thenaturalone’s BodyBlog

In terms of our diets, there is no subject in this category that has caused more confusion and controvery for people than  protein supplements. I decided to write this blog to shed some light on this subject in order to straighten out some of the confusion in regards to protein supplements. What kind of protein is the best kind to use? Are they all the same? When is the best time to take protein supplements? Are there advantages and disadvantages to using different proteins? Lets begin with the most popular of all proteins, whey protein. Not all whey proteins are created equal. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. You may know that whey protein is derived from cow’s milk. Cow’s milk has two different types of protein. Casein protein about 80% and whey protein about 20 %. The difference? Whey protein contains natuaraly higher amounts of branched chain amino acids and glutamic acid which greatly enhance muscle recovery and nitrogen balance. About one-third of our muscle tissue is composed of branched chain amino acids and roughly 10% of fuel required for muscular activity which can lead to more intense training sessions and also better muscle recovery which means better muscular gains. One other advantage to whey protein is that it is much more soluble than other protein sources so its a very fast acting protein that can deliver a fresh flood of amino acids to hungry muscle tissue in a matter of minutes. Levels of blood amino acids will peak about 1 hour after ingestion and return down back to pre-meal levels in around 4 hours. These qualities make whey a great post workout protein to use after workouts during that time sensitive window of opportunity of about 45 minutes when the muscles can super- saturate with nutrients like amino acids to begin the recovery process. With whey protein you get a much higher concentration of amino acids delivered in a much faster time frame than you would casein or caseinate protein. Now lets take a look at the different types of whey protein the compositions of each kind. First, lets look at sraight whey powder which is roughly just 11-14% protein, 63-75% lactose, and 1-1.5% milk fat. Not the best choice because all that lactose will cause some gastrointestinal disturbances and the actual protein content is very low, respectively. Then probably the most commonly used whey protein seen on the market in most whey protein supplements is whey protein concentrate. The actual protein content can vary between 25-89% depending on the quality. Lactose content can be anywhere from 10-55%, while the milk fat content can be from 2-10%. Finally, lets look at whey protein isolate. Here we have an actual protein content of 90+% of actual protein with the lactose content being very low around .5% and also the milk fat content at around .5%. There you have it, when searching for a good between meal and post workout protein, then whey protein isolate will be your best bet where you’ll get the best bang for your buck. Read the ingedients to find the protein origin of a product before you buy it! Now what about casein and caseinate proteins? These are the slowest absorbed and digested of all the proteins. Not to say that these proteins are bad, however, they should be reserved as pre-bed time proteins in order to help support a positive nitrogen balance to keep the body in an anabolic state throught the night while sleeping. These proteins will take as long as 8-10 hours to run through your system so never use them before a workout as they will keep blood in your stomach for a long period of time to slowly digest the slow absorbing protein. You don’t want blood in your stomach when your training, you want the blood in your muscles! Consider this information the next time you go to place an order for a new protein supplement to add to your regimen. I hope this information is helpful. Best of luck!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.