Protein Shakes for the Wealthy

This is really funny to me because being rich can make eating healthier easier, you can get a personal trainer, and stack up on supplements. Besides that it is all up to the persons motivation.

What's even funnier is that they're using a cheap, ineffective protein source like whey. Even worse, I doubt they've put any cream in there, so you might as well eat 20 grams of sugar instead, because that's how your body's going to utilize it.

If you want to absorb the protein, use milk-and-egg protein (albumin, lactalbumin, casein) mixed with whole eggs and cream or half-and-half.

I never believe in this kind of stuff. I'd rather eat my protein. This sounds like "a fool and his money are soon parted" kind of product to me.

How about "How The Rich Get Scammed - Ten No-Fail Tips For Separating A Fool From His Money"? The lady is smart in that sense at least. What a crock, fancy packaging seems to mean you can put any old c**p in there and idiots will still buy it.

I was expecting at least something like Pomegranate or Lychee flavor, since it is "for the rich", but it is the same old vanilla or chocolate Optimum whey, packaged under a fancy name.

weight loss said:
This is really funny to me because being rich can make eating healthier easier, you can get a personal trainer, and stack up on supplements. Besides that it is all up to the persons motivation.[...]

This is something the whole world needs to address. People want to help you when you have money to spend or after you get sick. What about preventive measures that are affordable by everybody.

Ryan, Why cream? I just got back from the gym and had my whey protein, but I thought fat wasn't good to have with it. We had a scoop of ice cream too and I felt bad about it. Does it help the protein get into the muscle?

About the product: This is another excessive thing people can do because they want to, just like vacations to fancy places, fancy curtains instead of plain, fancy cars instead of plain cars, private school, diamonds, etc...all these things are more than anyone needs in life. Either the person will pamper themselves with this product or they will use it to show off. It's our culture, unfortunately. We want to pay more for a percieved value, and the increased value can be as simple as attractive packaging. I have drawn those olive branches before, they are lovely; a symbol of the power of peace. The gold on the packaging is for wealth and prestige. The ingredients are perfect. People want to buy into all these things because they want to think they are worth it, even if this product is more like human dog or cat food than anything else! It's fancy feast...

I agree with you Debbie. I'd rather eat my protein in egg whites, lean chicken, fish and nuts. Especially if I'm paying almost $5 a shake...might as well buy a nice salmon steak!

Ryan, you make an interesting about more effective protein absorbtion by mixing with whole eggs and cream or half-and-half...I've never heard of this before...can you explain the reasoning behind it?

Thanks!

dela & Anna: Basically, your body doesn't do well at digesting protein without fat. Why should it? Nearly every natural source of protein comes with a significant amount of fat. Even oatmeal has more calories from fat than it does from protein.

Your stomach can be kind of finicky when it comes to protein. If you abuse your stomach, it will convert the protein to carbohydrates instead. You can do this, for example, by eating too much protein at once or giving it a form of protein it doesn't like. If you've ever had gas, bloating, or some other stomach problem from drinking whey protein with water or juice, that's probably why.

Protein powder is defatted; mixing in cream or egg yolks is just restoring what was taken away, bringing it closer to its whole food form. I am specifically against using whey on its own (without casein) because it is especially prone to being converted to carbohydrates. Nearly 100% of it is absorbed into the body, so it has great advertising, but only about 14% goes into muscle synthesis.

The people who have really gained a great understanding of protein metabolism (Rheo H Blair, Vince Gironda, Ron Kosloff) would all tell you to take protein powder this way. It's not how much you eat, but how much you absorb.

Ryan, I think you are saying that a persons body will use the whey protein for energy instead of building muscle if there is an absence of any other source of energy at the time. Protein cannot be turned into carbs though. I can't find a source that says to use cream to make the protein work better, but I think the idea is to give your body the minimun it needs daily, and let your muscles have all the extra protein you are giving it. That's the way I think of it; I don't want to use all that whey protein I just consumed to be used as energy when I'm trying to put on muscle. Extra carbs would have the same effect, and I think carbs in the form of some whole grain bread like Eziekel bread or brown rice would be better than cream. All saturated fat must be stored in the fat cells before it can be used!

Protein cannot be turned into carbs though.

True protein isn't turned into carbohydrate, but it can be converted to glucose!

All saturated fat must be stored in the fat cells before it can be used!

Can't say I've heard that one before - can you post a link to the source of this information?

dela: Of course protein can be turned into carbs. Take any basic biology course and that should come up. How do you think the Inuit, who ate no carbohydrates at all, had any blood sugar.

If you want a source, email Larry Scott, the first Mr. Olympia, and ask him. If you want a better explanation of why it works, call up Ron Kosloff. Unfortunately, Rheo H Blair and Vince Gironda have passed on.

You keep bringing up this fact about how saturated fat must be stored as fat first. First of all, like Regina Wilshire, I would like to know where the heck you found that. Second, why does it matter, since energy balance determines how much fat you lose or gain? I've seen plenty of people lose fat just fine on diets that were 20-30% saturated fat, not just total fat. Third, what about short and medium chain saturated fats, which the body will not store.

Regina W: Isn't glucose a carbohydrate?

Regina W: Isn't glucose a carbohydrate?

Carbohydrate is a macronutrient, glucose may be a component of that macronutrient, of a food eaten, thus part of the carbohydrate content in the food - thus "carbohydrate" is recognized as a term used external to the body...

Now in the body, "glucose" is the simple sugar that carbohydrates are converted to in the metabolism, so internally - in teh body - when we're talking about metabolism, storage, energy used, etc. - it's glucose if we're accuratly describing the source.

Once it's converted/metabolized to glucose, it's no longer carbohydrate, but glucose. There is good reason for that distinction too - and that's carbohydrates are not the only source of glucose for human metabolism.

Regina W: Ah, interesting. I was just going by the strict chemistry definition.

Ryan and Regina, I think it would be helpful say that some saturated fats have to be stored first, meaning the person will have to exercise to get rid of them, or else get into a fat-burning zone somehow. Some fats can be used by the body without having to be stored first, like you said Ryan, short and medium chained saturated fats (as in coconut oil).

Ryan, I have a B.S. in Biology so I have taken lots of Biology! I'm listening to you though! I read all about those bodybuilders you mentioned. I've been using whey protein in skim milk for about four months. I have gained a lot of muscle (about 20lbs). I've been avoiding the bad kind of saturated fat as much as possible, but I do eat lots of healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, and avacados.

I've lost a lot of bodyfat too. I have read it is important to eat something that caused a little spike in insulin because it pushes the protein into the muscle.

dela said:
I have a B.S. in Biology so I have taken lots of Biology![...]

Then I'm surprised they didn't teach you that when they talked about basic metabolic pathways. I had to go over that twice, once in Bio II in high school and once in Bio I at college.

I, personally, don't think there is a bad saturated fat, unless you count trans fats as saturated. As far as your "healthy oils" go, I would only use unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, in moderation.

Putting on the first muscle can be easily done with even poor diets, especially if you're not after symmetry and can indiscriminately put muscle whereever you wish.

Well, I graduated in 1985 so I might have forgotten! I have a very good diet and I'm very symmetrical. Gee!

dela said:
Well, I graduated in 1985 [...]

Ah, I was born in 1985 :-)

I started Medical School in 1985! :-)

Dela, I think Ryan means symmetry in hypertrophied muscles, like making sure one's huge arms match their huge shoulders, chest, back, etc. I don't think women are usually concerned with that... We just like to indiscriminately put muscle wherever we can, not so much wherever we wish, but we don't want to make them grow to superhuman sizes. Also, when he means "poor diet", I think he is saying "for muscle hypertrophy", not the poor diet we usually talk about in this blog, of fast-food, no vegetables, etc.

Jan: Exactly. To give a basic overview: small trapezius, obliques, and glutes; highly developed shoulders to create width, unless you happen to have a short neck; wide lats; slablike pecs with developed lower pec line; small waist; thighs developed from top to bottom, creating the illusion of slender legs; and diamond shaped calves. Dig up some pictures of Steve Reeves or Frank Zane, and you'll see what I mean. Bodybuilding is all about creating an illusion, the most fantastic being Larry Scott, born with wide hips and narrow shoulders.

As far as "poor diet" is concerned, in the context of building muscle, I'm referring to the current wave of low-fat (especially saturated fat), high-carb diets being handed out these days. Eating chicken breast instead of steak, taking the yolks out of eggs, drinking protein powder with water instead of cream. This is fine up to a certain point, but a bodybuilder has to super develop certain muscles. At some point, you have three choices: genetics, artificial hormones, or highly optimized diet. Vince Gironda's alternative to steroids was eggs.

Ryan, I'll go even further than what you said by sharing my experience with the kind of diet you described with essentially no fats other than from salmon and flax seed oil, with no egg yolks, no meat with any fat in it, drinking the whey protein shake with the simple sugars in water after exercising (barf), and from when I just "gave up" and decided to eat normally, with the egg yolks again, eating beef, using butter to cook, and having a big cup of juice after exercising instead, since that is what I crave and not a protein/water/sugar mix. The whey protein powder is only used to make a smoothie for breakfast (made with full-fat yogurt) around 2x a month. I gained strenght in exercises I'd been stuck at forever, and lost a bit more body fat. So eating a bit more saturated fat seems to work even if done slightly (my diet is still around 30-35% calories from fat, same as it was before) by people not trying to develop hypertrophy.

No Jan, I AM concerned with what Ryan is talking about. I'm interested in natural bodybuilding, as in Johanna Dejager, Raye Hollit,Penny Price, all natural bodybuilders who do not use steriods. I'm talking about eating 1 or 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, and following a strict diet designed to maximize muscle growth and minimize fat.

I have read a lot about it and I don't think it is wise to eat much saturated fat because it causes heart disease and it's the kind of fat that gets stored on the body much easier than healthy fats. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger says to substitute beef and pork with chicken and fish.

Ryan, why only look at pictures of all these old fashioned bodybuilders? What about Jay Cutler, Mr. Olympia 2006? "Steve Reeves"???? come on!

dela: I consider the "saturated fat causes heart disease" claim to be a myth or at least a huge overstatement/oversimplification. I would consider polyunsaturated fats to be the most dangerous, hydrogenated or not. Of course you need your omega fats, but only in small amounts. Monounsaturated fats are ok only if you don't overdo them. Read some stuff by Mary Enig or read Uffe Ravnskov's book.

I wanted to demonstrate symmetry to you, so I pointed you to the two most symmetric bodybuilders of all time. Jay Cutler is not symmetric; he is far too large to be symmetric. Jay Cutler looks like a deformed monster, something you'd find in your worst dreams. I am ashamed that the word "bodybuilder" is attached to him. For that matter, none of the professional "bodybuilders" you see these days are symmetric. Steve Reeves is the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

I'm not saying Jay Cutler specifically, I was just found it odd that you like the older bodybuilders. I read a little more and I now understand the "attraction". I need to stick to women mentors and stop looking at male bodybuilders anyway. My husband will think I've lost my mind.

Jan: I had the same exact experience when I first read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I gave it an honest go, and found my training simply stagnated a few months in. Switching my protein sources to those with more fat and vitamins made the difference. Nothing beats steak and eggs for weight training. Saturated fat is where all of the vitality is; cholesterol is where all of your hormones are coming from.

Dela: I believe Schwarzenegger's recommendations are merely due to the fact that people are afraid of saturated fat these days. Vince Gironda himself was the person who took a cocky, slightly flabby kid with good potential and turned him into the champ we know as Arnold. He was on the steak and eggs diet, just like any of Gironda's pupils. When Arnold was at his best, his recommendation was to eat 3 dozen whole eggs a day.

Ryan-I secretly believe you 100% but it's hard to find this advice anywhere. I mean I just had a big piece quiche made with half and half and a dozen eggs for breakfast so I must! I'm always trying to do the right thing when it comes to nutrition, and it seems I've been right all along by using butter and olive oil for cooking. On the other hand I had great results using whey protein with skim milk to gain muscle. Would the hydrolyzed whey be more effective than regular whey used to be?

dela: The inherent problem with whey is it's just too rapidly absorbed. My advice is to get some casein powder and mix it in with the whey; 1-to-1 should be ok. Skim milk is better than water, whole milk is better than skim milk, and half-and-half is better than whole milk.

I think I will stick to old fashion food for my protein source.

My problem is I still have a lot of pregnancy fat around my tummy area….has anybody heard of a product called Glucofast it claims to contains all natural ingredients that have been shown to help maintain healthy blood glucose levels, reduce fat cells, and increase energy. They say it is doctor approved, enhances your fat burning mechanism and gives you twice as much energy. Currently skinny with a lot of belly fat and desperate to get rid of it. I think I am going to try this product.

Breakthrough, I think weight training is the answer you are looking for, not Glucofast.

Ryan, you made a good point about cholesterol. My mood also improved a lot versus the "clean diet"; I have incredibly low cholesterol (total is around 120, never been higher than 128 in my life), and I think cutting it out of my diet completely just made my hormonal health even worse.

I was just going to go to the store after work and get some Whey Protein. I personally like Muscle Provider. I usually buy it in a large container and make a shake out of it (I normally use water and ice). From what I've gathered, I've been doing myself an injustice. I am not into "body building" per say, however, I am looking for more muscle tone as well as losing a few pounds in the long run. I work out probably 5 days a week (weight training 3 days, cardio 2), eat healthy (i include plenty of healthy fats, I eat all meat, I try only to eat whole grain carbs, stay away from added sugar etc. Ryan, you would suggest me putting cream into my whey protein shake??? Anything but skim milk pretty much makes me want to vomit. lol. What about soy milk? Although sometimes my stomach doesn't do well with soy products.

Megan: I wouldn't suggest whey at all, actually, at least without casein. Whey is a poor quality protein. But yes, you need to add cream or half and half to restore the protein/fat ratio you find in whole milk. Do not eat anything that contains soy unless it is a traditional fermented form, like soy sauce, miso, natto, or tempeh. When trying to put on muscle, don't cut your fats. You need fat, especially saturated fat, to keep your hormone levels optimal and digest the protein properly. Keep your polyunsaturated fats low, only enough to get your Omega-3 fats. Whole food proteins like beef and whole eggs are better than any protein powder though. Don't use chicken breast, tuna, or other very-low-fat sources.

good call, ryan. whey has it's place, but your right about the casien, whole eggs and cream. sounds like you have read up on rheo blair and vince gironda.

I started taking protein 4 months ago. Now, I have really bad acne. I am currently using Nitro Tech. Could the added insulin in nitro tech play a facter in my acne?
I dont want to stop taking protien as it is vital for me in my college life nutrition.

I think if ur taking whey protein it is important to have plenty of water. This helps in absorbtion and digestion.......i had to ask one question. If I am taking 6 whole eggs per day, would'nt it increase my cholestral level?........is it safe to eat 6 whole eggs? or egg whites is the better option?