For most people, though, “if results are strong, maybe you don’t need another scan for five years,” says Wagner. “If they’re lower, lifestyle interventions can help, and you may want to recheck in a year.”

Radiation exposure is negligible, less than a chest x-ray. But the psychological impact can be more complicated. For some, the numbers motivate: “When I did a body composition test at 36, I had way more body fat than I expected,” Cheema says. “That pushed me to change my workouts and eating patterns in ways that improved my health—something BMI alone wouldn’t have prompted.”

For others, especially those with histories of disordered eating or body image issues, it can be destabilizing and overwhelming. Numbers can become another metric to obsess over rather than a tool for health. “It can be overwhelming if you don’t have a clinician to interpret the results,” Gidwani says. “That’s why I review all of my patients’ scans with them.”

Cheema agrees: “Too much detail without guidance risks overwhelming people with information that isn’t clinically actionable.”

“I don’t think DEXA gives too much information compared to, say, a whole-body MRI, which can reveal incidental findings that can cause anxiety and lead to unnecessary interventions,” says Gidwani. “Its data points are actionable: decrease body fat, reduce visceral fat, increase muscle.”

Experts emphasize that actionability is key. “The most important metrics are visceral adipose tissue and total body fat percentage, especially when tracked over time,” Cheema says. “But DEXA also breaks things down by arms, legs, trunk, etc. That can veer into aesthetics rather than health.

Should You Get One?

If you’re 65 or older, or at risk for osteoporosis, your doctor may already recommend a DEXA scan for bone health. For women in perimenopause, when bone density can drop by as much as 20 percent, an early baseline scan could flag risks years before they become urgent.

DEXA also detects sarcopenic obesity, where muscle loss occurs alongside high body fat. “Someone may look normal weight on a scale, but a DEXA can reveal poor muscle-to-fat balance,” Gidwani says.

Beyond those groups, the use case narrows. Athletes, bodybuilders, and people on GLP-1 medications may find the data genuinely useful. For generally healthy adults who exercise, eat decently, and check in with a doctor, many clinicians are indifferent.

“For a healthy individual, I wouldn’t universally recommend it,” Cheema says. “Lifestyle changes and basic care may matter more than getting a DEXA.” There are alternatives—bioimpedance scales, Bod Pods, and AI-enabled wearables—but none are as accurate as DEXA. For now, it remains the most precise, if expensive, tool available.

Final Takeaways

My DEXA results were somewhat humbling. Despite near-daily workouts and a decent diet, the scan flagged more body fat than I expected and the beginnings of osteopenia in my spine. The bright side was an “excellent” visceral fat score, something I’ll be bragging about indefinitely.

Catching early bone loss feels actionable; I can tweak my workouts to prioritize strength and mobility. But the body fat percentages have lived in my brain rent-free ever since, without offering much in return. I don’t plan to shell out a few hundred dollars for another scan anytime soon, so I may never know if my adjustments are actually working.

That’s the paradox of DEXA. For those with medical risks, it can be invaluable. For athletes chasing marginal gains, it’s another knob to turn. But for the rest of us, it’s a reminder that data is only as useful as what you’re willing or able to do with it. In the end, DEXA doesn’t promise longevity so much as it promises numbers, and numbers alone don’t add years to your life.

Meet the Experts

• Jennifer Wagner, MD, MS, chief health and performance officer, Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona.
• Josh Cheema, MD, medical director of Northwestern Medicine Human Longevity Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
• Pooja Gidwani, MD, MBA, board-certified physician in internal medicine and obesity medicine in Los Angeles, California.

Growing up, we learn to push just hard enough to move a box and to avoid touching a hot pan with our bare hands. Now, a robot hand has been developed that also has these instincts.

The MOTIF Hand, developed by a student team in collaboration with Daniel Seita, a USC Viterbi assistant professor of computer science, is built on the idea of being multimodal—that is, having several sensory abilities. The most prominent of these abilities relate to temperature and force, with built-in sensors for depth, force and temperature allowing the hand to sense and react to these factors.

These capabilities create potential not only for better research involving robotic hands, but they also allow these hands to last longer by avoiding temperature-related damage. Force-related capabilities could also have a surprisingly practical real-world use.

“In factories and other domains, a robot would have to push to get objects into their targets, and that requires measuring some amount of force,” Seita said. “That type of force sensor can help in those cases, just to check that the robot is exerting the right amount of force.

“We haven’t seen people build this type of hand before,” he added.

Hot stuff

The MOTIF Hand builds on the foundation of the LEAP Hand, which was built by a research team at Carnegie Mellon in 2023. MOTIF’s key advancement is the addition of human-like sensory capabilities. This MOTIF Hand, which contains far more accurate human-like features and abilities, could have myriad applications, including in factory work and even cooking or welding, Seita said.

The robot’s ability to sense temperature comes from a thermal camera built into the palm of the hand. Seita and his team of USC Viterbi graduate students aimed to create a hand that would simulate a human understanding of temperature.

“If we’re cooking, we have a pot that’s very hot. We might put our hand near it to check if it’s safe to touch before we actually touch it, to avoid burns and damage,” Seita said. “We wanted that same intuition conveyed into a robot system.”

It’s an intuitive system that requires the hand to be close to the material whose temperature it’s detecting, said Hanyang Zhou, a co-author of the research paper, “The MOTIF Hand: A Robotic Hand for Multimodal Observations with Thermal, Inertial, and Force Sensors,” who recently graduated from the Viterbi School with a master’s in computer science. The paper is published on the arXiv preprint server.

“We were thinking, is it possible in some certain way to get a signal but not touch anything? So, we put an infrared-based camera right in the palm,” he added.

In other words, the MOTIF Hand can detect temperature through this thermal camera without even touching an object—just placing the hand close enough for the camera to examine it does the job.

‘You have to feel it’

The work done by Seita, Zhou and their team was designed to make the process of testing temperature and force feel more natural—in other words, true to human experiences with these things. For example, force is something that humans can’t see, just feel. The MOTIF Hand is designed around the same sensations we use to understand force-related properties, such as an object’s weight, allowing for more life-like robotic reactions to force.

“We as humans cannot distinguish [force] as a vision you have to feel it. But how is that possible for a robot hand?” Zhou asked. “If I don’t know whether a water bottle is full of water, I just flick it. I’ll shake it, right?”

The IMU sensors built into the MOTIF Hand bring this simple test to robotics. The hand, like our own, merely needs to flick or shake an object to determine its weight.

The MOTIF Hand was based on Carnegie Mellon’s LEAP Hand, which was open source. To further advance this sensory technology, Seita and his team have promised to make the MOTIF Hand open-source as well.

“Open-sourcing research advancement is really important to advance the community,” Seita said. “The more people that use our hand, the better it is for research.”

Zhou described the MOTIF Hand’s sensory advancements as a “platform” that he hopes the entire robotics community will build on for the future.

“We should make it easy [and] accessible for more and more research teams, as long as they are interested in such a platform,” Zhou said.

Compare Top 11 Protein Powders

More Protein Powders to Consider

Naked Casein: With only one ingredient—micellar casein sourced from hormone-free skim milk—it’s about as clean as it gets. No added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and no unnecessary additives. It’s cold-processed, to avoid any nastiness from chemicals or synthetic fillers, and it’s independently tested for both heavy metals and gluten. Each serving packs 26 grams of protein and 618 milligrams of calcium (about 48 percent of your daily value). But Naked Casein doesn’t contain lecithin, so it won’t dissolve as smoothly as other powders. The best way to mix is with a blender, but I couldn’t stomach the taste of this one.

Seeq Clear Protein Powder: I was skeptical when I purchased Seeq Clear Protein, but I’m a sucker for anything watermelon-flavored. I was pleasantly surprised. It tastes like a creamier sports drink (I promise it’s better than that description sounds), and each serving has 22 grams of protein and 4.5 grams of BCAAs. There are zero grams of sugar. Like a lot of other clear protein powders, it’s often more expensive than its counterparts. But if lactose irritates your stomach or you want something more like juice and less like a milkshake, it’s worth trying—especially if you mix it with extra water, since it’s on the sweet side. Worth noting is that it takes forever to dissolve, so use a frother or allot extra shaking time. —Louryn Strampe

Ghost Whey Protein Powder: Ghost is the protein powder for people who want their post-workout snack to taste like dessert. With flavors like Oreo, Cinnabon, and Chips Ahoy!, it’s arguably one of the best-tasting whey proteins on the market. Each scoop delivers 26 grams of protein (50 percent of the daily value) and blends well in shakes, oats, or even DIY protein ice cream. The trade-off here is a longer ingredient list that includes gums, high-fructose corn syrup, and titanium dioxide—a whitening pigment banned as a food additive in Europe.

Photograph: Boutayna Chokrane

Sakara Protein + Greens Super Powder: With 17 grams of plant-based protein per serving, Sakara’s Protein + Greens is just three shy of the 20-gram benchmark we aim for. The blend of pea, hemp, and pumpkin proteins is bolstered by a “super greens” mix of spirulina, wheatgrass, barley grass, and chlorella. Is it dramatically transforming my gut health? Probably not. But on days when my vegetable and protein intake is low, a scoop of this in my smoothie (plus some Greek yogurt for an extra 18 grams of protein) makes me feel a little less like a goblin surviving on iced coffee and string cheese.

Wavelength Vanilla Protein Powder: In addition to 20 grams of pea protein per serving, Wavelength’s plant-based powder boasts trendy adaptogens and nootropics like maca root, ashwagandha, and Chaga mushroom extract. The brand doesn’t disclose how much of each is in the mix, so it’s hard to say if they’re doing much beyond adding to the price tag. The taste is deeply earthy, which makes it better suited for baking than chugging. Wavelength also makes Little Ripples, a protein powder formulated for kids. Reviews editor Adrienne So made a shake with it for her 8- and 10-year-olds, but it had a strange, chalky texture and a bit of a barnyard funk smell. They refused to drink it.

BSN True-Mass Weight Gainer, Muscle Mass Gainer Protein Powder: If you’re trying to bulk up or struggle to hit your calorie goals, BSN True Mass is worth considering. This mass gainer packs 1,200 calories per serving, with 50 grams of protein and 215 grams of carbohydrates. Its protein blend includes whey concentrate, casein, milk protein isolate, whey protein isolate, hydrolyzed whey isolate, and micellar casein, so you get a mix of fast and slow-digesting proteins. It also delivers 450 milligrams of calcium and 880 milligrams of potassium, which is a bonus if you want to squeeze in some micronutrients. It tastes great—the strawberry milkshake flavor is spot-on—but these are two scoops at 310 grams, so you’ll need to be comfortable with the jumbo serving size. I can’t fully endorse the formula because it’s packed with artificial sweeteners like sucralose and acesulfame potassium, as well as some iffy additives, including maltodextrin and a gum blend (cellulose, guar, gum Arabic, and xanthan) that might not sit well with everyone. If you have a sensitive stomach, you might want to pass. This one brings protein farts to a new level.

Aloha 12oz Chocolate Sea Salt Protein Drink (Pack of 12): Aloha’s protein powder is still on my testing docket, but I have tried the brand’s ready-to-drink shakes. The chocolate sea salt is surprisingly tasty; it’s creamy and rich, but there’s a faint aftertaste. I sometimes use the vanilla flavor as a milk base for smoothies, and there’s also a coconut flavor I haven’t gotten my hands on yet. Each serving packs 20 grams of plant-based protein.

Accessories to Try

Courtesy of Beast

Beast Mega 1200 for $199: If you’re looking to level up your smoothie game, Mega’s 1,200-watt motor cuts through frozen fruit, powders, and fibrous foods with an ease that personal blenders can’t match. One button, a timed cycle, and consistent chunk-free results. The three included Tritan vessels are designed with ribbed interiors that boost turbulence for silkier smoothies. Plus, the drinking lid and straw system transforms your blender into a travel cup without the extra dishes. It’s available in five colors—cloud white, carbon black, navy, sand, sage, and charcoal—and backed by a two-year warranty.

Vitamix Ascent X5 for $750: The Vitamix Ascent X5 is expensive, but if you’re in the market for an all-purpose blender, this is the one that makes smoothies feel like an art form. It’s got 10 preset programs (smoothie bowls, nut butters, nondairy milks, and more), which means your protein recipes can get as creative as you want. It has a tamper for the thickest of shakes, and the on-screen indicator tells you exactly when to step in. Plus, if your blend needs more mixing, hit the “add 15 seconds” button. The self-cleaning mode is my favorite feature; it’s not groundbreaking, but I’d rather gouge my eyes out with a dull chopstick than scrub post-smoothie gunk off a blender. Plus, it’s backed by a 10-year warranty, which makes it an investment worth considering.

Ninja Blast Portable Blender for $53: Finally, for an affordable option, you might want to consider Ninja’s tiny portable blender, which charges via USB-C. The motor isn’t super powerful, and the battery isn’t long-lived (one charge lasts long enough to thoroughly blend one yogurt smoothie with frozen berries), but this blender is affordable, the vessel and lid are dishwasher-safe, and it’s tiny enough to have a permanent home on editor Adrienne So’s counter. She has been using this daily for a year to make morning smoothies from Greek yogurt, milk, and frozen berries and bananas with no issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Protein Powder Good for You?

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It depends. If you’re eating a balanced diet, you’re likely getting all the protein your body needs. Whole foods—nuts, seeds, eggs, low-fat dairy, legumes, and lean meats—offer protein along with fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients that a scoop of powder simply can’t match. Protein powders are not meal replacements.

That said, high-quality protein powder may be beneficial if you are recovering from surgery or an injury, have difficulty eating due to illness or aging, or need extra protein for wound healing. It’s also useful if you’re following a strict diet (like veganism) and aren’t getting enough protein through food alone. For athletes, protein powder can be a convenient way to refuel post-workout because the body absorbs liquid protein quickly. Unless you fall into one of these categories, you don’t need a protein powder.

Which is the Best Type of Protein Powder?

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When you’re looking at different protein sources, also keep in mind whether you’re getting a complete or incomplete protein. All of our picks are complete proteins, meaning that they provide all nine essential amino acids that the body doesn’t product itself.

Whey protein: Whey protein comes from milk during the cheese-making process, and it’s one of the most efficient ways to get protein into your system. It’s packed with essential amino acids, meaning your body can absorb and use it quickly—great for muscle recovery and growth. There are three whey subtypes, each with its own pros and cons.

• Whey protein concentrate: The least processed version, typically 70-80 percent protein, with the rest made up of carbohydrates, fats, and lactose. It retains beneficial compounds like immunoglobulins and lactoferrin, which may support immunity. It’s also the cheapest.
• Whey protein isolate: Most of the fat and lactose is filtered out, leaving a protein that’s about 90 percent protein and lower in carbohydrates. This is a solid choice if you want more protein per scoop or have a mild lactose intolerance.
• Whey protein hydrolysate: Whey protein hydrolysate is predigested using enzymes, making it the quickest to absorb. It’s often used in medical nutrition and by elite athletes who need rapid muscle recovery. It’s also the priciest.

Casein protein: Casein is the other major protein in milk. When consumed, it forms a gel in your stomach, meaning your body gets a slow, steady release of amino acids. This makes a great option for pre-bedtime protein or keeping hunger at bay between meals. There are two main subtypes:

• Micellar casein: The least processed, offering sustained protein release.
• Casein hydrolysate: Predigested for faster absorption, though still slower than whey.

Pea protein: This plant-based protein is made from ground yellow split peas and is high in essential amino acids, including BCAAs. It’s dairy-, gluten-, and soy-free, making it great for people with allergies. Technically, it’s a complete protein, but it’s lower in methionine, so some experts would argue it’s not as complete as whey.

Brown rice protein: Brown rice protein is high in fiber, easy to digest, and hypoallergenic, but it lacks some essential amino acids (specifically lysine), making it an incomplete protein. That’s why it’s often blended with pea protein for a more balanced amino acid profile. It’s gentle on the stomach and good for people with food sensitivities.

Beef protein isolate: Meat contains protein! Beef protein isolate is made from cow tissue that has been extracted and filtered into powder.

What Are the Potential Harms of Protein Powder?

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While high-protein diets have been studied extensively, the long-term effects of regularly consuming protein in powdered form remain unclear.

• If you’ve ever chugged a protein shake and immediately regretted it, you’re not alone. Dairy-based blends (whey and casein) can cause bloating, gas, and other gastrointestinal issues—especially for those with lactose intolerance or sensitivities. Plant-based protein powders aren’t always more digestible, as some contain sugar alcohols, gums, or thickeners that can also upset your stomach.
• Because it’s classified as a dietary supplement, the FDA doesn’t regulate protein powder the way it does food or medication. That means it’s up to manufacturers to evaluate their own products for safety, which leaves plenty of room for inconsistencies and contamination.
• A report from the Clean Label Project tested 160 powders for contaminants and found that many contained heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium, as well as BPA (a plastic additive) and pesticides. Organic powders showed three times more lead and twice as much cadmium compared to non-organic options. Plant-based powders averaged three times more lead than whey-based alternatives. And cocoa-containing powders contained four times more lead than vanilla. These toxins can creep into powders through contaminated soil (since many plant-based proteins come from crops) or manufacturing processes that introduce pollutants along the way.

Not all protein powders are contaminated, but it’s worth checking third-party testing results (like those published by Clean Label Project) before incorporating one into your diet.

What Factors Should I Consider When Choosing A Protein Powder?

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Protein source: Whey, casein, soy, pea, brown rice, egg white—protein powder comes in many forms and caters to different needs (build muscle, weight loss, weight gain, post-workout recovery, etc.). Your choice depends on dietary preferences and your personal goals.

Protein content: If your goal is muscle growth, aim for 20 to 30 grams per scoop. Otherwise, match the amount of protein to your dietary or fitness needs.

Processing method: Concentrates are the least processed and have more nutrients. Isolates tend to have higher protein content and fewer carbs and fats, while hydrolysates digest the fastest.

Allergens and dietary preferences: Make sure your protein powder aligns with your diet. If you’re allergic to dairy, soy, gluten, or nuts, double-check labels as many powders sneak in allergens. If you’ve had digestive issues before, start with a small quantity to test your tolerance before going all in.

Additives and fillers: Watch for artificial sweeteners, gums, and thickening agents that can cause bloating and other gastrointestinal issues.

Flavors: Powders now come in every flavor from matcha to fruity cereal milk. Choose a flavor you’ll actually drink.

Brand reputation and certifications: Some brands are rigorous about quality control, third-party testing, and ingredient sourcing, and others aren’t. If you want peace of mind, look for certifications like Informed Sport and NSF Certified for Sport, which verify that the product contains what it advertises and is free of banned substances.

Cost: Compare cost per serving instead of just the upfront price.

How We Test Protein Powders

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Photograph: Boutayna Chokrane

I’ve been downing protein powders for years, but for this guide, I put each one through a fresh round of testing. Each powder was sampled at least three times to assess taste, texture, and mixability. I mixed them with water, milk, and non-dairy alternatives. I also baked them into muffins and blended into the occasional smoothie because not all of us like our protein straight.

I prioritized powders with minimal to no additives and full transparency in sourcing—no unnecessary fillers, gums, or questionable sweeteners. Solubility was a major consideration, too. I also scrutinized manufacturing practices and third-party testing. Certifications (like NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Choice) mattered. Every pick is also a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids.

What Are We Testing Next?

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