Whey Protein

What is Whey Protein?

It is a well-known fact that protein is an essential nutrient for the body and is responsible for many functions in the human body just like the vitamins and supplements have. These duties of proteins include the support of the building of muscles, cells, and tissues.

About the composition of the protein, it is made up of about 20 amino acids, and from those, there are eight that are ranked as the essential ones since the Human body cannot produce them. These amino acids need to be extracted from the diet. On the other hand, the rest 12 amino acids are known as the non-essential amino acids.

All of them collaborate in various methods so as to fulfill their responsibilities in the body, and that is why we need each type of protein including the protein, vitamins, and supplements for keeping a right balance to stay healthy. But what is Whey Protein and why is it used as a supplement?

For obtaining the best answer to this, it is vital to delve deeper into the science of proteins, vitamins, and supplements. But before we can explain this, let us understand why is protein needed for the muscle building.

Why is Protein Crucial for Building Muscles?

Whenever you speak about building muscles or see someone talking about, all you can hear is the protein supplement that they take along with the workout. Well, this supplement is the proteins which come in the name of vitamins, and supplements that help in building muscles. But how does it work this way?

The growth of muscle depends on the availability of sufficient proteins. Yes, you read that right! That is why there is a huge fuss about the protein balance when a person decides to build muscles. That means the balance between the protein breakdown and the supplement protein intake.

Furthermore, to obtain the proper muscle growth, a person requires combining the training in the gym with weights along with a positive protein balance. In short, this means that the protein intake and its synthesis is higher than the breakdown of the protein.

Moreover, it is during the heavyweights sessions that your muscles are pushed into the breakdown of proteins where the body splits the amino acids into energy or utilize then to synthesize new protein. Along with the training, for encouraging the growth of the muscles, the exercise-induced protein breakdown has to be shifted to something positive. That is when the extra proteins, vitamins, and supplements help.

About Whey Protein

Now back to what is Whey protein. It was some time ago when Whey was regarded as a waste product of curd and cheese while they were manufactured. Nearly 20% of the protein in the milk of the cows is whey. How? Well, when cheese and curd are produced in the industry, the dairy undergoes a structured procedure that includes the pasteurization, inoculation, and incubation before the addition of the Rennet extract.

The Rennet extract, which is a complicated mixture of the enzymes that have been taken from the newborn calves' stomachs, assists in the coagulation of the milk and distributes it into whey and curds. This is the Whey Protein that we are talking about.

It has a really high biological value and contains high portions of branched-chain and essential amino acids. Along with the fact that it is convenient to prepare, it is digests fast in the body.

Types of Whey Protein

There are three types of Whey protein that have been explained briefly below letting you know the uses accordingly as well.

Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC)

Whey Protein is not all protein, and the amount of protein in it can vary. In Whey protein concentrate the amount ranges from 25% to 89%. If you go to a health and nutrition store to purchase the Whey protein, vitamins, and supplements, you would often find the whey protein concentrate on the label listing in that store. This Whey protein has about 80% of protein concentrate in it, while the other products in it includes the moisture, minerals, fat, and lactose (4-8%.)
Whey Protein Isolate (WPI)

This is a name that you might have heard a lot. Whey Protein Isolate is one of the purest forms of whey protein available and has about 90 to 95% of the protein in it. Also, it is the best source of protein for those who suffer from Lactose intolerance as it holds little to no lactose in it.

The Whey Protein Isolate also known as WPI is low in fat as well. Moreover, due to the great points in purity and higher protein content in this product, the WPI is slightly expensive as compared to the WPC.
Hydrolyzed Whey Protein

In this whey protein type, the lone protein chains have been broken down to make smaller chains called peptides. And this is why the protein becomes easier to absorb in the body that eventually can also reduce the potential for the allergic reactions for many as well.

The Hydrolyzed whey protein is frequently utilized in baby recipes along with the medical and sports nutrition products. And the important point that has to be kept in mind regarding this is that, Hydrolysis does not decrease the nutritional quality of the whey protein.