Supplement Advisor Protein Products: Sorting Them Out

Summer is coming and you want to get into shape, FAST! You start working out, eating better, and you decide to look for a good protein supplement to help you along. So, you decide you want to buy a protein powder or meal supplement/replacement and you go to your local supplier of such items only to discover that none of the products call a duck a duck on the label. Reading the label is a disaster. You see things like cross flow, microfiltered, ion exchange, ultrafiltered, double filtered, cold filtered, undenatured, and blah, blah, blah. Well unless you have a degree in dairy science and understand the processes for producing a powedered protein product you probably think that you have just encountered a new language. Fret not, as we will discuss the basic points you will need to know when choosing a protein.

First of all you must know the different types of protein available on the market. Milk is the starting source for most protein powders although some might still contain beef protein (not considered to be as good as milk proteins). The other type of high quality protein available is soy. The quality of soy protein varies greatly depending on the degree of processing. For the moment we will focus on the milk proteins and discuss soy later.

Milk protein has two basic components, whey and casein. Whey and casein can be seperated and made into powdered products or they can be processed together producing a milk protein powder. Milk protein concentrate is basically whey and casien together as you might find in regular cows milk. The difference here being that the lactose and fat content have been filtered out to make a lower fat, lower carbohydrate, powder. The process for making a milk protein usually involves some type of filtration process to get rid of the fat and lactose and then they spray dry to make a powder (spray drying is done on most protein sources). Milk protein powders can vary greatly in their protein content from about 40% - 92%. If the protein contenet is below about 88% industry convention calls them milk protein concentrates. Anything above 88% protein content is considered to be a milk protein isolate. Milk protein isolate has a low amount of fat and lactose. The higher the protein content, the more processing, the higher the cost to the manufacturer. Manufacturers generally label milk protein as a concentrate, isolate, or something called total milk protein. Based on this labeling style there is little chance you will know how much protein you are actually getting from this source. Unfortunately you will see a trend of this vagueness develop as you continue reading.

Whey is the protein that most people are familiar with and seem to feel most comfortable discussing. Most of the world’s whey comes to the supplement industry as a byproduct of either cheese or plastic production, yes I said plastic. More about plastics when we get to casein. Cheese whey is produced during the separation of casein and whey as the curd for cheese is produced. Generally speaking milk is treated with an acid and causing a shift in pH which makes the casein coagulate and fall out of suspension. What is left uncurded on top of the casein is raw whey. The raw whey is collected and then undergoes serveral processing steps before it is dried as a protein powder. How the whey is processed determines the protein, fat, and carbohydrate content, quality, fractions (a discussion for another article), and thereby the nomenclature used to describe the final powdered product.

Whey protein powder generally comes in three different categories of protein concentration. Whey protein concentrate or WPC as it is called in the industry generally ranges from 34% - 95% protein by weight. By convention WPC’s that are greater than 88% or so are known as whey protein isolates or WPI. In general the greater the amount of protein the lower the carbohydrate and fat, and the higher the price. So when looking at a label and you see things like cross flow microfiltered whey protein concentrate you know that you could be dealing with anything from a highly purified WPI to a cheap low quality whey protein concentrate that has loads of lactose and fat. How do you tell what percentage of whey protein your preffered company is using? Unfortunately it is not very easy, but let us discuss the finer points.

Many protein manufacturers prefer to keep their customers in the dark and not tell them exactly what they are getting. Dirty pool you say, well that may be true, but never forget that supplement companies are in business to make a profit and if that means they can use the labeling laws to their benefit they will and often do. You can of course call your prefered protein product manufacturer and see if they will tell you the truth about their product, but don’t be surprised if they give you a bunch of double talk. You see if they don’t tell you which protein sources they are using in an easily understood manner on their label they can think up some fancy name like ultrafiltered cold pressed cross flow ion exchange whey protein concentrate to make you think you are getting a high quality protein when in fact this could actually be a 34% WPC. The real issue here is that nothing really stops a manufacturer from calling a protein whatever they feel sounds good. Unfortunately that puts you the consumer at their mercy. Often you will see whey protein hydrolysate on the label. This is usually a whey protein isolate (88% protein or greater) that has been hydrolysed enzymatically (some of the amino acid peptide bonds have been broken to make shorter chains of amino acids and some free amino acids). Again, the label will almost never state the degree of hydrolysis. This is critical to know because a low percent of hydrolysis means a less expensive cost for the manufacturer. Here again is the issue that a hydrolysate could theoretically be between 1% – 99% hydrolyzed. Commonly protein powders are no more than about 20% hydrolyzed since the more hydrolyzed the protein the more bitter it will taste. Bottom line on whey is that you have to do your homework by reading the labels and even calling the company with very specific questions. As someone once said, “a fool and his or her money shall soon be parted”. Don’t be fooled by the fancy words and lingo.

Casein is the other part of milk protein. Produced via the same method as whey (see above), casein comes in many different forms. As casein is separated from whey it forms an insoluble curd. This curd is seperated from the whey and then must be resolublized using a strongly basic solution to raise the pH. The most common bases used are sodium, potassium, or calcium hydroxide. After resolubilization the protein is known as sodium caseinate, potassium caseinate, and calcium caseinate depending on the base used. If the production process uses rennet to curd the casein (a more gentle process than acid alone) the casien does not have to be treated with such a strong base and is therefore known as rennet casein. Rennet casein is often used to produce things like the plastic end of your shoelace, clothing buttons, flexible knitting needles, and a multitude of other plastic things. Most protein powders will contain sodium, potassium, or calcium caseinate in some combination or alone. A plus to caseinates is that they are very low in fat and lactose (milk sugar) and therefore quite high in protein content (85% - 95%). The problem with knowing how much protein is in your caseinate is not as crucial due to its’ high protein content, however price does vary and the lower the protein content the less expensive the protein powder. Be aware that if you purchase a sodium caseinate containing product the sodium content per serving can be quite high. So if you are trying to avoid sodium, potassium, or calcium for some reason pay attention to which type of caseinate you are getting.

Now we must address soy as a source of protein. Soy protein was notorious for causing the unpopular side effect of gas during its’ early introduction and use as a supplement. Soy has come a long way since those days and now ranks up there with milk protein sources. This is not to say that you should take soy to be equal in all aspects to whey and casein, certainly not, however each protein source has a place and a reason for fitting into your diet. Soy is not an inferior protein source compared to milk protein. Many people might disagree but let’s look at the facts. Soy protein comes in a variety of protein content levels mostly varying between 60% - 92%. Soy is particularly high in branched chain amino acids as well as glutamine, all of which are very beneficial for those of us trying to build muscle or recover from our last exercise bout. Soy protein can also deliver isoflavones in the form of genestein and diadzein, which appear to have many benefits for both men and women (isoflavones will be discussed in a later column). So what do you look for on the label? Soy does not usually hide behind some fancy name as do the whey proteins, so figuring out what you are getting is not as difficult. Supro™ is a brand name for one higher quality soy protein product as is Profam™. The most important thing to know here is protein content and isoflavone content. The higher the protein content, the more expensive the protein, and usually the more isoflavones. It is important to know whether the isoflavones are naturally ocurring from the protein or whether they are added in seperately via isoflavone extract. The science on naturally occurring isoflavones is beginning to show that there is a benefit compared to artificially elevated isoflavone level added back into the protein after processing. The highest per gram content of naturally occuring isoflavones in any soy protein is between 3.4 – 3.5mg/g. If you want to have soy in your protein supplement make sure you know what you are getting. The soy protein out of the bulk bin at the local grocery or whole foods store is not the same as the high quality, high protein, and high isoflavone ingredient you want in your protein supplement. If it does not tell you on the label you’ve gotta do your homework and ask questions.

Let’s discuss labels for a moment. Labels are tricky to decifer due to the legalities of how you can label protein sources. The big problem is that manufacturers are allowed to state “proprietary blend on the label deck (Supplement Facts Panel or Nutrition Facts Panel) and then list the protein sources in decending order by weight. This might sound ok however think about this, a 34% WPC could be labeled as simply whey protein concentrate and also be listed as the first protein source because by weight the 34% WPC weighs the most. Only problem is that it is low in PROTEIN and may not be delivering the majority of the protein in your product. Yeah, now you see the problem, you might think your protein supplement contains a nice WPC as the first ingredient when in reality it is a lower source of protein than the calcium caseinate listed further down on the label. Sneaky, yes. Decieving, absolutely. Legal, unfortunately. This is the kind of thing you want to know before buying your protein supplement. At this point I am sure all of you want to cry out for manufacturers to voluntarily tell you on the label exactly what you are getting. Well some do and some don’t, but if enough of the consumers complain and call manufacturers about their products to find out the protein sources, a change will eventually happen. Meanwhile, each of you must fend for yourselves and make decisions on what protein supplement you purchase based on all of the facts you can gather. In that vane, here is a list of direct questions to help you get the information you need on milk and soy proteins:

1. What type of protein are you getting, milk, whey, caseinate, or soy?

2. If it is whey protein what type a concentrate, a hydrolysate, or an isolate.

3. If the protein is a hydrolysate what is the degree of hydrolysis?

4. If it is caseinate what type is it, sodium, potassium, or calcium or a combination?

5. How much of each protein (in grams) is in the product?

6. How many grams of protein come from each of the sources? In other words, what percentage of each protein source is actually protein (note: ask for the as is basis not dry basis)?

7. If it is a soy protein ask about isoflavone content and whether or not it is naturally occurring.