Is whey isolate toxic? Is whey made from “grass fed” cows superior? Are there hormones in your whey?
For more info on the topic of hormones, etc found in whey protein, click HERE
Will Brink is the owner of the Brinkzone Blog. Will has over 30 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.
He’s also been published in peer reviewed journals.
Will is the author of the popular e-books, both accompanied by private members forum access , Bodybuilding Revealed & Fat Loss Revealed.
You can also buy Will’s other books on Amazon, Apple iBook, and Barnes and Noble.
Excellent post Will loving every pixel of your site.
I was wondering, why you don’t encourage HWPI over WPI ? is there any evidence to support HWPI over WPI ? I have also seen a fair few people supporting a post workout shake of Hydrolyzed Casein and HWPI any evidence to support this ? or just marketing hype ?
Cheers Dave
The different types of whey, and even hydrolyzed casein, are all known to work just fine for a workout drink. Thus there is no “evidence” that one is better than another, which is why cost ultimately becomes the measuring standard. The premiums that must be paid for hydrolyzed products make them less effective choices per dollar spent, since the only claimed advantage that they might provide is an onset of absorption that is only minutes quicker than that of regular whey isolate. Even if true in some cases, this isn’t going to make a difference in anyone’s rate of muscle growth, considering the more important ongoing protein synthesis that occurs in the body throughout the day.
The people who tout these more expensive proteins are not conducting any comparative research on their own bodies to track measurable differences in results from using these different powders. Therefore, they are either expressing a random preference based on what they have read, or are selling the stuff. Both reasons are perfectly valid in their own ways, but they won’t constitute any “evidence” or “support”.
Dear Will,
As always, thanks for your candid and honest review.
People like you are critical for maintaining the credibility of the natural products industry.
Keep up the excellent work!
Jimmy Gutman MD
Thank you, Will for such an insightful exposé on whey. I have never used ” grass fed ” whey nor plan on doing so. I like whey concentrate myself. What about soy lecithin? There seems to be some criticism on its use in protein powders and the causation of hormonal imbalance. Is there any truth to soy lecithin making you fat and weak? Thanks, Will.
Regards,
Robert
Soy lecithin has soy based phyto estrogens in them, but the amount of soy lecithin used is miniscule in such products. The dose ALWAYS makes the poison so I’d consider it a non issue at this time. High amounts of soy lecithin may not be a great idea for men however. More data is needed there.
Exactly what the Internet needed. A no bullshit bodybuilding site, not driven by Anyones agenda. Great to be able to get trustworthy information.
True enough Mike, but just to clarify, not at all exclusive to bbing 🙂
As always Will, you get right to the heart of the matter. Good Job! Thanks!
Excellent!!
great video on whey isolate. i saw another article which stated that the most protein a body can absorb in an hour is 10-15 gm of protein and that the rest protein in the shake goes to spiking insulin and stored as fat. Can you debunk this?
No, that’s a silly contention. The human body is not such a finely tuned machine that it immediately switches from using amino acids for rebuilding muscle and other tissue, to then turning those aminos into more stored bodyfat, the instant that X number of grams of protein have been eaten. Protein synthesis takes place over the entire day, not in less than an hour. Besides, the only way that a person can gain fat is to eat more calories than are burned off, regardless of whether those excess calories come from dietary protein, fat, carbohydrate, or alcohol.
Bill I think that no one can be safe on what the procedure of the chemistry used for obtaining whey or any other food, we as customers only trust on mayor brands and that´s all, but one thing that all the brands have and i always avoid are the artificial sweetners, it seems that the edulcortant manufactures are interested in everybodybuilder to eat their products.
We want to eat in the best terms naturally, please we should do something about these edulcorants, I think there are only two brands that manufacture flavorless whey and those are the ones I buy in a universe of 40 brands
Jorge, I think you are confusing manufacturers of whey with retail companies who sell whey. Retail companies purchase unflavored whey in bulk from a small handful of copmpanies and have it flavored to their specs and then sell it retail to you.
There are a number of companies that sell unflavored whey or whey sweetended with non synthetics such as stevia, and of course good old sugar. I use CFM isolate sweetened slightly with stevia myself.
Will, you rock! Thank you for the excellent information, including forwarding the excellent papers written by Monica. Appreciate your site and information!
what about what else is in it the whey,organic whey doesn’t have artificial sweeteners .
Hmmm… not nearly as racy as the title implies….
You were expecting soft porn with whey? 🙂
Certainly not. This is hardly the forum. However I’m sure you could have worked something like “large pulsating muscle” into the dialogue without going off topic…. 🙂
“Whey increases your large pulsing muscles that can improve your sex life” Like that?
Will; Man you are the best. You do research which, evidently, is a rare treat when pursuing the internet.
When I search of information on aging I am astounded by the amount of “stuff” which passes for information.
Age prevention has been my obsession for quite a while since I am to be 65 years old in August.
You seem to be one of the few strait shooters in a world full of clowns and wannabees. Thanks.
Hi Will
I live in the UK and some of the big brands are home grown(we’re lead to believe) but how do I know I’m not buying the same product in a different package at a vastly inflated price short of cross checking every product for ingredients. They’ll not print their whey source but I understand that there are only 3 suppliers of whey in the UK – but how would I find out that info IF I wanted the facts on quality??? We have a few budget whey companies that deliberately play down branding and packaging to reduce costs by doing away with tubs and using ziplock bags but they allegedly “don’t compromise on quality”. Again how do I know what’s true and what’s marketing bull? Is one brands concentrate better than another? I appear to be suffering a touch of paralysis by analysis however I personally would still like to know if the whey I’m buying is good quality – unless we have insider industry knowledge we have no choice but to take their word for it. It seems to be a massive grey area for the average consumer.
Recently I saw a video on YouTube from the UKs leading whey company who showed the viewer around their facility showing off the white coats, hair nets, masks etc it all looked very impressive until you realise that they buy in masses of whey in bulk sacks and process their own blends. This is my point – nothing they can do or add to that whey is going to make it superior than any other brand using the same base ingredients wholesaler so how do I find out who their whey supplier is and where I can truly get best value for money?
Unless they are willing to tell you who they purchase their bulk whey from, you don’t know. As a rule, I tend to purchase from companies I know where they source from, and companies willing to tell you, VERY few indeed…
There needs to be some sort of quality assured ruling on sports supplementsby a governing body. At the moment it appears they can sell freeze dried horse crap as a supplement and nobody questions it. I don’t suppose you know much about the whey companies in the UK or what to buy by whom? Or even if there are only 3 whey manufacturers in the UK maybe I’d be splitting hairs between brands and that I should just buy the cheapest concentrate which also seems to have the least amount of crap. *Confused*
Don’t know UK supplement laws, so maybe you do have some quality assurance body, don’t know. I suspect UK companies get their bulk whey from the handful of major whey companies most others use and are most likely decent quality and safe enough.
You are overthinking this whey issue a bit, Jay, which is the cause of your analysis paralysis. There really aren’t that many whey manufacturers in the dairy world, when compared to the number of whey packagers, blenders, and resellers. Whey powder is actually a very cheap commodity in world markets, thus the vast majority of the price that you will pay for it is the result of middlemen, repackaging, distribution, and advertising. That is why you should be fine with the quality of any bulk whey purchased from a reputable vendor, as Will noted. This interchangeable nature of whey is reflected in the practice of most resellers to not disclose which manufacturer’s powder is in the container that you buy. This is usually not because the reseller, such as the one in the YouTube video that you watched, is trying to deceive you, however. It is because resellers are often buying powder from different manufacturers, depending on which one gives them the best wholesale price. Besides, almost no whey consumer will know or care about the fairly small differences between the dairy operations that make whey powders, thus a reseller would gain nothing from locking itself in to a contract with only one such manufacturer, and then advertising that fact to its customers.
I’ve been reading about grass fed whey as well, since I might be suffering from some food intolerances and am working on eliminating foods from my diet to find out the offenders.
It’s utterly amazing, how fast things go from the scientific to the esoteric when you are researching these things on the internet. There are people out there who would make you believe that if you ingested even the smallest amount of a “foreign” substance (soy, milk, wheat, aspartame etc…) you are already screwed. I’ve read things like “your body doesn’t know what to do with it, it doesn’t have a biological program to deal with these substances” etc… Well, they have to justify the triple price for their grass fed whey somehow…
Anyway, always nice to hear a voice of reason in these issues.
And I really like the new background by the way, looks much more professional than you drinking coffee in your backyard 🙂
Regards,
Martin
Recently another fitness guru, with a new product he is pushing, has been making references to a study that he claims proves that whey, by itself, is fairly useless (if it is not blended with a slower digesting protein). He states that the study proves that you will only be able to absorb 8 grams of it before the rest of it is “out of your system”, and thus, unavailable and worthless. Usually he seems fairly well- researched and trustworthy, but …. I’m having trouble with this. You seem to be an authority on whey – is there any truth to these claims?
Nope 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
No, you can confidently ignore Joel Marion. He’s not a clinical researcher who has expert knowledge about whey production and human protein metabolism, therefore he actually doesn’t know how to understand the reports and studies that he quotes. He’s just another guy who’s pimping his own supplement company’s products. (He used to pimp Prograde’s overpriced stuff, but I guess he figured out that he doesn’t need to settle for a sales commission when he can slap his own label on a fairly generic blend of protein powders and keep even more of the profit.) At $42 per pound, his product is way more expensive than necessary.
Note that his entire confused claim about insulin and white bread and blended proteins is tangentially related only to the repeated use of protein powder throughout the day, instead of restricting it to a workout time. Of course, he is obviously steering people to this interpretation, because he wants them to buy his product and then use it up more quickly.
Good morning Will, I really love your articles. But I have been inquiring about creatine and prostate for a while now. But I never get any answers. Some stipulate that creatine would be a good addition to a senior’s diet. But I read that it can be really bad for one’s prostate. I know you publish a lot of articles on Creatine. But I haven’t seen any that talk about the effect of creatine on prostate. Is is true that creatine is bad for prostate?
Thanks for your time.
Jean
There’s no negative effects of creatine to the prostate I’m aware of and pretty much everyone will benefit in some way taking creatine.