Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) – Hefty price tag, not so hefty benefits?
This week, we’re going to dive right into the nitty gritty on Whey Protein Isolate (WPI), the type of whey protein that is touted as the “purest,” with negligible fat and carbohydrate content.
Whey Protein Isolate is essentially Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) that has undergone one further level of processing, this time removing even more compounds to yield a purer protein content. Seems great, right?
WPC is known to have a host of health benefits including unique muscle building and immune-system-boosting effects. These effects are derived from biological peptides within the whey itself…and these valuable peptides that give whey its innate advantages can be lost when WPC undergoes processing to WPI.
So how can we get a low fat and carbohydrate content without losing these valuable peptides? Simple. Use Milk Protein Isolate (MPI). MPI is composed of 80% casein and 20% whey, and recent research shows that a blend of whey and casein is superior to whey alone for muscle growth.
So with MPI, you get the optimal muscle-stimulating protein blend, a low fat and carbohydrate content, and intact biological peptides for muscle growth and health.
Now we want to give you the whole picture, so to be fair, there are some uses for WPI. First, if someone is lactose intolerant, WPI will give them less gastrointestinal issues than WPC or MPI. And second, if you’re one of those people who just can’t tolerate any thickness in your shake beyond the consistency of water, WPI will give you a thin water-like texture (most people want the opposite).
WPH and WPI are expensive, pure protein sources, but they do have their shortcomings. All things considered, we choose to keep it out of Select Protein.
