15 known and unknown benefits of whey protein

Building muscle and strength aren’t the only benefits of whey protein, there are many other benefits that you may never heard of, but before we get into that we need to understand what is whey protein exactly…

How Whey protein is made?

The process of making whey protein is too complicated, but I will explain it in a quick and easy way…

Whey protein Derived originally from whole milk, it is separated and collected during the cheese making process in a liquid form.

Then the liquid whey is put into a dryer that has hot as well as cold air to dry out the water and separate the solids from the liquid form.

Finally, it is packaged in containers and is tested for purity after that they flavor it to be ready for selling.

If you still want to read the whole process, you can read it in this article.

There are 3 main types of whey protein:

1-Concentrate: About 70–80% protein; contains the highest amounts of lactose (milk sugar), fat and carb in comparison with the other types, but it has the best flavor.

2-Isolate: 90% protein or higher; contains less lactose, fat and carb, but lacks a lot of the beneficial nutrients found in whey protein concentrate.

3-Hydrolysate: Also known as hydrolyzed whey, this type is the same as isolate in terms of the quantity of protein, fat, lactose and carb, but it has been pre-digested so that it gets absorbed faster and it causes a 28–43% greater spike in insulin levels than isolate

As for the price, Whey protein concentrate is the cheapest form, isolate comes in the 2^nd place and the hydrolysate is the most expensive form.

So, whey protein concentrate seems to be the overall best option, It’s the cheapest and retains most of the beneficial nutrients found naturally in whey. Many people also prefer the taste, which is probably due to the lactose and fat.

But If you are someone with lactose intolerance and felt the symptoms triggered from whey concentrate, whey isolate — or even hydrolysate — may be a better option.

What is so special about whey protein?

it has many advantages over the other sources of protein and here’s some of them:

1-Quick absorption

Whey protein powder has proven to yield the highest amount of rapidly absorbed whey protein available thus far. This quick absorption makes whey protein powder easily tolerated and more effective in spiking the protein synthesis within the muscle for better and faster results.

2-pure high quality protein

in whey’s purest form, it contains the highest quality protein with low fat, carb, lactose or cholesterol, making whey protein a healthy addition to any diet.

While dairy products, meat and eggs provide naturally available protein, whey protein is far superior in both quality and quantity.

3-complete amino acid profile

The Whey amino profile contains all the essential and unessential amino acid and these amino acids are the building blocks for almost every cell in our body like skin, hair, nails and muscle tissue.

So for that whey protein is widely used as a supplement for building and maintaining healthy muscle in comparison to other protein sources.

4-spike anabolic hormones

Insulin spike is a rapid increase in the release of insulin, causing a rapid transport of protein, carb and fat from the blood into the cells.

This may sound bad for those of you who are trying to lose weight as it could slow down the weight loss process and even cause weight gain.

But After a heavy workout session the situation is different, Your catabolic hormones (which cause muscle breakdown) go up and anabolic hormones (which cause muscle gain) go down and one of these anabolic is insulin which can be increased significantly by a shake of whey protein powder.

This insulin spike caused by whey protein is due to the high content of protein and its fast absorption, which cause a quicker insulin release than any other source of protein.

Now, after we took a quick overview about whey protein, lets get into the known and unknown benefits of it, shall we?

Known benefits

1-promote muscle growth

Widely available research on whey protein indicates that when whey protein powder is combined with regular exercise and a healthy diet, the result is a consistent and noticeable muscle growth.

This could be due to high contain of an amino acid called Lucine, which believed to be an anabolic amino acid that plays an important rule in building new muscle tissues with regular exercise.

For that reason, Whey protein is important for anyone involved with physical training as muscle stress quickly depletes the available lucine levels in the body.

2-stimulate protein synthesis

Whey protein Acts as a precursor to muscle building and essential amino function, it stimulates the acids responsible for muscle enhancement, endurance and growth.

Reduced muscle deterioration is one of the whey protein powder benefits experienced by bodybuilders.

3-speed up muscle recovery

After an extreme physical workout whey protein powder effectively shortens the time of recovery from muscular stress and strain, due to the high contain of an amino acid called glutamine which aids in muscle recovery and prevent muscle breakdown.

Also, Whey protein has proven its ability to speed up muscle recovery and strength by instantly meeting the protein and calorie requirement for the day which make your body in anabolism (building muscle) instead of catabolism.

Unknown benefits

4-aids in weight loss

A 12-week study showed that people on a 500-calorie-reduced diet lost more body fat and preserved more lean muscle when taking a whey protein fraction high in leucine.

An explanation for this study is the ability of leucine to build muscle and prevent its breakdown, and the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be.

Also, proteins help you control your hunger by making you feel full and whey protein has more effect on controlling hunger than any other type of protein like soy or casein according to a study compared all of them.

5-balanced blood sugar levels

As I mention before, whey protein cause insulin spike, and as you already know that insulin is the hormone that responsible for decreasing the blood sugar levels.

so, if whey causes a fast release of insulin (spike), it will aid in moderating blood sugar.

This theory was confirmed by several studies done on normal people and people with diabetes type 2, they found that consuming whey protein specially before a high carb meal can moderate blood sugar, increase both insulin release and sensitivity to its effects in both normal and diabetic people.

6-reduce blood pressure

In all dairy products including whey, there are bioactive peptides called “ACE-inhibitors” these peptides showed effective benefits of decreasing blood pressure in many animal studies.

However, blood pressure decreased only in those that had high or slightly elevated blood pressure to begin with and seems to be only beneficial with high dosage of whey protein (54g/day).

7-control inflammation

Inflammation is the body reactive response to damaged tissues and it’s very important for the healing process, but if it becomes chronic, it could be harmful and a risk factor for many diseases.

A large review study found that high doses of whey protein supplements significantly reduced C-reactive protein (CRP) which considered a key marker of inflammation in the body.

8-reduce LDL Cholesterol levels.

Animal-based proteins have traditionally been implicated as being pro-atherogenic, whey proteins appear to be an exception to the rule.

There is a protein molecules in whey protein called lactoferrin, this protein thought to be the responsible for the ability of whey to prevent the oxidation of LDL which trigger the formation of atherosclerosis.

And When lactoferrin was removed from the protein, the ability of whey to prevent LDL oxidation was greatly reduced, leading the researchers to believe that lactoferrin is the main factor responsible for the inhibitory effect of whey protein on LDL.

9-cancer prevention and treatment

lactoferrin may have other health benefits such as its anticancer properties, it may be in too low of quantities in whey to exert these effects, but still may be beneficial with high dosage of whey protein.

In vivo research on cancer and whey showed whey protein concentrate inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells at low concentrations (Baruchel S. and Vaiu G., Anti Cancer Research, 1996)

Another recent clinical study with cancer patients showed a regression in some patient’s tumors when fed whey protein concentrate at 30 grams per day.

10-promote bone growth

whey protein appears to play a direct role in bone growth. Researchers found that rats fed whey protein concentrate showed increased bone strength and bone protein such as collagen.

This discovery led researches to test whether or not whey protein directly stimulated osteoblast (bone cell) growth in vitro.

11-enchant antioxidant defenses

Antioxidants are substances that fight body oxidation and cut the risk of many chronic diseases.

One of the most important antioxidant in the human body is glutathione.

The production of glutathione depends on several amino acids such as cysteine.

Luckily for us, whey protein is rich in cysteine so it may boost the body’s natural antioxidant defenses.

12-beneficial in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease is a condition characterized by chronic inflammation in the lining of the digestive tract (digestive system).

In both animals and human studies, whey protein supplementation has been found to have beneficial effects on inflammatory bowel disease.

13-improve immunity

There have been several U.S. and international patients granted for the treatment of AIDS and improving immunity with whey protein concentrates.

Animals fed whey protein concentrate consistently showed dramatic enhancement of both the humoral and cellular immune response to a variety of immune challenges.

Which makes us think that Whey protein improves immune function and fights infections in humans too.

14-prevent/treat anemia

Lactoferrin (which is mentioned above) has an important role in the uptake of iron, which is important for carrying oxygen in red blood cells, so it might prevent and treat the anemia due to iron deficiency (iron deficiency anemia).

15-reduce bone loss in osteoporotic women

In postmenopausal osteoporosis, bones become fragile from increased bone resorption due to lower estrogen.

A study With whey protein supplementation showed that the bone loss reduced in the state of decreased estrogen levels and increased bone resorption in postmenopausal women.

Keep in mind that some of these benefits are found in Researches that done on animal studies, so we still need further investigation and more studies done on humans to confirm these benefits.

Side effects and dosage

With the regular recommended dosage between 1-2 scoops(25-50g) a day, there almost no side effects or risk factors over the long-term for an average healthy person.

You may suffer from digestive problems, such as nausea, pain, bloating, cramping, flatulence, and diarrhea with high dosage of whey.

Now you know that whey protein has many benefits not only for some trying to build muscle and lose weight, but also there are many other health benefits.