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> "Most experts agree with Tipton that protein is best consumed in food instead of supplements. But there are some exceptions, such as athletes who find it diff
by matte_black 8y ago
> "Most experts agree with Tipton that protein is best consumed in food instead of supplements. But there are some exceptions, such as athletes who find it difficult to hit their daily protein targets"
Is protein from food inherently better than the protein you get from a supplement?
- friesen 8y agoProbably has to do with bioavailability, similar to vitamins from food vs vitamin supplements.
- ovao 8y agoThe most popular (and probably most-heavily marketed) protein supplement -- whey protein isolate -- actually has very high bioavailability compared to animal and non-animal protein sources.
- notsofastbuddy 8y agoFood tends to have some nice micronutrients that supplements lack. There's probably nothing wrong with adding supplements to a diet that is otherwise complete.
- dominotw 8y agoAnything coming from a factory can't be good, to paraphrase pollan. ( Don’t eat anything your great‐grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food) Not sure if we can even come up with a definition for 'better' , seems like we would have to run some long term study in an extremely controlled circumstances.
- RandomInteger4 8y agoMaybe, but the reasons why can be flipped on food, though with more difficulty. Namely stuff done to the supplement at the point of production which makes it appear to be something it's not. For instance, with respect to protein supplementation, a number of protein powders a couple years back were accused of fudging the numbers by pumping up the nitrogen count using cheaper amino acids, so rather than getting strictly whey protein, you were getting whey protein cut with cheap non-essential amino acids like creatine, glutamine, cysteine, glycine, etc. Then there's contaminants to worry about, as I remember reading something about heavy metals making it's way into whey from China or something. Technically they can do similar things with cuts of meat, but I imagine that's more difficult to get away with unless it's processed meat. That being said, I still buy the cheap bottom shelf whey protein from walmart to make up for dietary deficits when I'm too lazy to cook beans or something.