It usually teams up with milk fat and lactose ;)
Disclaimer: I have no degree in nutrition, so take the below as sheer speculation from a autodidact.
A good friend of mine used to work for a cheese maker (many moons ago) - not making cheese, but making ethanol! This is where I got my first introduction to "Industrial Whey". You see, they figured out that the best way to get rid of the whey, was to spend millions of dollars constructing an ethanol distillery that could covert their whey, into pure booze.
A good friend of mine used to work for a cheese maker (many moons ago) - not making cheese, but making ethanol! This is where I got my first introduction to "Industrial Whey". You see, they figured out that the best way to get rid of the whey, was to spend millions of dollars constructing an ethanol distillery that could covert their whey, into pure booze.
I thought that was very cool and very strange. The last link is to an article that talks more about the history of whey.
Google results are always fun to look at:
"Whey protein weight gain" - 1,950,000 search results
Google results are always fun to look at:
"Whey protein weight gain" - 1,950,000 search results
"Whey protein weight loss" - 1,150,000 search results
The medical/nutritional research is much like the above, mixed and sometimes contradictory. It does seem clear that whey protein affects lower blood sugar through an increased insulin response:
Not surprisingly, whey protein seems to mediate blood lipids, probably as a secondary result of mediated blood sugar:
Here is a long article that explores quality difference of whey, based on processing. It also talks about (in my opinion) the most important factor in food and health: what was the diet of what you are eating. If you are enjoying pork chops, what did that pig eat? If soybeans, what kind of soil did those soybeans grow in?
Okay, that's the fair even-handed analysis. Now I talk about what I think is wrong: whey protein seems to produce an insulin response, so do many proteins. The assumption is made that this is a good thing for blood sugar control - and it is, in the short-term. But producing a greater hormonal response has two effects: 1) short-term increase in whatever activities that hormone regulates, 2) down-regulation / decreased sensitivity in that same hormone system.
So whey may improve blood sugar for the measured meal its taken with, but an increased insulin secretion at lunch, means less insulin left for dinner (most insulin is produced during sleep - see also, connection between diabetes and sleep apnea).
If whey does produce an increased insulin response, then long-term whey supplementation probably results in some degree of insulin resistance. The end of that road is weight gain, insulin resistance resulting in higher plasma glucose and in turn higher plasma lipids.
But that is without chronic exercise - is the situation any better WITH chronic exercise?
Chronic exercise increases insulin sensitivity (upregulation of GLUT4 receptors) - maybe that's why its so popular in weight lifting? That would also help explain the google results above. Only one problem - increased insulin (whey), increased sensitivity of receptors (chronic exercise) and consumption of lots of whey, will likely result in a state of functional hypoglycemia. Insulin acts to free glycogen from the liver, the body's source of quick energy. Once those sources are consumed (quickly under these conditions), two main metabolic pathways remain: fat (gluconeogenesis) and protein (ketosis). Long term, this will result in decreased liver function, through exhausted hepatic enzymes and lower blood pH.
The only study I could find connecting whey protein to increased insulin sensitivity was with rats, the comparison being made between rats fed whey protein or rats fed BBQed kangaroo meat. The whey protein group were using less insulin than the red meat group, QED whey protein increases insulin sensitivity... pretty weak.
Here is a few page rant that I think cuts closest to the truth:
That's all my armchair speculation for now.
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