Together With Momentous
Editor’s Note from AB: I want to tell you about the worst supplement purchase of my life.

It was a five-pound tub of whey protein called One World Whey, and it cost about $150. That's roughly $30 a pound, when you could buy perfectly decent whey for a fraction of that. (Whey is insanely expensive right now)

You might see the price and think I was a fool. And, fair enough, because I was. But not for the reasons you might think.

At the time, the price wasn’t my biggest concern (And yes, it should have been). Even then, I already knew how the supplement industry cut corners. But I used the wrong method to judge safety and effectiveness.

The pitch was built for people who questioned supplement quality. So they played up the details that would stand out. Grass-fed, pasture-raised cows. A proprietary cold-processing method called TruCool that supposedly protected the protein from heat damage. Heavy-metal test results allegedly showing it was clean.

Most of it sounded right, and the stranger claims rode in on the back of the reasonable ones. I paid more because I believed paying more would get me something better.

Then, in the spring of 2014, the company suspended sales. Lab analysis had found less protein and more sugar than the label claimed.

According to the company's statement and corrected label, the product promised 21 grams of protein per serving and delivered only 5 grams. And despite being labeled as low-sugar, it had 17 to 18 grams per scoop.

The label didn't match the product. But my poor purchase helped ensure that, moving forward, I wouldn't make the same mistake again. That meant any supplement purchase I made required one thing on the label to prevent a similar error.

What Matters Most On A Supplement Label

Most people assume someone checks supplements before they hit the shelf. Nobody does. The FDA governs supplements, but they don't approve dietary supplements for safety, effectiveness, or labeling before they're sold.

The company that makes the supplements is responsible for getting it right and telling the truth on labels, and regulators mostly step in after something has gone wrong.

When you buy a product, you probably assume that’s what on the label has to be in the product. That's one reason why One World Whey sat in kitchens, mine included, until the company's own lab work caught up.

That’s not to say the FDA isn’t involved. They are. But they don’t act until a clear foul occurs.

And, unfortunately, because of that, One World Whey isn’t an isolated story.

When researchers combed through the FDA's warnings on tainted supplements, they found 776 products containing unapproved drug ingredients over roughly a decade. In nearly every case, about 98% of them, those ingredients appeared nowhere on the label. Fewer than half of the products were ever tied to a recall.

When researchers tested 25 melatonin gummies in 2023, only 3 contained an amount within 10% of what the label promised. One contained no melatonin at all.

When researchers tested 6 popular brands of creatine gummies, 4 of the 6 had lower levels of creatine than promised. One brand had zero grams in the product. A creatine gummy with no creatine.

I'm not sharing this to scare you. But the problem is real, and from the outside you can't tell which jar you're holding. You might take a product for years before anyone finds out it wasn't what it said.

You need someone to verify supplements. That's the gap third-party certification fills.

Third-party certification means someone with no stake in the sale tests the actual product, on a schedule the company doesn't control.

Several programs do this well, including NSF Certified for Sport, USP Verified, Informed Sport, and BSCG.

We rely most on NSF Certified for Sport because of who it was built for.

Professional athletes live under drug testing. One contaminated scoop can cost a player a suspension or a career, and "I didn't know" isn't a defense. The standard built for them is about as strict as consumer supplements get. NSF Certified for Sport verifies that what's on the label is in the container.

NSF Certified for Sport screens for heavy metals, microbes, pesticides, and solvents. It tests production lots for 290 banned substances. It audits the manufacturing facility every year. It also publicly lists certified products, so anyone can look them up.

That last part matters. Before you buy, search the exact product name on the certifier's website or in NSF's Certified for Sport app. It takes about 30 seconds, and it's the habit I wish I'd had in 2014.

You might not be a professional athlete. But your body deserves the same type of purity, clarity, and guarantees.

Because if not, at best, you could be paying $150 for a 5-gram serving of protein. At worst, your protein powder could be filled with hormones or other illegal anabolics.

But certification only answers one question: Is this what it says it is? 

It can't tell you whether the product does anything. A perfectly verified dose of an ingredient that has never worked in humans is still a waste of money.

The Company That Killed A Product Making Millions

Most people skip a step when buying supplements, and it tells you more about a company than any marketing will.

If you’re going to buy a supplement, start with third-party certification.

And then check out the entire product lineup.

You don’t need a nutrition degree to know the difference between foundational nutritional products and Fat-Burn Maxxx 3000.

Are the products built around things with solid human evidence, like protein, creatine, vitamin D, and omega-3s? Or is it stuffed with whatever got mentioned on a podcast last month? 

A company's catalog shows you whether it focuses on what works or what sells. The two overlap less than you'd hope.

The real test is what a company does when those two pull in opposite directions.

We’ve known about Momentous for nearly a decade. But a few years ago, a decision they made that didn’t make headlines made us realize they were one of the few supplement brands that not only tested all their products but also had integrity.

Fadogia agrestis is a West African shrub that became one of the hottest testosterone supplements in men's health a few years ago. There was evidence, but it was thin.

In 2005, researchers gave male rats fadogia extract for five days and saw testosterone rise. Later animal work raised questions about testicular toxicity.

Momentous sold fadogia, and by the company's account it was one of its best-sellers, bringing in about $6 million a year.

In 2024, during a routine review, the company's science team concluded the research wasn't progressing enough to justify keeping it. So Momentous pulled it.

They didn't sell through the inventory first or wait for sales to slow.

Think about that. A product bringing in millions. A best-seller. And they pulled the plug not because people weren’t buying, but because the evidence didn’t support selling it.

If companies offering fat-loss products showed the same integrity as Momentous, there would be no fat-loss supplements.

I've spent more than twenty years in this industry. I've watched companies defend ingredients long after the evidence stopped cooperating, because the revenue was still cooperating just fine. 

I can't think of another time I've seen a supplement company kill a fast-selling product because the science hadn't earned it.

That decision came from a rulebook Momentous wrote for itself, which it calls the Momentous Standard. 

The company built it because it didn't think the industry's standard set the bar high enough. It governs which products are worth making in the first place, where the ingredients come from, and how every lot gets tested before it ships.

None of it is required. No regulator asks a supplement company to pull a best-seller because the research stalled. Momentous holds itself to that standard because it believes it's the right thing to do. Fadogia is what that looks like when the standard costs you $6 million a year.

Plenty of companies say they follow the evidence. You find out which ones mean it when the evidence points away from a sale.

Find a Brand That Shares Its Failures (Because It Means You’ll Win)

Momentous puts every product through NSF Certified for Sport, and independently tests every production lot. What impressed me most wasn't the passing grades. It was the failures.

Manufacturing is messy. Every company that makes supplements at scale will produce some batches that miss the spec. The question is whether anyone catches them before they reach you.

A failed lot destroyed in the warehouse is the system working. A failed lot discovered after it's in your kitchen is One World Whey.

According to Momentous, five production lots failed NSF testing in the past 12 months. The company destroyed all of them, totaling $492,000 in product.

When its Essential Multi failed three production runs in a row, the company went out of stock for nearly three months and lost about $500,000 instead of selling it uncertified, which would have been perfectly legal.

The Momentous Essential Multi is great. We take it. But it failed the standard they set, and they wouldn’t put it on shelves or online until it met that standard, no matter how much money they lost. And that’s the way it should be. But it’s incredibly rare.

Now think about the companies that don't test.

They never have a failed run, an empty shelf, or a $500,000 loss. A batch that would flunk NSF testing gets boxed, shipped, and sold like any other, because nobody checked. And you take it, never knowing that it won’t do what you’re told.

Nobody can tell you how many products like that are sitting on shelves right now, and that's the problem. Without a test, there's no record of the failure. 

Remember those melatonin gummies: only 3 of 25 matched their labels. The other 22 still made it into carts and into people's nightly routines, and the people who bought them had no way of knowing.

The same care runs up the supply chain.

Momentous says it can trace its whey back to the fields in Kilkenny, Ireland, where the cows grazed. In 2014, I couldn't have told you where my protein came from or who had checked it.

Creatine shows how far that standard goes. 

Momentous didn't need to change its creatine. It was already one of the company's most trusted products. 

Instead, the company wrote a stricter spec and went looking for a manufacturer that could meet it. The result is its Signature Spec Creatine, made in a pharmaceutical facility with, according to the company, 10 times fewer impurities and heavy-metal limits 2 to 5 times stricter than other premium creatines. 

It's also screened for PFAS and microplastics, testing that NSF certification doesn't require. The old version wasn't failing anyone. They changed it because they found better.

And there's a reason more than 200 professional and collegiate sports programs, plus the Department of Defense, work with Momentous. Those buyers can't afford to take anyone's word for it.

The Supplement Investment That Matters (3 Ways To Judge A Product)

Plenty of companies say they follow the evidence. You find out which ones mean it when the evidence points away from a sale.

Is Momentous the cheapest option? No.

Many of you ask us for cheaper options. And our answer is always the same.

You can find cheaper options, but what you save in your pocket you risk in unknown harm to your health and well-being.

You don’t need to take Momentous, but you should only buy supplements that meet standards and test their products in ways you can verify.

Sure, other products could be fine. But they might not be. Why take such an unnecessary risk?

After all, I can tell you first-hand, One World Whey changed how I think about expensive. The number that matters isn't price per container. It's price per gram of what you can verify is inside. By that measure, my $150 tub of 5-gram protein was one of the most expensive things I've ever eaten.

When a company tests every lot, destroys the ones that fail, and pulls a best-seller because the science didn't hold up, the higher price covers that work, including the $2 million the company spent on testing and certification over the past 12 months.

Some people use marketing language and call their products “nutritional insurance.” Momentous actually puts that money into testing, certification, and protecting your health. 

That’s the kind of insurance you want to pay for because it protects you by guaranteeing what you put in your body every day.

You don't need to spend a fortune to buy well. But before your next purchase, ask three things:

Three Ways To Judge A Supplement

1. Can I confirm the certification with the certifier itself? Many brands claim certification, but offer no real proof or evidence. It’s a label claim, which means little. You need proof of the tests. And you want all of them. Label accuracy. No dangerous levels of heavy metals. No banned substances.

2. Has this ingredient worked in actual humans, at this dose? The right product with the wrong dose is money you spend that won’t deliver the changes you desire.

3. Does the company behind it choose evidence over revenue when the two disagree? If you’re selling some products with evidence and many without, it’s worth questioning why a brand would sell something that isn’t proven to work.

I think about that tub of whey more than I'd like to admit. Not because of the $150, but because I know so many products out there still fool people every day.

You don’t need supplements. They fill nutritional gaps and address true deficiencies that need attention. The right supplements can help, but the industry needs to raise the standard so fewer people buy worthless products.  

These days, the first thing I look for in a supplement isn't the price or the promise. It's how much they invest in the product, the testing, the certification, and the integrity of every product the brand sells.

Because what they offer reflects how they operate. 

For us at Pump Club, that’s Momentous. It’s why we partner with them, and you get a discount when you use the code “PumpClub.”

For you, it might be another brand. Just make sure it answers those three questions well, so your decisions improve your health rather than increase your risk.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell