Muscle Diet

QUESTION: I know a few guys at my gym who mix whey protein with milk or milk protein powders that have casein in them. One guy even uses homogenized milk! Doesn’t this slow down protein absorption and damage the effects of the whey protein in some way? Also, is whey protein too quickly absorbed?

ANSWER: The answer is "yes but...". By "yes", I mean that mixing your "fast" (quickly absorbed) protein with milk (which contains mostly "slow" casein protein) won't slow down the absorption or affect the potency of the whey protein. You see, the casein just clots in your stomach just as Mother Nature intended and then it gradually and slowly feeds its amino acids into your bloodstream to be available to the muscles over several hours (up to 7 or more hours according to careful studies that have tracked amino acid flux). The whey protein stays suspended in the fluid in your gut and is rapidly taken up into the blood so that very large amounts of amino acids are available to the muscle. To answer your second question, NO, research clearly shows that whey protein continues to deliver amino acids from the gut to your bloodstream for over 3 1/2 hours.

Now for the "but"...Be aware that every cup (250mL) of 2% (semi-skimmed) milk has about 120 calories, 8 g protein, 12 g carbs and 5 g fat, so if you are trying to stay lean, you have to take account of these calories. If you are trying to gain and need extra calories, go with the cow juice!   

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