Top Beef Protein Powder Supplement Brands Compared

Can’t go wrong with “Prime Chocolate”. We weren’t big fans of the vanilla. When in doubt, always go the chocolate route!

So First Off, Who are Betancourt Nutrition?

When the founders this jacked, they probably know what they’re doing

Founded by former NPC bodybuilding champion Jorge Betancourt, the company was founded on the same principal that drives bodybuilding: “competition breeds success”.

This mindset has led Betancourt to produce some top quality products, and the best pure beef protein powder on the market. 

We reviewed Betancourt’s B-Nox before, an absolute powerhouse pre-workout that is actually a pre-workout AND testosterone booster all in one.

For example, while Musclemed’s Carnivor is probably the most famous beef isolate protein on the market, it’s largely due to having Kai Greene as a (former) brand representative than it is the actual quality of the product.

Kai has since gone on to found his own supplement line, Dynamik Muscle, which has plenty of rad pre-workouts and intra-workouts, but no beef protein mix, just whey

Musclemed’s Carnivor is full of all kinds of proprietary named ingredients that are more for marketing than educating consumers.

For example, reading the following excerpt leaves us more confused than it does excited about the product:

Anabolic Nitrogen Retention Technology™ (ANRT) Recycles Aminos and Minimizes Ammonia

ANRT is a major muscle building breakthrough in protein supplementation.

While protein is critical for muscle growth, it can sometimes actually decrease performance and muscle growth if nitrogenous waste products like ammonia are not recycled back into anabolic tissue building pathways or otherwise neutralized.

ANRT is specially designed to allow the recycling of aminos back toward the muscle building pathway and prevent the build-up of debilitating toxins such as ammonia.

ANRT nitrogen retention factors contained in CARNIVOR include GKG (glutamine-alpha-ketoglutarate), OKG (ornithine-alpha-ketoglutarate), AKG (alpha-ketoglutarate) and KIC (alpha-ketoisocaproate).

What does that even mean?

While Musclemeds goes on at quite length about the science behind Carnivor, how much creatine it has and how hydrolization is so much better than concentrate, they don’t ever specify what type of beef is used in Carnivor.

And that’s a problem. When companies fail to fully disclose what’s used it’s usually for a good reason.

Competitors like True Protein and Universals 100% Beef Amino’s both have glycine and proline which suggests that while they are technically “beef” they are also likely composed not of the good red meat but instead gelatin or collagen from connective tissue and bones.

Why would beef protein makers use gelatin & collagen instead of real meat? Because it’s much much cheaper.

There are plenty of places to get cheap beef scraps, because they aren’t that popular with consumers. Grilled beef tendons anyone?

Now just because they don’t say what type of beef they use DOESN’T necessarily mean that they are using hooves and intestines, but if they are using only 100% real meat, then they’re marketing team needs to be fired and replaced with people who know how to shout about a good thing!

Innocent until proven guilty, so maybe Carnivor really is an exceptional product, but we still have to say “maybe” whereas with The Beef Standard we KNOW beyond a doubt it’s a solid product.

Betancourt hasn’t been shouting, but they have been very transparent in their marketing and deserve credit for that.

What Makes “The Beef Standard” So Dope?

The Beef Standard is Betancourt’s beef protein supplement that has zero gelatin, zero collagen, zero cholesterol, and zero fat. It also contains 3 grams of naturally occurring creatine (found in red meat)

If you haven’t heard of Betancourt, they’re pretty legit. All of their products are. B-Nox Androrush, their pre-workout is loaded with all the good stuff like Tuarine+Carnosyn, 3 forms of creatine, L-Tyrosine, L-Arginine, and a full BCAA profile. Additionally they stand out by adding some other dope ingredients like ZMA, Beet Root, Q10 and Bioperine.

SY has used both B-Nox Androrush (Read our full review here) and The Beef Standard for more than a year and have fallen in love.

How Does It Stack up Against Muscletech’s 100% Beef, Carnivor or Olympian Labs?

Another great beef protein actually comes from Muscletech, who are also surprisingly forthcoming about the fact that their beef protein also contains zero collagen or gelatin.

Both Muscletech’s Platinum 100% Beef and Betancourt’s Beef Standard share servings size, brown rice for the filler and 3 grams of creatine.

However, we think Beef Standard has a slight edge over Muscletech here simply because they regularly come in at about $4 cheaper AND have their trademarked Superserum, which is a

Bovine Serum Albumin Concentrate protein rich in peptides and growth factors. It is a fast absorbing protein with a minimum of 10%  IgG (immunoglobulin- a protein used by the immune system) , 60% Albumin and 5% Transferrin.