Protein drinks good or bad?

August 11, 2009

There are many problems with protein drinks according to Sally Fallon in her

book Nourishing Traditions. The high temperatures used to process the proteins

over- denatures them and increases nitrates and other carcinogens. Protein

powders fed to animals lead to calcium imbalance. Unlike protein powders, animal

proteins come with fat that contains vitamins A and D which allow for the

assimilation of protein. I'm sure overconsumption of proteins has many

unhealthful consequences. Probably most protein drinks are either soy based or

contain unnatural additives like MSG, sugars, colorings, etc. common to

processed foods. But it seems that even the natural protein drinks are unhealthy

in many ways. What are your opinions of protein drinks and lists of problems

they create?

August 11, 2009

Many protein drinks are soy-based, but many are not: egg, casein,

whey, peas, rice, and probably others but these are the main ones I've

seen. I have great respect for Sally's opinion because she does her

research. However, I am not sure that the fact that many or most

protein powders undergo excessively high heat processing necessarily

means that all of them do. A few brands (such as the one sold be

Mercola) claim to be processed at a lower temperature so the proteins

are not denatured. I'm not in a position to know whether these claims

are true. It's easy to imagine this is marketing fluff, but I can also

believe some are legit. If anyone knows how to tell the difference,

I'd love to hear it.

Again, some drinks contain MSG, sugars (esp fructose), colorings etc.,

but at least some of them don't and make that a selling point. It is a

good point that high protein should not be consumed without a good

amount of fat. Assuming no other problems with a particular brand,

drinking it with full-fat milk or coconut milk and/or with added

coconut oil could easily take care of the fat requirement. But I just

don't know whether there are products that truly are processed in a

non-harmful way or not.

I have a hard time eating breakfast, and sometimes a whey shake is

just the thing. Given that my diet is otherwise pretty in sync with

WAPF principles, I doubt that the occasional whey shake is harming me,

as I'm careful about which brands I buy and I eat lots of fat. But I

don't feel confident enough about the issue to make recommendations to

anyone else. If anyone else has more detailed research on these

drinks, I'd love to see a reference.

Thanks,

Jeanmarie

On Aug 11, 2009, at 8:36 AM, ccmg1234 wrote:

> There are many problems with protein drinks according to Sally

> Fallon in her book Nourishing Traditions. The high temperatures used

> to process the proteins over- denatures them and increases nitrates

> and other carcinogens. Protein powders fed to animals lead to

> calcium imbalance. Unlike protein powders, animal proteins come with

> fat that contains vitamins A and D which allow for the assimilation

> of protein. I'm sure overconsumption of proteins has many

> unhealthful consequences. Probably most protein drinks are either

> soy based or contain unnatural additives like MSG, sugars,

> colorings, etc. common to processed foods. But it seems that even

> the natural protein drinks are unhealthy in many ways. What are your

> opinions of protein drinks and lists of problems they create?

>

> __._.

>

August 11, 2009

I would think undenatured whey protein such as designs for health or immunocol