Protein powders are useful to supplement your diet with a high quality protein
without consuming the saturated fats that frequently accompany whole foods
that are high in protein. Some people prefer to eat foods that are high
in carbohydrates, so consuming protein drinks with meals allows them to
continue to eat their preferred foods while getting the protein their body
needs. Protein powder is also excellent for use in recipes to make Zone
diet, low carbohydrate diet, ketogenic diet, or just high protein meals.
The Biological Value, or BV, of a protein is an indicator of the quality
of the protein. It is a measure of a protein's ability to be used by the
body (or its bioavailability). It is a percentage (though the
scale is skewed resulting in some BV's of greater than 100) of the absorbed
protein that your body actually uses.
Biological Values are indicators of which proteins are best at aiding nitrogen
retention in muscles to help them maintain or grow in mass.
Many of the whey protein powder manufacturers claim that their products have BV
values well above regular whey protein by various techniques such as ion-exchange
processing, hydrolization, and adding other ingredients such as specific amounts of limiting essential amino acids.
Hydrolyzation is a process breaking large peptides into smaller ones.
It is sometimes referred to as "pre-digested".
Regular undigested whey will be broken down into di- and tri-peptides
via enzymes in the gut and will be absorbed, but the process takes a
while. Hydrolyzation is useful when protein delivery is needed very
quickly so the body doesn't have to require the time and enzymes doing it.
The benefit is of having a quickly absorbed protein immediately after
a workout to ensure the muscle tissue is flooded with nutrients in a
timely manner.
