By Elena Voropay

With the enormous variety of protein shakes on the shelves today, it can be daunting to try and pick from them. By considering a few simple factors, you can easily narrow your choices down so you can choose a protein type that perfectly suits your bodybuilding needs.

If there is one topic that bodybuilders talk about the most, that would be protein. It is one undeniable fact that all lifters agree on: no protein – no muscles. Without protein, life would cease to exist, and your muscles would cease to grow. After all, the word is derived from the Greek "proteios," meaning "of prime importance."

Protein is not just important, it is essential. Your every single cell is made up of this powerful stuff. Brain cells, for example, are 10 percent protein. Muscle and red blood cells have as much as 20 percent. Overall, protein is the second largest building material of the human body (preceded only by water) comprising approximately 15% by weight. If you've got visible mass, you have a lot more of protein in your body.

Made up of chemical compounds that contain carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, protein is the ultimate block of tissue building. Don't be fooled that all proteins are the same. There are about 28 commonly known amino acids which mix up and twist together in many different ways making between 10 000 and 50 000 different kinds of protein in the body.

To keep your cells alive, you must give them protein all the time, otherwise they will start to eat up themselves. Now you've got the biggest reason to contemplate on eating up the aminos. It may not be a superb source of energy, like carbohydrates and fats, but you definitely need it to keep the body going in your quest for rebuilding and regenerating healthy muscle tissues.

Just eating protein is not enough, you need a quality product that will meet your demand and help build lean tissue. Most of the amino acids inside your body are found in the form of muscles. If you work out regularly, you break down your muscle tissue, or the amino acid chains. When you rest, you build new chains of these aminos, which are now stronger and bigger than they used to be. But for best construction you need the best material – the highest quality amino acids in the right amounts and proportions for the body to use. Failing to meet these requirements, you will end up breaking down muscles into amino acids even further. This perpetual cycle will leave you weaker, smaller and softer than ever regardless of how many hours you spend in the gym. And if you are looking to add more lean mass to your frame, make sure you consume more amino acids from protein than you use.

Not all amino acids are the same and your body responds differently to each one of them. Some can be made in the body and some should be consumed through the diet. Out of 22 amino acids required for proper functioning, your body can make only 10-12 in sufficient amounts from glucose and other proteins. These are called non-essential and include alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamine, glutamic acid, glycine, proline, serine, and tryptophan.

The rest of them have to be supplied through your diet, hence the name “essential”. These are tryptophan, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine. Semi-essential amino acids are arginine and histidine and the need for these increases if they get depleted at times of physical and mental stress. Usually adults can make enough of these to maintain normal balance. But children and bobybuilders need additional amounts to support muscle tissue growth and higher metabolic demands.

Theoretically it is possible to get all the needed aminos from foods like meat, fish, poultry, soy, dairy and eggs, and mixing up grains and legumes to get all the energy supply you ever-growing body needs. But considering the amounts and types you need, you may find it almost impossible to do so. It takes time to buy products, fix meals, and even more time to eat them and clean the dishes. You may end up almost living in the kitchen calculating each amino acid from each different food. Wouldn't you rather do something else, like working out? Solution? Supplements, good old protein powders and meal replacements come to your door to save your life. What are they? What's the difference? Which ones are best?

Best Amino Mix

What's inside the prime bodybuilding material protein is not enough – patterns of amino acids matter even more revealing the quality of what you ingest. The nutritional value of a food's protein is determined by the mix of amino acids that it contains. In old days, scientists found that egg protein was the best, so they used it as a 'gold standard' for comparison and gave egg the maximum rating, known as Biological Value (BV) of 100, indicating that 100% of the nitrogen found in egg is absorbed in your system.

Other ways to measure protein quality include Amino Acid Scoring, Net Protein Utilization (NPU), Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER), and Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS). But regardless of how you calculate your amino acids, the reference point stays the same – a product of reproduction from chicks, known as egg. Everything else was inferior until whey was discovered. Comparing milk, eggs, soy, rice, beans, poultry, fish, meat and whey amino acid compilation whey is a uniquely superior source of protein. Just compare the numbers:

You know, you are very lucky for living now. Looking at the stats and pictures of ammature bodybuilders half a century ago tells you that there was a lot they were missing – knowledge of training, nutrition, and lack of Whey Protein. It happened not that long ago that modern science has recognized the importance of whey as a nutrient-rich protein source. In 1986, the American Dairy Processing Institute and the International Dairy Federation sponsored the First International Whey Conference and 11 years later concentrated their resources and grabbed public attention about all the great things whey can do for health. After putting all the pieces of the protein puzzle together, now we have it - incredible results in the gym, superb immunity, excellent nutrition without stomach pains, flatulence and diarrhea you get with milk.

How do you get the whey? From milk which contains protein (20% from whey and 80% from casein), fat and carbohydrates mainly from milk sugar lactose to which most people are intollerant. Note that casein is poor protein source making it hard for the body to process into something meaningful, like your bigger guns. Separating these two proteins is not that hard – just make some cheese.

Whey is the fluid that remains after the the fatty milk curd has formed in the process of cheesemaking. At this point, whey contains high quality amino acids and also lactose. Removing this milk sugar was a huge step in achieving the optimal nutritional supplement. The result – purest complete protein containing all eight essential and seven non-essential, and three conditionally essential amino acids.

Scientifically speaking, whey is not just 'complete', it is one and only protein with beta-lactoglobulin (or lactoglobulin), alpha-lactalbumin (or lactalbumin), immunoglobulins and bovine serum albumin (BSA), the four major fractions that together comprise up to 80% of the total proteins in whey and two minor unique proteins - lactoferrin and glycomacropeptides.

Whey features the highest concentration of BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids) found in nature, growth factors and modulators, gut-friendly bifidobacteria and other microflora. These are outmost components you need for strong immunity, disease protection and support of all new cell development. Looking to build new muscle cells and help these hypertrophy without the use of illegal dangerous steroid hormones? Whey to go! Whey proteins are rich in amino acids Arginine and Lysine - potent stimulators of Growth Hormone, the chemical bodybuilders seek the most.

So, you are about to buy a bucket of Whey Protein, but they all seem the same, yet each one tells you that it may make you bigger and stronger faster than everything else. Look at all the fancy terms on bright eye-catching labels – ion exchange, ultrafiltration, mocrofiltraion, biological value, concentrate, isolate, etc.

The type and quality of processing the whey make mean a world of difference into how each scoop is handled by the body - filtering, ion-exchange, heat temperature, acids or enzymes added or preserved will tell the complete story. Keen to become an expert in food technology and raise the eye brows of the big guys around? Throw them some fancy terms:

1) Ultra- and diafiltration separates particles based on pore size using thin polymer, stainless steel-covered filters to produce cross-flow extraction.

2) Reverse osmosis, often used in water purification forces whey under a high-pressure filter membrane to separate out different sized molecular species of whey.

3) Ion-exchange comes from either a cheap acid treatment or a better choice stirred-bed system that produces excellent functional whey retaining all protein fractions.

To give you the most benefits, the proteins should receive minimal denaturation heat treatment during processing.

Concentrates and Isolates

So, you've got Whey Protein. Now it's time to split hairs – which kind? Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) and Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) are the two main commercial forms of Whey Protein. Both have extremely high protein quality and digestibility. The big difference between these two is their work in the body. WPCs vary in protein content from 34-80% depending on how it is processed, usually through ultrafiltration and diafiltration. Unless it is pretreated, a WPC will contain almost all protein components of whey. WPI booms with 90% protein or more derived from ion-exchange or membrane processing, two superior methods.

Most of the whey protein powders you find will contain mostly WPC with some WPI mixed in. WPI is the highest yield of protein you can find. It is more expensive than concentrate because it is more pure and contains more protein with less fat and lactose per serving, usually 90-98% protein (BV 106) compared to 70-85% (BV 80) found in Whey Protein Concentrate.

Whey Side Effects

Whey protein, are just that, protein - unlike some other types of supplements and drugs, whey protein supplements contain mostly whey and some other stuff like carbohydrates, calcium, some fats, and some fancy ingredients which really aren't that special. So in other words, you can expect very little, if any side effects of taking whey protein supplements. Other than maybe gaining some lean mass, which is what you want. Also, there have been no documented side effects of whey protein, it's just like the food you eat, causing no side effects.

Even though whey protein is no doubt the best protein you can get, you shouldn't take too much of it. Too much of a good thing can be harmful. Extremely high consumption of whey protein could overload your liver and cause some serious damages. You do know that your liver is the second most important organ after your heart, right?

If you're lactose intolerant, go for WPI. It contains less than 1% lactose, while WPC has 6%. Try not to overdo the protein gobbling – impractical, expensive, and pointless as your digestive enzymes may not process it all overworking your kidneys and liver. It is recommended that you take about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. For a 150lb bodybuilder, that's around 150 grams of protein from all the foods you take during the day.

The reason for caution is that it may be very easy to drink more protein than your muscles need at one point. Even though WPI is pure and complete, doesn't mean it'll give you more muscles and size. Firstly and mostly, your overall training, diet and recovery would determine how strong, big and lean you are. Secondly, whey is absorbed much faster, so it doesn't give a sustained release of amino acids like everything else. Isolate is also lower in natural glutamine and arginine content, the two other prime muscle-growth supporters.

If you time your WPI intake right, like straight after working out when your starving muscles need it the most, you are almost promised to see the good-looking body expansion every time you look in the mirror, and decades of research can back-up that claim. What else can you possibly dream of? No other food or supplement can even dare to compete with Whey Protein Isolate.

References

Agin, D., et al., "Effects of Whey Protein and Resistance Exercise on Body Composition and Muscle Strength in Women with HIV Infection," Ann N Y Acad Sci 2000; 904: 607-9.

Optimum Sports Nutrition: Your Competitive Edge, A Complete Nutritional Guide For Optimizing Athletic Performance; Chapter 12. by Dr. Michael Colgan.

Tong LM, Sasaki S, McClements DJ, Decker EA. Mechanisms of the antioxidant activity of a high molecular weight fraction of whey. J Agric Food Chem. 2000; 48:1473-1478.

Belobrajdic D, McIntosh G, Owens J. The effect of dietary protein on rat growth, body composition and insulin sensitivity. Aust J Dairy Technol 2003; 58:2.

Bounous, G., and Gold, P., "The Biological Activity of Undenatured Dietary Whey Proteins: Role of Glutathione," Clin Invest Med 1991;14.4:296-309.

Bounous, G., et al., "The Immunoenhancing Property of Dietary Whey Protein Concentrate," Clin Invest Med 1988;11.4:271-8.

Bounous, G., et al., "Whey Proteins in Cancer Prevention," Cancer Lett 199; 57.2:91-4.

Rankin, J.W., "Role of Protein in Exercise," Clin Sports Med 1999; 18.3:499-511.

Poullain MG, Cezard JP, Roger L and Mendy F. The effect of whey proteins, their oligopeptide hydrolysates and free amino acid mixtures on growth and nitrogen retention in fed and starved rats. JPEN 1989; 13:382-386.

Bell S J. Whey protein concentrates with and without immunoglobulins: a review. J med Food. 2000; 3:1-13.

And many more...

Body Composition and Whey

Immunity and Whey

Health and Whey 

Sports Nutrition and Whey