Wheying your options

Wheying your options…what should you consider when choosing a whey protein powder, once you’ve decided that you want to try taking it for muscle building and recovery.

Some Products that contain whey

Many athletes or anyone that is doing large amounts of exercise use some sort of whey protein to help fuel or recover from their workouts.  When you see products that have “20g of protein” in them, whey or soy protein is often the type of protein that you see in protein shakes and in the “energy” bars that contain protein.  For someone that is following a whole foods based Paleo diet, soy is out but whey is something that is on the fence, especially with athletes.  Personally I don’t do well with whey protein, so it’s not something that I include in my diet.  However, endurance athletes that are doing lots of training should consider using a whey protein as part of the fueling and recovery plan, and people that aren’t as sensitive to it as I am can also consider using it as recovery or fuel for a longer run or intense crossfit session.  My recommendation to  people first and foremost is use real food, but if it’s too hard for you to have real food (sounds a bit silly right) or you want to give a protein supplement a try then there are definitely some things you should know before you go and buy just any old whey protein powder supplement.

What you should know before you use whey?  I wanted to share this statement, posted through the C.H.E.K. Institute, a holistic and whole foods based nutritional school The  C.H.E.K. Institute Posotion Statement on Whey Products.  Here are some of the highlights and my comments related to what you should consider when determining if using whey protein is right for you and your diet.

1. Consider the source of the protein – if you can find a grass-fed protein source, then you are going to have a higher quality product in general because the health of the animal will be better than from a conventionally raised one.
2. Is the product trying to “sell” you on it – if there are lots of health and performance claims on a product, this should be something to make you look into what is actually in the product.  Catchy name, probably low quality product…just something to take into consideration.
3. Look at what the protein is – you want to use ideally organic, cold processed whey protein and whey protein isolate to provide your body with the benefits of the protein while minimizing the ill effects of dairy products.  Finding cold processed whey protein may be hard, #1 you want to look for whey protein isolate and ideally something that is organic and grass-fed.
4. What the heck should I buy? – the C.H.E.K. institute recommends only two brands: IMUPlus and Eclater de Sante (Essence of Life).  Both of these are medical grade proteins and you need to be careful with consumption, because you can over consume these and overload your liver!  If you choose one of these brands make sure you’re following their directions, it is not the same as regular protein supplements you’ve been exposed to.  For a product that is a little more mainstream, I like  Stronger Faster Healthier brand whey protein since its from a grass-fed source and it’s not cheap.   In the write up they say that “you get what you pay for” so you need to know that the cheaper your product is, the more likely that your are getting something of poor quality.  Personally I think that you should go with plain whey protein, because what you are looking to get from it is the protein for rebuilding muscle.  You can add this to milk, water, sweet potato, some fruit to make a smoothie…depending on what ration of carbs to protein and what type of carb you’re looking for you can create what you need with the whey base.  For a product that’s already done for you, I feel like this should be used only for convenience but so far I like the Mix1 products…their products are not grass-fed, but at least are whey protein isolate and are lactose, gluten, and soy free.

Make sure you are monitoring how you feel when you’re using a whey protein supplement, dairy is highly allergenic, and many people just breeze over the fact that they dont’ feel as well when they take a supplement like this – they have some additional GI issues, constipation issues, develop some acne or skin rashes, etc.  Check in with your body and don’t fall prey to the convenience of adding some protein via a shake or supplement verses the importance of fueling your body for both recovery and performance with real food.

Make sure that you FEEL GOOD!

What is your experience with whey protein supplements?  Do you use anything you find helpful?  What have you noticed both good and bad about using it?  Have you noticed an increase in recovery time, added muscle, prevented muscle loss?