Choosing the Best Protein Powder
Before deciding which protein powder is the best or necessary for your goals, here is a short protein primer to help you make sense of the thousands of different protein powders from which to choose:
· Whey protein isolate
· whey protein concentrate
· Hydrolyzed whey
· Calcium caseinate
· Egg white
· Whole egg
· Micellar casein
· Etc, etc, etc…
What are the benefits of all these different forms of protein?
Whey protein makes up 20% of total milk protein. Whey is recognized for its excellent amino acid profile, high cysteine content, rapid digestion, and interesting variety of peptides.
Casein protein makes up 80% of total milk protein. Casein is recognized for its excellent amino acid profile, slow digestion and interesting variety of peptides. Since casein is slowly digested into your bloodstream, don’t use it during workouts or after workouts – you need a fast absorbing protein at these times.
Soy protein is the most controversial of all protein types. While the soy groupies have gone to great lengths to label soy as a super food with magical effects, there is also a good amount of research that suggests soy protein may be contraindicated in many situations. Because of all the confusion, I suggest avoiding soy protein altogether and sticking to the other types listed.
Protein Blends are generally a combination of several types of protein blends such as whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, egg protein, casein protein, and soy protein. Why would you want a blend anyway? You will receive the full spectrum of proteins and you will receive varying rates of absorption from the different types of protein.
Whey hydrolysates (also known as hydrolyzed whey protein, and are also called peptides), are powerful proteins that are more quickly absorbed; more so than any other form, since your body prefers peptides to whole proteins. Hydrolysates are produced through very low heat, low acid and mild enzymatic filtration processes, (those highest in the essential and the branched chain amino acids) and are potentially the most anabolic for short-term protein synthesis such as 15 minutes prior to a workout, during a workout and immediately after a workout.
February 01 2011 | Do You Know How To Gain Muscle Fast? | Comments Off