The benefit of slower digestion and transit time is that it is thought that slower transit time may allow for a higher absorption of certain components that may not be absorbed from proteins that go through the proximal bowel at a faster rate. Therefore, casein is the best choice to use when our schedule does not allow us to have normal food. Still, normal food would be more beneficial as it takes much longer to leave the stomach and maintains our blood glucose levels better controlled than a ¡°liquid lunch¡± since the ¡°liquid lunch¡± does not require much work from the stomach in the form of digestion.

High quality food should be our first choice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If your schedule does not allow the ¡°luxury¡± of setting aside enough time to prepare or purchase an adequate meal, casein is the best choice for a meal replacement if long term satiety is the goal. Possibly the biggest benefit of using a high quality casein protein supplement is its potential in functional properties being researched in hospitalized patients, infants and animals, such as immune enhancing and antiviral properties.

Whey protein concentrate (WPC) is the next step up from caseinate and it comes from the liquid left over during the cheese making process (whey). In its raw form whey contains lactose, fat, salt, and other proteins. Originally all whey protein was made from whey sources left over from the manufacturing of cheese. If supplement manufacturers use this lower quality source of raw materials, harsh acids have been used to separate whey from casein resulting in a lower quality whey protein supplement.

Now there are companies that make whey and casein specifically for supplement manufacturers by extracting it from whole milk for the sole purpose of creating higher quality supplements, making the quality of whey protein today superior to the ones previously available.

There are many different processes designed to separate or filter the valuable fractions of protein found in whey. These range from microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis filtration, dynamic membrane filtration, ion exchange, as well as many others that are being tested to yield the best product that contains as many of the beneficial health promoting portions of whey while leaving the impurities out.

These beneficial fractions include alpha-lactalbumin, beta-lactoglobu?lin, glycomacropeptides (GMP), lactoferrin, lactoperoxi?dase, immunoglobulins, lysozymes, and many more being studied to determine their role in health benefits. Whey protein derived from ultrafiltration is referred to as Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC). The ultrafiltration process does not remove any fat or denatured protein from the whey. For the WPC to be considered high quality, special processing prior to the ultrafiltration is necessary to remove the majority of the fat present in whey as well as separating out denatured protein and casein particles left over from the cheese making process if the raw material (whey) was acquired secondary to the processing of cheese.

WPC’s can yield a product ranging from 20% up to 85% protein. They could be 20% protein and 85% fat and lactose, which is usually the case when not specified in a product. If the concentrate consists mostly of protein, it usually states so in the label; if it consists mostly of fat and lactose, your intestines will let you know with gas and bloating.