Are OWYN Protein Shakes Worth the Hype?

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline

Photo by Amanda Vick on Unsplash

Readers and podcast listeners often send me products they find looking for help in assessing the flashy marketing and whether it is backed up by the actual nutrition. Recently, I received a request to explore OWYN protein shakes.

OWYN (Only What You Need) protein shakes claim to be clean, allergen-free, and plant-based. It strikes me, their marketing focuses on what’s not in the product — no dairy, no artificial ingredients, and free from the top nine allergens. Sounds great, right? Sure…except these claims don’t tell us what is in the shake. Their site has another graphic with buzzwords like “superfood greens blend,” “prebiotics,” and “vegan omega-3s,” which all sound impressive, but to understand if they provide meaningful benefits, we need to know the sources and quantities?

Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients to find out.

Liz, who submitted the request for this assessment, said she’s partial to the Dark Chocolate flavor, so let’s start there. A single 11.5 oz serving of the chocolate OWYN shake contains 170 calories, 7g of fat of which there’s 1g of sat fat, 9g of total carbs made up of 5g of fiber, 4g of sugar (all added sugar), and 20g of protein. I normally don’t point this out but…