T Nation

High vs. Low-quality Protein Sources?

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

I keep reading about how most brands of protein powder use “low quality” protein sources while Biotest uses strictly “high quality” protein sources.

Now it makes sense that whey and caesin are two different things and if extracting/processing caesin is much more difficult, it makes sense that products with caesin are “better.” However, while I would assume whey is whey, that’s apparently not the case.

So, what’s the difference between a high and a low quality protein source with respect to protein powders?

#2

Well I’d hope that it’s safe to say that all companies putting out whey are at least putting out protein thats “good for you.” With respect to this topic, quality of protein in the form of whey could differ by taste, how well it mixes etc etc. Some brands stick to the side of my blender. I could be way off in left field, but thats my interpretation. Cheers.

CD

#3

Actually the quality of whey (amino acid composition, subfractions, and percent ash fat and lactose) can vary widely.

Even when comparing Whey isolates there’s a wide variet of techniques companies can use to determine the composition of your protien powder.

There are Ion exchange why isolates (you lose a lot of the subfractions). Ther are a wide variety of more recent processing techniques used to make WPIs-or pull out various subfractions -such as Cross Flow Micro filtration (CFM?), ultra filtration (UF), micro filtration (MF), reverse osmosis (RO), dynamic membrane filtration (DMF), ion exchange chromatography, (IEC), electro-ultrafiltration (EU), radial flow chromatography (RFC) and nano filtration (NF) manufacturers can now make some very high grade and unique whey proteins.

Many manufactures don’t go through the trouble to make the high quality isolates. Quality costs and low prices sell.