Whey protein has long been considered the gold standard of protein for serious athletes who work hard to develop and sustain a lean, strong and well-defined physique. Whey protein contains all the essential amino acids required in the daily diet.
These amino acids in help improve body composition and enhance athletic performance and since it's easy to digest, it's quick to provide nourishment to muscles. You can obviously get protein from other sources such as fish, eggs and meat, but since whey protein is such an excellent, highly convenient, source of amino acids and is easily digestible, it has become massively popular with athletes and body builders.
Powder Protein
Native Whey is obtained through a very specific process that differs from standard whey protein: the proteins are extracted directly from skimmed milk using membrane technologies at low temperature (microfiltration and ultrafiltration). The state of the art low temperature process removes casein, fat and lactose to leave only the purest, most biologically active whey protein. This process offers the following advantageous characteristics compared to standard whey derived from cheese:
1) Native Whey is only pasteurised once avoiding unnecessary secondary heat treatments that can denature valuable cystine rich peptides irreversibly.
2) Native Whey is not a byproduct of cheese therefore is not denatured via the introduction of acids and additional processes during the production of cheese.
3) Native Whey is made in one continuous process. A significant proportion Standard Whey Protein made today is made from sweet dairy whey that is bought in by whey processors, circumstances that dictate they must pasteurise and denature valuable components of whey via secondary pasteurising. Native Whey avoids this completely.
4) Native Whey is up to 240% higher in cystine which is a very fragile peptide and easily damaged by heat (it's comprised of two cysteine molecules joined by a disulphide bridge). Cystine plays an essential in production of the body's master antioxidant glutathione, vital for optimal immune function.
5) Native Whey Protein is higher in the branched chain amino acid L-Leucine, scientifically proven to have the most positive effect with regard to stimulating protein synthesis and repair.
6) Native Whey has a cleaner taste, because it's not derived from cheese production it does not carry any of the associated flavour taints sometimes found in whey derived from cheese.
Side Effects
In 99% of people none at all. The only possible side effects would come if you are allergic to milk sugar or lactose. In which case you'd need to take a pure whey protein isolate which is virtually free from lactose. In very rare circumstances some people can be allergic to some of the protein fractions found in whey, like Beta-Lactoglobulin, however such cases are very isolated and are usually associated with infants. This is one of the reasons why there are hydrolysed protein products - the process of hydrolysation breaks the potentially allergic fractions down into hypoallergenic peptides.