Personally, I consider powdered protein shakes to be not very primal at all. I also do not consider them to be a meal replacement as they are not food as I consider food. Not to say I am always a perfect paleo eater, but I consider these shakes to be more of a weight lifter thing.

That is possibly the biggest rip-off in the history of protein supplementation. It is a whey protein isolate powder without artificial sweeteners (but with some thickening agents and stevia).

I typically drink 40 grams of protein in a serving of protein powder. That much would cost me...$6.67!!!! (Unless I'm reading that wrong)

There's a bajillion better ways to do it. First, you can buy whey isolate and coconut milk and mix it yourself. Second, get customized protein from a place like proteinfactory.com or trueprotein.com, or even some grass-fed whey from Ori Hofmekler.

I agree with all the comments to date - not very primal/paleo, very expensive. There's also some (albeit minor) dubious ingredients - see the comments.

I also think Mark's replies in the comments were extremely defensive - he probably knew it would cause some controversy offering a shake which is so expensive in the middle of a huge economic downturn. That said, I think all his supplements are expensive, and good old supply and demand will sort this out.

MDA is what it is - a great source of free information paid for by an expensive supplement business. I'm happy with that as I will take the free information but not the supplements. As long as Mark makes enough profit from people who are interested in the supplements, everybody can be happy.

Hey Mark is a business man. He still provides sound, free information to anyone who wants it on his site. If you want to purchase his stuff, OK, if not, OK. I don't begrudge him trying to make a living or earning a profit. The trap is, the love of profit can corrupt the message and the more commercial he becomes, the more suspect his info. Although, in my opinion, so far he's kept a good balance.

One of the claims he made was it is a meal replacement when you don't have time to cook. At 181 calories it's not much of a replacement. When I get in a hurry and have no time to cook I grab some of my precooked bacon and harboiled eggs. If I ate 6 peices of bacon and 4 hardboiled eggs I consumed approximately 700 calories, 54 grams of fat, and 51 grams of protein. Now thats a meal replacement!

I think people are quick to forget that the man helped so many people change their lives for the better and probably also saved a lot of lives, mine included.

The guy is dedicated, posts fresh good content every day and always has an open attitude to the community and the newcomers.

If the product turns out to be a flop, let it be that way. It will be hard enough to have lost all that time, energy and money on a product that turns out being a failure not to criticize him to death on top of that.

Life is already hard enough, we don't need people being so hard on other people, especially those who did so much to help us.

What else could we expect? Mark sells a super expensive multi, he sold a garbage protein powder before without a bad conscience, he sells a fish oil supplement that is not up to his own standards (EPA DHA ratio), he sells over-priced vit d3... $$$

If one wants to drink a shake there are much better (quality, price) options. To my surprise I really liked the book but everything else? No thanks!

The shark may have officially been jumped; alternatively we'll all just nod our heads and say, "you've been good, we'll give you a pass on this one."

I love the information-level and community-level services and forum that he provides free of charge.

He is one of the major gateways to Paleo-EvoEating Land.

I will not be buying this powder or any of his other supplements. I will continue buying his texts, cookbooks, and such.

I feel that the high supplement prices are the metaphorical counterpoint of the missing DONATE button that he conspicuously leaves off of his site.

The money to host the site has to come from somewhere, esp. a site with so much traffic.

If I was feeling meaner: I would say that the high cost of meal-replacements are a 'tax' on those that cannot cook, or more kindly: I feel that they have the money and that they would prefer it to go to Sisson and his team of workerbees.

I had the opportunity to be one of the taste testers and it truly is a fantastic product. It tastes great with just water and ice and it is something I would love to enjoy on a regular basis for when I need something quick.

When I taste tested it I had NO idea what the price was going to be. I saw the blog post come out yesterday and when I noticed the price of $99 my mind went crazy. I do NOT plan on paying $99 for his product. Why? I simply do not have the money. But, for someone who is rich and wants to try it out then it would be a great investment.

It is not a meal replacement by any means but if one simply adds berries, more coconut, macadamia butter, hemp seeds, egg yolks, etc. then it can easily become a 300-500 quick meal for when you are in a hurry. This is what I was thinking I would use it for until I found out it was $99 and told myself there is no way I will choose to buy it at this price.

Mark can do what he wants to do but it seems as if he might lose a good amount of fans by pricing it this high. To be 100% honest, he lost me a bit but I still love the guy and know that he is a massive part of this incredible primal/paleo movement. So, let the guy do what he wants. He needs to make a living and this is how he is doing it. I think he does enough stuff for free for the community in order to justify his price.

But, again, for me, $99 is too high. I would consider buying it at $49 but nothing more.

< rant > First off I love the Primal Blueprint. It inspired me, taught me about my gluten allergy and put me on the path to a better life. Mark got my money and then he got a little more when I bought more copies for family and friends. I was glad to support the man and his message and think he deserves to make a living making people's lives better. But there is a point between having devoted fans and followers and confusing them with people who can be taken advantage of. I don't know what Mark's marketing meetings were like and if he had an evil laugh at the end or he just thought he heard some decent business strategy and went with it. I think in the end he failed to develop the iPhone of protein shakes (bought maybe thought that's what he was selling) and then mispriced his product and its gonna hurt his image. < / rant >

When I saw he didn't even make the case for the whey being grassfed and thus expensive I was shocked at the price. I'd like to know what percent of the price is markup because if you look at the already marked up GNC foods industry this tops it off.

You can buy five pounds of Whey Protein Isolate (only other ingredient is soy lecithin which I think has been addressed on this site already) for about $30. That's 81 servings of 25 grams of protein. If you are willing to make the exeption for some lecithin in your 80% chocolate bar, then you are probably cool with a minimal amount in your shake too. And if dairy is kosher in your world, this would be MORE primal than Marks since it doesn't have SUGAR or Natural Flavors.

I am not involved in the company that makes the isolate, in fact I never have ordered it since I generally use egg protein which is still somehow cheaper than Mark's. Anyway here is the link to the ultimate primal milk-based non-food meal replacement protein shake link.

General opinion:

It looks OK as far as supplementation goes, but that price is bonkers. I'm not really into buying things for the brand. I think MDA is marketing to a demographic who will buy whatever Mark puts his name on (his most faithful followers- The Sissonites)....so more power to them. That's smart business, I suppose.

Will I buy it? Nope. That price (and the accompanied insinuation) is insulting.

As I mentioned, my team and I have been working on this product for nearly 2 years. We could have made a higher margin product that retails for, say, $39 or $49, but it would look like every other junk meal replacement on the market; filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce, low-grade protein and fats you’d never want to consume.

Why does it have to be all about making money and churning out new lines of products? Was there really demand for a protein powder?

Why do we need protein in food that is isolated and powderized in order to get fit? He wrote a cookbook and now he is marketing meal replacements. Hmm...

For those who haven' seen it - Mark posted this response today Mark's follow up post

Pretty good comeback I thought

Mark uses supplements and sells them , Mark wants to make a profit , branded whey protein has high profits.

Will some people buy it without actually doing any of the other "primal" recommendations thinking it's really good for them ? yes , yes they will.

That being said I'm sure it's a quality product and very good for specific people (70 +) or people with protein absorption issues.

I'd be willing to buy a bottle just to support the web site , after all the great articles I've read for free. but bottom line whey is whey is whey.

I could never stay full on any protein shake, even if it was full of fat.

I do far better with a side of protein and a massive FAT BOMB shake full of coconut milk, or avocado, or both. I stay full for over 7 hours.