Protein Question

[sunshine413 343]

I read somewhere that your body can't absorb certain types of Protein, ie protein isolate...is this true? I've been watching the Protein Shots saying they contain 48g of protein...are these useless to someone post op??

[Jen in SoCal 189]

I heard the collagen Protein is worthless to us postop.

[my3stars 88]

Dlcoggin posted the following to one of my posts

whey was once considered a waste product from the process used for making cheese. It is a highly digestible, complete Protein made from cow's milk. whey concentrate is about 80% Protein with relatively low levels of fat, carbohydrates, and cholesterol (but still higher than whey isolate). So whey concentrate not only has a high percentage of protein but also provides healthy fats that boost the immune system. But if you're lactose intolerant, whey isolate may be easier to digest.

Whey isolate goes through an additional micro filtering process that is not used in producing whey concentrate. As a result, whey isolate is about 90% protein. Micro filtering removes the lactose and fat but also destroys many of the immune system boosting properties of whey. Whey isolate can also be significantly more expensive than concentrate because of the additional processing required.

The digestibility of various Proteins is published in the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS). The PDCAAS has been adopted by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. food and Drug Administration, and the World Health Organization. Proteins are ranked on a scale of 0 (least digestible) to 1 (most digestible). Whey, Soy, Milk, and Casein proteins all have a PDCAAS score of 1.0.

The bottom line is that with whey isolate you get more protein per gram (but not necessarily any better) and it may be better handled by those who are lactose intolerant. With whey concentrate you get slightly less protein per gram but added benefits from the higher fat content. As several folks have noted, the first test that any protein you're going to drink or eat has to pass is - taste. If you are not lactose intolerant and you find a protein that you like, the difference in protein content for whey isolate vs. whey concentrate vs. milk concentrate should likely be a minor consideration.

One word of caution - stay away from the protein "bullets" and "shots" that you will see in stores and read about online. If you look closely at their ingredient list, you will see that they are made with collagen protein. These products are attractive to bypass patients because they contain very large amounts of protein in very small volumes - usually 3 to 4 ounces. The problem is that collagen protein is an incomplete protein (meaning that it is missing one or more of the nine essential amino acids that your body requires and cannot manufacture) and more importantly, collagen has a PDCAAS digestibility score of 0.08. All the protein in the world is useless if your body cannot digest it.