Whey Protein is your comrade!

Posted by Andrew on August 14th, 2019

Proteins are the bricks of the body. They make it possible to manufacture muscles, bones, hair, nails, skin, all organs but also hormones, enzymes and antibodies. Proteins are found in foods of animal origin, like meat, fish, eggs, cheese, milk, and also in foods of plant origin, like cereals, legumes, oilseeds. But their nutritional value is not equivalent.

Protein, what's the point?

Proteins are fundamental materials of living matter. Most of our food contains it. From a biochemical point of view, these are large molecules made of chains of varying length of amino acids. All proteins, whether of bacterial, plant or animal origin, consist of a group of 20 amino acids.

While it is true that dietary proteins are energy sources (amino acids provide energy equivalent to that provided by carbohydrates during their degradation), this is not their main function. The body uses the amino acids released during digestion for the synthesis of its own proteins, the basic material of the entire cellular infrastructure, tissues, organs, but also vital substances such as enzymes, antibodies, hormones and neurotransmitters.

The body is able to produce itself 16 amino acids, from other nutrients such as glucose for example. It must however imperatively find in the food the 8 others. These are called “indispensable”.

Whey protein, what is it?

In the process of cheese making, the milk is separated into 2 compounds: curd, semi-solid material that will become cheese, and whey, a liquid containing 95% water. This whey, also known as whey, is a by-product of the cheese industry.

It is subjected to various processes to concentrate the proteins, and then dehydrated to obtain a powder that is well preserved.

The commercial products are usually concentrated soluble powders to mix with the liquid of choice to obtain a high-protein drink. There are also protein nutritious tablets and infant formula that contain hydrolysed whey.

Whey protein, like all other proteins, are particularly rich in sulfur amino acids (methionine and cysteine), branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) and glutamine. Branched-chain amino acids are the amino acids most used by the muscles. They play many roles in muscle metabolism.

History of whey protein

The rise in milk production and the geographic concentration of the milk processing industry began to pose serious environmental problems early in the twentieth century. On the family farms, the cheese was once made on the spot and the whey was simply given to the pigs raised on the spot.

Milk processors, on the other hand, were left with huge amounts of whey. To avoid polluting groundwater by dumping these proteins into rivers or letting them filter into the ground, the industry has found uses for its by-products. Dehydrated and reduced to powder, the whey is used for animal feed. It is also used as an economic binder and emulsifier in the agri-food industry. Year in, year out, hundreds of millions of kilograms of whey powder are recycled.

It was only in the second half of the 20th century, thanks to the popularity of bodybuilding and sports medicine, that products designed to increase muscle mass or improve physical performance, as well as meal substitutes, were introduced. to people who want to lose weight.

Source: https://dynutrition.com/whey-protein/