|
Info Resources on Tom Venuto |
An objective and unbiased discussion with Tom Venuto
Hey Tom 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 you’re 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 use many of them, including a multi vitamin,
creatine, thermogenic agents 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
bodybuilder’s 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
isn’t 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 isn’t 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 its significance because the protein and fat
slow the absorption of the carbohydrate.
That’s 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 don’t 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 Netzer’s "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 don’t know about you, but I’ll 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 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 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. Aside from that,
focus on real food and don’t believe the hype.
References:
| Protein info | ||
|
| info on Tom Venuto | ||
|
|
|
Lori V Braun |
I encourage all visitors to suggest topics they would like to see me cover.
Help me make femalemuscle.com and bodybuilding a strong community. The time is now.
"TIME TO GET BIG"
Write me your comments, suggestions, queries
Suggest a Site or Rate a Site
Previous Features
all photo courtesy of NYCG graphics by lori
