Protein
Supplements Vs. Protein Foods?
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Are protein supplements really better than protein foods?
Before attempting
to answer this question, I should first preface it by
mentioning that I do not sell supplements, nor am I associated
with any supplement company, so youre getting an
honest and unbiased opinion. Don't get me wrong; I am
not anti-supplement by any means. It would simply be more
accurate to say that I am "pro-food." There
are a lot of good supplements on the market, and I've
used many of them, including a multi vitamin, creatine
and essential fatty acid (EFA) supplements such as Flaxseed
oil. Protein powders and meal replacements can also be
indispensable if you don't have time to eat every three
hours. However, protein supplements are not the master
key to your success, real food is!
Did you ever
notice how articles about protein in certain bodybuilding
magazines are seldom objective? Instead, they all seem
to be slanted towards hyping some "revolutionary"
new product. Did you ever wonder why? In my opinion, most
articles on protein supplements are nothing more than
thinly disguised advertisements (some very thinly). Sometimes
they give you a very persuasive-sounding argument, replete
with dozens of references from scientific studies (mostly
done on rodents, of course). They even give you an 800
number at the end of the article to order. (How convenient!)
When protein
manufacturers throw around fancy words like cross flow
microfiltration, oligopeptides, ion-exchange, protein
efficiency ratio, biological value, nitrogen retention
and glycomacropeptides, it sure sounds convincing, especially
when scores of scientific references are cited. But don't
forget that the supplement industry is big business and
most magazines are the supplement industry. Lyle McDonald,
author of "The Ketogenic Diet," hit the nail
on the head when he wrote "Unfortunately, the obsession
that bodybuilders have with protein has made them susceptible
to all kinds of marketing hype. Like most aspects of bodybuilding
(and the supplement industry in general), the issue of
protein is driven more by marketing hype than physiological
reality and marketing types know how to push a bodybuilders
button when it comes to protein "
Many nutrition "experts" (read: people who sell
supplements), state that there are distinct advantages
of protein supplements (powders and amino acid tablets)
over whole foods. For example, they argue that whey, a
by-product of the cheese-making process, is a higher quality
protein than most whole food sources. There are many different
methods of determining protein quality, including biological
value (BV), protein efficiency ratio (PER), Net Protein
Utilization (NPU), chemical score, and protein digestibility
corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS). If you have ever
seen advertisements for protein powders and supplements,
you have undoubtedly heard of one or more of these measures
of protein quality.
BV is one of the most commonly used and is arguably, the
best measure of a protein's quality.
BV is based
on how much of the protein consumed is actually absorbed
and utilized by the body. The higher the amount of protein
(nitrogen) that is actually retained, the greater the
BV. If a protein has a BV of 100, it means that all of
the protein absorbed has been utilized with none lost.
Whole eggs score the highest of all foods with a BV of
100, while beans have a BV of only 49.
Protein quality
is certainly an important issue, but it is one that has
been enormously overstated and even distorted for marketing
purposes. Whey protein is truly an excellent protein with
a biological value at or near 100. Many advertisements
list whey as having a BV between 104 and 157, but if you
look in any nutrition textbook it will tell you that it
is impossible to have a BV over 100. In "Advanced
Nutrition and Human Metabolism," BV is defined as
"a measure of nitrogen retained for growth and/or
maintenance that is expressed as a percentage of nitrogen
absorbed."
When a protein
supplement is listed as having a BV over 100, the company
has intentionally manipulated the number for marketing
purposes or unintentionally confused BV with another method
of rating protein quality. Certain whey proponents claim
that whey is "superior to whole egg" so the
percentage sign on BV had to be dropped and the scale
extended beyond 100. It was noted by bodybuilding writer
Jerry Branium in IRONMAN magazine that in a study where
the BV of whey was reported to be 157, the author confused
BV with chemical score. Chemical score is a comparison
of the amino acid pattern in an ideal reference protein
to a test protein and therefore the number can exceed
100. 157 was actually the chemical score and not the BV.
Most bodybuilders
and strength athletes already consume more than enough
protein (an understatement if there ever was one), so
the importance of BV to these athletes who are already
consuming copious amounts of protein has been overplayed.
Even though whey has a higher BV than chicken breast,
fish or milk protein, if the total quantity of protein
you consume is sufficient, then it is not likely that
substituting whey for food proteins will result in any
additional muscle growth.
Whether you
choose a whole protein food or a protein supplement isnt
as important as some would like you to believe. For the
purposes of developing muscle, the only guidelines for
protein that you must follow are: (1) consume a source
of complete protein with every meal, (2) eat at frequent
intervals approximately three hours apart (about six times
per day) and (3) consume a minimum of .8 grams to 1 gram
per pound of body weight. There are times when it would
be beneficial to consume more than one gram per pound
of body weight, but that will have to be the subject of
another article.
Because whey
protein does have a high BV, it probably offers the most
benefits when you are dieting on very low calories. When
your energy intake and correspondingly, your protein intake,
are reduced, whey protein could help you get greater utilzation
of the smaller amount of protein that you are taking in.
In other words, choosing proteins of the highest quality
is more of an issue when you are dieting than when you
are focusing on mass gains when total calories and protein
are being consumed in abundant amounts. Whey protein also
provides a way to get high quality protein without the
fat, which is also important when dieting.
It has been suggested that whey may have other advantages
besides high protein quality, although they are frequently
overstated.
These benefits
include enhanced immunity, increased antioxidant activity
and quick absorption. Several studies in "Clinical
and Investigative Science" by Dr. Gerard Bounous
of Montreal have shown that whey protein provides anti
carcinogenic properties, protection from infections, and
other enhanced immune responses. Whey protein was also
been shown to raise levels of Glutathione, an important
antioxidant that can offer protection from free radical
oxidative damage. While such findings are very promising,
all these studies, which are frequently quoted in whey
protein advertisements, were performed on mice, so it
is unclear how well the results extrapolate to humans.
Another acknowledged benefit of whey protein is its fast
absorption rate.
Although there
isnt any evidence that protein supplements digest
more efficiently than whole foods (as is often claimed),
they are definitely digested faster. This is most important
after a training session when the rates of protein synthesis
and glycogen re-synthesis are increased. This is the reason
it is often recommended that a liquid meal containing
protein and a high glycemic carbohydrate be consumed immediately
post-workout and that whey is the ideal protein for this
purpose. Even in considering post-workout nutrition, there
is still little proof that a liquid protein-carb complex
will actually produce better muscular growth than whole
foods, as long as complete whole food protein foods and
complex carbohydrates are consumed immediately after the
training session and every three waking hours for a period
of 24 hours thereafter.
Speaking of protein absorption rates, the discussion of
fast acting versus slow acting proteins seems to be the
latest hot topic these days in bodybuilding circles.
The interest
was sparked by studies in 1997 and 1998 that examined
the differences between the absorption rates of whey versus
casein. The researchers concluded that whey was a fast
acting protein and was considered to be more "anabolic"
while casein was slower acting and was considered to be
more "anti-catabolic. " It was further hypothesized
that consuming a combination of these two types of proteins
could lead to greater muscle growth. These findings have
prompted the supplement companies to market an entirely
new category of protein supplements; casein and whey mixes.
The problem with drawing such conclusions so quickly is
that these studies looked at the speed of whey and casein
absorption in subjects who had fasted for 10 hours before
being fed the protein. Any suppositions drawn from this
information are probably irrelevant if you are eating
mixed whole food meals every three hours. Obviously, more
research is needed.
This recent
fascination with various rates of protein absorption could
be compared to the interest in the glycemic index. The
glycemic index is a scale that measures the rate at which
the body converts various carbohydrate foods into blood
glucose. The higher the glycemic index, the faster the
food is converted to glucose and the larger the insulin
response. Therefore it is said that high glycemic foods
should be avoided in favor of low glycemic index foods.
The error in relying solely on the glycemic index as your
only criteria for choosing carbohydrates is that the index
is based on consuming a carbohydrate food by itself in
a fasted state.
When carbohydrates
are consumed in mixed meals that contain protein and a
little fat, the glycemic index loses some of its significance
because the protein and fat slow the absorption of the
carbohydrate. Thats why the glycemic index is really
much ado about nothing and the same could probably be
said for the casein and whey argument. It's just the latest
in a long string of new angles that supplement companies
use to promote their protein: free-form vs peptides, concentrate
vs isolate, ion exchange vs microfiltration, soy vs whey,
casein and whey mix vs pure whey and so on. Every year,
you can count on some new twist on the protein story to
appear. Certainly there are going to be advances in nutrition
science, but all too often these "new discoveries"
amount to nothing more than marketing hype.
What about amino acid pills? Amino acids pills are simply
predigested protein.
Proponents
of amino acid supplementation claim that because the amino's
are predigested, the body will absorb them better, leading
to greater improvements in strength and muscle mass. It
sounds logical, but this is a gross underestimation of
the body's capacities and actually the reverse is true:
The human digestive system was designed to efficiently
process whole foods; it was not designed to digest pills
and powders all day long. Amino's are absorbed more rapidly
in the intestine when they are in the more complex di
and tri-peptide molecules.
Your body gets
better use of the aminos as protein foods are broken down
and the amino's are absorbed at just the right rate for
your body's needs. In "Exercise Physiology; Energy
Nutrition and Human Performance," authors Katch and
McArdle state that "Amino acid supplementation in
any form has not been shown by adequate experimental design
and methodology to increase muscle mass or significantly
improve muscular strength, power, or endurance."
Furthermore, consuming predigested protein when you are
seeking fat loss is not necessarily advantageous because
it shortchanges you of the thermic effects of real food.
Whole foods
have a major advantage over protein supplements; they
stimulate the metabolism more. This is known as the "thermic
effect of food." Protein has the highest thermic
effect of any food. Including a whole protein food with
every meal can speed up your metabolic rate as much as
30% because of the energy necessary to digest, process,
and absorb it. This means that out of 100 calories of
a protein food such as chicken breast, the net amount
of calories left over after processing it is 70. In this
respect, the fact that protein foods digest slower than
amino acid tablets is actually an advantage.
A final argument against amino acid supplements is the
cost. Amino's are simply not cost effective.
If you dont
believe it, pick up a bottle and do the math yourself.
One popular brand of "free form and peptide bonded
amino acids" contains 150 1000mg. tablets per bottle
and costs $19.95. 1000 mg. of amino acids equals 1 gram
of protein, so the entire bottle contains 150 grams of
protein. $19.95 divided by 150 grams is 13.3 cents per
gram. Let's compare that to chicken breast. I can buy
chicken breast from my local supermarket for $2.99 a pound.
According to Corinne Netzers "Complete Book
of Food Counts," there are 8.8 grams of protein in
each ounce of chicken, so one pound of chicken (16 oz)
has about 140 grams of protein. $2.99 divided by 140 grams
equals 2.1 cents per gram. The amino acids cost more than
six times what the chicken breast does! I dont know
about you, but Ill stick with the chicken breast.
The biggest advantage of protein supplements is not that
they can build more muscle than chicken or egg whites
or any other whole food protein, the biggest advantage
is convenience.
It is easier
to drink a protein shake than it is to buy, prepare, cook
and eat poultry, fish or egg whites. Consuming small,
frequent meals is the optimal way to eat, regardless of
whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain. To keep
your body constantly in positive nitrogen balance, you
must consume a complete protein every three hours. For
many people, eating this often is nearly impossible. That's
when a high quality protein supplement is the most helpful.
Aside from convenience, the truth about protein supplements
is that they offer few advantages over protein foods.
There is no
scientific evidence that you can't meet all of your protein
needs for muscle growth through food. As long as you eat
every three hours and you eat a complete protein such
as eggs, lean meat or lowfat dairy products with every
meal, it is not necessary to consume any protein supplements
to get outstanding results. Whey protein does have some
interesting and useful properties and supplementing with
a couple scoops each day is not a bad idea, especially
if you are on a low calorie diet for fat loss or when
you're using a post workout shake instead of a meal. Aside
from that, focus on real food and dont believe the
hype.
References
1) Groff, James,
et al, Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism, West Publishing
company, 1995.
2) Fruhbeck,
Gema. Slow and fast dietary proteins. Nature, 391: 843-844
3) Boirie,
Y. et al. Slow and fast dietary proteins differently modulate
postprandial protein accretion. Proc National Acad Sci,
94: 14930-14935, 1997
4) Lemon, Peter,
Protein and Exercise: update, Medicine and Science in
Sports and Exercise, Vol 19, No. 5, S179 - S190, 1987
5) Carraro,
F., et at, Effect of exercise and recovery on muscle protein
synthesis in human subjects. Amer Journal of physiology,
259: E470, 1990
6) Lemon, Peter,
Is increased dietary protein necessary or beneficial for
individuals with a physically active lifestyle? Nutrition
reviews, 54:S 169-175, 1996
7)Bounous,
G., et al, The immunoenhancing property of dietary whey
protein concentrate. Clinical and Investigational Medicine,
11: 271-278. 1988.
8) Sadler,
R., The benefits of dietary whey protein concentrate on
the immune response and health. S Afr. J Dairy Sci, 24:
No 24, 1992
9) Bounous,
G., Dietary whey protein inhibits the development of dimethylhydrazine-induced
malignancy. Clinical and Investigational Medicine, 12:
213-217, 1988
10) Bounous,
G., et al, The biological activity of undenatured dietary
whey protein; role of glutathione. Clinical and Investigational
Medicine, 14: 4, 296-309, 1991
11) Netzer,
Corinne. The Complete Book of Food Counts. Dell Publishing,
1997
12) Katch,
Katch & McArdle, Exercise Physiology; Energy, Nutrition
and Human Performance, Wiliams and Wilkins, 1996.
About
the Author:
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Tom Venuto is a lifetime
natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning
specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling
e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom has
written hundreds of articles and has been featured
in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise
for Men and Mens Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide.
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