilla powder contains a compound called vanillin that's clinically shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects.

What makes this protein powder a healthy option is that it's entirely free of additive ingredients like artificial sweeteners and artificial flavors that are commonly-used in protein powders and are unhealthy.

From a nutritional perspective, we consider Truvani to be an excellent option.

We typically only recommend the unflavored and unsweetened version of protein powders because of the unhealthy inactive ingredients in the flavored versions, as we documented in our review of Ascent Protein, but in the case of Truvani we consider every protein powder formulation to be equally healthy.

We Tried Truvani Ourselves

Truvani UGC

As the author of this article, I wanted to try Truvani myself to share my thoughts on the taste and overall product experience.

I purchased the Vanilla flavor from my local Whole Foods for $50.

I'm not a big fan of plant protein powder, but this is the best-tasting plant protein powder I've tried. There's a hint of natural vanilla, and some sweetness from the monk fruit extract. 

I didn't experience any side effects.

I found the performance benefits of this protein powder to be similar to whey protein. When I took it before working out, I noticed an improvement in strength and endurance.

Overall, I'd rate Truvani protein powder 9/10, and I would consider purchasing from the brand again.

Truvani Protein Bars Review

Truvani sells protein bars called The Only Bar that are high in protein.

The ingredients in the Peanut Butter flavor of The Only Bar are shown below:

Truvani The Only Bar Peanut Butter flavor ingredients

Like the protein powder, this bar has entirely whole food ingredients and we recommend it from a nutritional perspective.

Organic dates are a whole food sweetener rich in antioxidants, according to a medical review published in the Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition journal.

Organic cacao nibs provide the chocolate flavor, and have both anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory effects, as we documented in our article on what's the healthiest cereal.

We reviewed the ingredients in every flavor of The Only Bar, and we recommend all of them from a nutritional perspective except for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip.

Organic cane sugar is included in the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip flavor, and while this is a minor consideration, we believe that whole food sweeteners like maple syrup and dates are healthier than refined, "processed" sweeteners like cane sugar.

Real People Try Truvani

A YouTube creator named "Beetin Genes" reviewed Truvani's protein powder:

A YouTube creator named "oppermanfitness" reviewed The Only Bar:

Is Truvani Overpriced?

Here's how the price of Truvani protein powder stacks up to other high-end protein brands per-20-grams-protein at the time of publishing this article:

Truvani: $3

Sunwarrior: $2

Garden of Life: $1.85

Orgain: $1.81 

Truvani is priced significantly higher than its competitors, however we don't consider it to be overpriced, because we consider Truvani's formulations to be superior to the brands listed above from a health perspective.

Where to Get the Best Price

Truvani products are sold at a variety of online retailers. 

Here's a price breakdown for a one-time purchase of the two products reviewed in this article, at the time of publishing this article:

Truvani Protein Powder

Brand website: $59.99 (plus shipping, link)

Vitacost: $49.95 (free shipping, link)

Amazon: $37.49 (free shipping, link to official Amazon listing)

Truvani The Only Bar Variety Pack (12-pack)

Brand website: $43.99 (plus shipping, link)

Amazon: $28.49 (free shipping, link to official Amazon listing)

Truvani products are currently around 50% cheaper on Amazon than the brand's website when factoring in shipping fees.

Our Clean Protein Picks

MBG Whey Protein Isolate+ is our top overall protein powder.

Whey protein is a "complete" protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids.

Complement Organic Protein is our top vegan protein powder.

The only ingredients in this protein powder are a blend of nutritious plant proteins: organic yellow pea protein, organic pumpkin seed protein, organic almond protein, organic sunflower seed protein and organic chia seed protein.

All of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of additive ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.

Real Customers Review Truvani

Amazon is a better resource for honest customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.

Truvani Protein Powder has been reviewed over 16,000 times on Amazon at the time of publishing this article, with an average review rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars.

The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "mpower" who gives the product a 5/5 star rating, and likes the clean formulation:

"I love that it has so few ingredients and this alone makes it a clean protein source and one I feel I can trust. It is what it says it is and nothing more and more importantly nothing less. Organic, 100% plant based protein."

The top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "Pinkamina Diane" who gives the product a 1/5 star rating, and claims that one of the flavors doesn't taste like its description:

"For starters, it does not taste like matcha AT ALL. And if you look at the ingredients, it makes sense: one of the first ingredients is “organic pea flour”. This tastes like creamy, slightly vanilla 'something'— I don’t know what exactly, but I do know it isn’t matcha. It’s just gross."

Truvani Protein Powder currently has an average review rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Google.

Truvani currently has an average review rating of 1.86 out of 5 stars on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, and hasn't responded to the majority of customer complaints at the time of publishing this article, which we consider to be a red flag.

Pros and Cons of Truvani

Here are the pros and cons of Truvani in our opinion:

Pros:

  • Clean formulations
  • One of the healthiest vegan protein brands we've reviewed
  • Provides effective protein dose for muscle building
  • We recommend Truvani Protein Powder
  • We recommend Truvani The Only Bar
  • Mostly positive online customer reviews

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Brand website charges for shipping
  • Brand fails to respond to some customer complaints on BBB
Stay up-to-date on our research reviews

Conclusion

Truvani is one of the best protein brands we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health.

Truvani Protein Powder contains an effective protein dose for muscle building, and the brand uses whole food ingredients like maple syrup and dates rather than processed sweeteners like most protein brands.

Truvani The Only Bar is a protein bar that uses whole food ingredients like cacao nibs and organic peanuts, and is arguably the healthiest protein bar formulation we've reviewed to date.

The Oatmeal Chocolate Chip flavor of The Only Bar is the only Truvani product that we don't currently recommend, due to the use of cane sugar.

Truvani costs significantly more than its competitors per-serving, but at least consumers get what they pay for in this case. We consider Truvani to be healthier than other vegan protein brands marketed as "healthy."

Most of the online customer reviews of Truvani that we came across while researching this article were positive.

At the time of publishing this article, Amazon has much better prices on Truvani products than the brand's website.