Whey Protein Supplements - Essential Amino Acids To Build Muscle

When you start shopping around and reading every bit of information on protein, you will see that just about every product will say it has got the 'best amino mix'. What's the difference? Which ones are best? 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.

Producers of the most popular bodybuilding supplement, or protein, refer to other ways to measure protein quality, including 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, or so they say.

Comparing milk, eggs, soy, rice, beans, poultry, fish, meat and whey amino acid compilation whey is said to be a uniquely superior source of protein. Just compare the numbers:

Whey To Go!

What is Whey Protein? It is made from milk which contains protein (20% from whey and 80% from casein), fat and carbohydrates mainly from milk sugar lactose. 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.

Whey features the highest concentration of BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids) found in nature, growth factors and modulators, gut-friendly bifidobacteria and other microflora needed for strong immunity, disease protection and support of all new cell development.

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.

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.

By Elena Voropay