Protein, protein, protein: Believe it or not, all proteins are not created equal! Since this subject is pretty extensive, we have broken this short article up into three parts. Part I addresses different qualities and benefits of protein; Part II addresses Soy Protein specifically (its controversial shortfalls and benefits); and Part III addresses local plumber to make use of each protein source. Ask any bodybuilder about protein, and they will tell you that? Whey is King.? Unfortunately, that is about in terms of most people’s knowledge about protein goes, and most athletes and fitness enthusiasts, don’t know why whey is the greatest way to obtain protein or that there are differing qualities and benefits from several types of whey protein. The major players in the field of protein are (in ascending order of quality) Soy Protein, Casein, Whey Protein Concentrates (WPC), Whey Protein Isolates (WPI-which will come from ion exchange process or microfiltration), and Hydrolyzed Whey Protein (HWP). Being that soy is the only vegetable protein mentioned, and since it is fairly controversial, we will discuss it separately simply II. We will start with defining casein and the differing kinds of whey. So, What’s the Big difference? You can find differing qualities of proteins that can be produced from milk; these are casein and whey. Whey is the liquid left over through the cheese making process after the casein in milk is converted into curds. The lowest quality and least expensive form of protein is Caseinate, and can be found in the shape of Calcium Caseinate, along with many other variations such as Potassium Caesinate, etc. Because the name implies, it arises from? casein? before it is converted into curds. A 1997 study titled? Slow and Fast Dietary Proteins Differently Modulate Postprandial Protein Accretion? published in the National Academy of Sciences journal indicated casein could be anticatabolic because it prevents protein breakdown. Due to the larger molecules, casein is digested slower than whey protein and maintains elevated amino acid levels in the blood for a longer time of time. There are lots of benefits in maintaining elevated amino acid levels in blood as it’s demonstrated an ability to decrease muscle breakdown (catabolism) along with having an anabolic effect. If your body is attempting to repair muscle tissues, it takes amino acids in the bloodstream in order to take action. It would be hard for a builder to build you a house with no materials; exactly the same is valid for muscle repair and growth: they can’t happen without the presence of adequate levels of amino acids inside our bloodstream. Although casein is the cheapest and least refined of the proteins produced from milk, it’s a bit higher in glutamine, tyrosine, threonine, and arginine content than whey protein. For this reason a great refined whey protein supplement (such as an Isolate, or Hydrolysate) will often have these amino acids added to it. Casein also moves slower through the digestive system, which might permit better absorption of amino acids and growth factors along with which makes it a better meal replacement protein due to its longer and slower transit time (which translates to longer satiety or perhaps a feeling of being full). By using casein as a meal replacement protein, we have been less likely to experience hunger than if we use a protein supplement with a faster gastric emptying time (one that leaves the stomach faster). The main benefit of slower digestion and transit time is it is thought that slower transit time may permit a higher absorption of certain components that might not be absorbed from proteins that feel the proximal bowel faster. Therefore, casein is the greatest choice to make use of when our schedule does not allow us to own normal food. Still, normal food would be more beneficial as it takes a lot longer to leave the stomach and maintains our blood sugar levels better controlled than the usual? liquid lunch? because the? liquid lunch? does not require much work from the stomach by means of digestion. Good quality food should be our first choice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If your schedule does not allow the? luxury? of putting away enough time to prepare or purchase a sufficient meal, casein is the greatest choice for a meal replacement if long term satiety is the goal. Probably the biggest advantage of using a high quality casein protein supplement is its potential in functional properties being researched in hospitalized patients, infants and animals, such as immune enhancing and antiviral properties. Whey protein concentrate (WPC) is the next step up from caseinate and it arises from the liquid left over through the cheese making process (whey). In its raw form whey contains lactose, fat, salt, and other proteins. Originally all whey protein was produced from whey sources left over from the manufacturing of cheese. If supplement manufacturers use this lower quality way to obtain raw materials, harsh acids have been used to separate whey from casein causing a lower quality whey protein supplement. Presently there are companies that produce whey and casein specifically for supplement manufacturers by extracting it from take advantage of for the sole intent behind creating higher quality supplements, making the grade of whey protein today better than those previously available. There are many different processes built to separate or filter the valuable fractions of protein within whey. These range between microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis water filtration filtration, dynamic membrane filtration, ion exchange, along with many others which can be being tested to yield the very best product that contains as many of the beneficial health promoting portions of whey while leaving the impurities out. These beneficial fractions include alpha-lactalbumin, beta-lactoglobu? lin, glycomacropeptides (GMP), lactoferrin, lactoperoxi? dase, immunoglobulins, lysozymes, and many more being studied to determine their role in health benefits. Whey protein produced from ultrafiltration is called Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC). The ultrafiltration process does not remove any fat or denatured protein from the whey. For the WPC to be considered high quality, special processing ahead of the ultrafiltration is essential to eliminate most of the fat present in whey along with breaking up out denatured protein and casein particles left over from the cheese making process if the raw material (whey) was acquired secondary to the processing of cheese. WPC’s can yield a product which range from 20% up to 85% protein. They are often 20% protein and 85% fat and lactose, which is usually the case when not specified in a product. If the concentrate consists mostly of protein, it usually states so in the label; if it consists mostly of fat and lactose, your intestines enables you to know with gas and bloating. The way to tell if your WPC is high quality (highest percent protein as opposed to lactose and fat) is by looking at the label and calculating the percentage of protein compared to the total weight of the meal. For example, if your protein meal is 23. 5g and it yields 20g of protein per serving, the simple math is 20? 23. 5 =. 8510 x 100 = 85. 10% this means your protein serving contains 85. 10% protein. Keep in mind that flavoring agents, sweeteners, gums, and also fiber in a few supplements take up some of the amount of the total serving weight. This formula is usually to be used only with WPC supplements or any supplement that includes only protein as an easy way of determining the percentage yield of protein per serving. This formula isn’t to be used in combination with Meal Replacement Powders (MRP’s) as these contain fat and carbohydrates in? meal-like-quantities? and would show the protein yield to be very low as it is being compared to the entire serving. Due to the many benefits of the differing kinds of protein that we will cover in this article, most protein supplement manufacturers? blend? or combine proteins for specific purposes which range from slow gastric emptying time for meal replacement purposes, or quick emptying time for post workout recovery. It really is these different blends that can also create a product superior or poor, with respect to the differing qualities and levels of the proteins found in their blends. The protein yield formula described above CAN and should be used in single source along with multi source proteins as long as they do not contain a lot of carbohydrates, fats, fiber, creatine, etc., as these other components will cause the formula to yield a lower life expectancy and less desired protein per serving value or number. Good quality supplements will use WPC with at least 80% protein content. If the manufacturer is wanting to cut back cost, they’ll use a product yielding a lesser percentage of protein, and thus more fat and lactose will be within the item. This is an easy task to determine even without doing the math as these products tend to provide you with gas and cause bloating as a result of lactose and fat content. Whey Protein Isolates (WPI) are in a higher level than WPCs. Once we have whey protein concentrate (WPC) if we wish a higher quality product we proceed to making Whey Protein Isolates (WPI). This is a process through which WPC is purified by? isolating? the highly soluble protein within whey from the fat and lactose leaving less than 1% lactose and less than 2% of the fat within the WPC, and by completely removing the denatured protein, salt, etc. As noted above, there are many processes through which WPI is produced, yet they fall under either Microfiltration or Ion Exchange. These processes are extremely different in temperature, pressure, etc. and so yield very different end products and services. Once the fat, denatured protein and casein particles have been removed, the proteins in whey are separated from the liquid. The ultrafiltration and microfiltration processes use a microscopic filter or membrane to separate your lives the whey proteins from the lactose, salt, and water in the whey causing the protein to become more concentrated and purified, while the ion exchange process separates the proteins out in relation to their electrical charge. The first ion exchange or? column method? includes pumping whey by way of a column impregnated with a special resin that is chemically treated to have a surface electrical or? ionic charge.? This causes different ions from the protein to bond or stick to the resin and the remaining impurities flow through the column and so are discarded. The main problem with ion exchange is that some of the beneficial fractions (alpha-lactalbumin, beta-lactoglobu? lin, glycomacropeptides [GMP], lactoferrin, lactoperoxi? dase, immunoglobulins, lysozymes, etc) will not bind to resin and will be discarded as they also flow through the column. The column is then rinsed with water containing chemical buffers that change the outer lining charge of the resin causing the release of the amino acids and protein in to the buffered solution. The protein released in to the buffered solution must now undergo another step to eliminate a lot of the buffer solution. This additional step is another ultrafiltration system which inturn does not remove all the sodium from the buffer solution. Just one more problem related to Ion Exchange whey protein isolate includes high sodium content in the final product, along with up to 10% denatured protein due to the chemical reaction between your resin the protein was bound to and the buffer used to release it, and the loss of GMP’s and other disease fighting capability boosters. Some great benefits of the Ion Exchange process is that it is able to remove the majority of the fat and lactose creating a product that is up to 90% pure. A newer method of breaking up molecules is known as a? stirred bead reactor system? and it usually does not affect the active compounds within whey protein. The Ion Exchange process was the very first process developed to produce whey protein isolates from Whey Protein Concentrate. Because ion exchange was the only way to produce WPI in the beginning, it had been then regarded as the best quality isolate. Following the development of microfiltration, it had been discovered that the whey protein isolates produced via microfiltration had a much higher nutritional profile than that of isolates created via the ion exchange method. There are lots of explanations why WPI created via microfiltration is really a superior product. These reasons range between lower sodium content due to elimination of the usage of solvents, to not having chemically denatured protein, and most notably, reclamation of immune boosting fractions when compared with the ion exchange method which loses them. Microfiltration WPI, one of the finest quality protein supplements, is produced by beginning with high quality milk sourced WPC and filtering it through special membranes under low temperature and low pressure. These special membranes allow only soluble protein to pass through its microscopic pores leaving salt, fat, lactose and denatured proteins behind. Although this method is started with a high quality WPC, because it’s a WPC it is still turbid due to its salt, fat, lactose, and non soluble protein content. Once these unwanted particles are isolated from the high quality protein, a superior liquid is all that is left over. The next thing is to dry this superior liquid to produce a powder, and here is among the steps where manufacturers can go astray. The only method to produce a superior product is always to allow the liquid dry right into a powder by using a low temperature dryer. A minimal temperature dryer is really a very expensive and slow means of creating a powder from the crystalline liquid. Many manufacturers opt to employ a temperature dryer as it is significantly faster and cheaper to make use of than the usual low temperature one. It doesn’t have a degree in chemistry to appreciate that heat denatures (breaks down) protein. The entire concept of running the WPC by way of a membrane was simply to eliminate denatured protein, why put in a step that takes your product backwards? Good quality WPI will only be dried right into a powder using low temperature spray dryers since the temperature dryers will denature the protein and yield a reduced quality product. Whey Protein Hydrolysates (WPH), or hydrolyzed whey protein, is further processing of whey isolate by wearing down the long protein chains into smaller portions or peptides. To? hydrolyze? something means to break it down into smaller particles (usually by adding water). The larger the degree or percentage of hydrolysis, the more divided the whey protein isolate (smaller size), and the faster the absorption. Labeling laws allow manufacturers to call a product? hydrolyzed whey? when it may contain 1/10th of 1% hydrolyzation. The key is to learn what percentage of hydrolyzation the item includes. The highest quality hydrolysates will be 100% Whey Protein Hydrolysates which may have a bitter taste by definition and so are maybe not found in high amounts. Combined with bitter taste, comes a bitter high price as it is the finest quality and most expensive protein on the market. Some manufacturers have been able to produce a 100% hydrolysate that does not have a bitter taste, yet is rather expensive in comparison to other protein supplements. In the duodenum or proximal bowel where protein is absorbed in the human body, dipeptides and tripeptides (protein? chains? comprising two and three amino acids) enter freely into intestinal cells to be absorbed in to the bloodstream. For this reason a hydrolysate is the greatest form of protein to make use of post workout once we want the amino acids to enter our bloodstream and be sent to muscle cells as soon as possible so that repair and growth may start right away. Because of the high cost of 100% hydrolyzed whey, a blend comprising whey isolate and hydrolyzed whey would be optimal for post workout use. Many manufacturers prefer to also include Caesinate and WPC in their post workout protein blends as a method of addressing both ends of the spectrum: fast increase of amino acids in to the bloodstream by utilizing WPI and HWP, and extended elevated amino acid levels by utilizing Caseinate along with WPC. I personally prefer using the HWP as i want the amino acids to enter my muscle cells right away. Stay tuned in for Part II, where I will proceed and discuss Soy Proteins – The great, The Bad and the Ugly?