Whey protein is a class of protein extracted from milk using modern production technology, whey protein has high protein, low fat, easy to digest and absorb, rich in essential amino acids, high nutritional value, known as the "king of protein".
Components of Whey Protein:
1． Biologically active ingredient in whey protein
Whey protein is rich in bioactive ingredients, of which α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin are the mainstay, α-lactoalbumin has an indispensable effect on the body's antioxidant, cellular immunity and enhanced exercise ability, β-lactoglobulin helps to enhance the body's central anti-fatigue ability; Whey protein also includes lactoferrin transfer protein, immunoglobulin, bovine milk serum albumin, phospholipid protein, curd whey, a large number of growth factors and bioactive peptides. Lactoferrin can stimulate the body's immune system cells, immunoglobulins have the activity of protecting the mucosa of the small intestine, and growth factors can promote cell growth in wound repair.
2． The amino acid composition of whey protein
Whey protein contains 20 kinds of essential amino acids, but also has branched-chain amino acids such as leucine, isoleucine and valine, which are one of the precursor substances of glutamate salts and can provide energy for the body. Sulfur-containing amino acids such as cysteine and methionine have antioxidant functions; Rich in threonine can maintain intestinal health; The lysine and arginine contained in it stimulate the secretion of metabolic hormones and promote muscle growth.
Whey Protein Benefits in Sports Nutrition:
1． Improves immunity
Long-term high-intensity sports training will make athletes' immunity decline, and then susceptible to various infectious diseases, and eventually delay the normal training of athletes, affecting competition performance, so how to improve the immunity of athletes, promote the recovery of immune function of athletes after training has become one of the hot spots in the current sports immunology research. Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid that plays an important role in the immune response and is an extremely important substrate in the immune response of lymphocytes and macrophages. Skeletal muscle is the main place for synthesizing glutamine, athletes after intense exercise, easy to cause muscle damage and reduced immune defense and lack of glutamine, a single strong training can make the body's immune function produce temporary inhibition for several hours. Therefore, for athletes, timely glutamine supplementation is extremely important. Whey protein is rich in glutamine precursors such as glutamate, so whey protein has functional properties such as maintaining glutamine levels and improving immunity. Whey protein supplementation greatly improves the cellular immune function of rowers. In addition, the lactoferrin and globulin in whey protein have antibacterial and antiviral activities, which can give full play to its efficacy and provide certain guarantees for human health.
2． Antioxidant
When athletes exercise vigorously, oxygen consumption will be greatly increased, endogenous free radicals will increase, lipid peroxidation reaction will be enhanced, causing tissue oxidative damage, which will affect the normal function of cells, affect the endurance of athletes, and cause sports fatigue. Therefore, athletes can improve their antioxidant capacity by scientifically and reasonably supplementing their own antioxidant supplements, preventing body damage and fatigue caused by excessive oxidative stress. Diets containing whey protein can prevent oxidative stress on the muscles caused by strenuous exercise, and it can be assumed that the ratio of reduced glutathione (GSH) to oxidized glutathione (GSSG) in the muscle tissues of animals can be inferred, in untrained animals supplemented with whey protein, at the expense of reducing glutathione, can prevent oxidative damage to muscle tissue due to exhaustion exercise. Giving athletes 20g of whey protein supplementation daily for 12 weeks results in a significant increase in blood lymphocyte glutathione levels and increased exercise capacity.
3． Relieves fatigue
When athletes are consumed by exercise, the body muscle glycogen and liver glycogen are consumed in large quantities, and the content of branched-chain amino acids in the blood is also reduced, at the same time, the level of free tryptophan increases, and tryptophan is further converted into serotonin, which produces drowsiness and fatigue. How to help athletes relieve fatigue in sports training has become a topic of concern in the industry. Whey protein is rich in branched-chain amino acids, rich in branched-chain amino acids can block the transport of tryptophan, inhibit the production of serotonin, prevent central excitability from being inhibited, and alleviate central fatigue. Studies have shown that better use of aerobic metabolic pathways during strenuous exercise can also be a good way to relieve fatigue. Athletes supplement whey protein during competition, which can protect the function of red blood cells, while also relieving body fatigue and restoring physical fitness.
4． Enhances muscle movements
Athletes in the competition training stress and stress conditions, not only will consume a lot of energy, but also need a lot of protein to maintain the metabolism required by the body, athletes have more muscle than ordinary people, whey protein supplementation has a very important role in increasing muscle strength. Whey protein can be involved in muscle energy substance metabolism, enhance muscle exercise capacity, provide muscle tissue energy substance metabolism, and is recognized as an ideal source of muscle. During high-intensity endurance training, whey protein supplementation can help muscle recovery, leucine in whey protein and its oxidative metabolites can inhibit proteolytic enzyme activity, thereby further reducing the breakdown of muscle protein, and lysine and arginine in whey protein can stimulate anabolic hormones and muscle growth factor to stimulate muscle growth and fat reduction, thereby promoting the improvement of exercise ability. After resisting exercise, a mixture of whey protein, amino acids and carbohydrates stimulates muscle protein synthesis to a greater extent than the equivalent amount of carbohydrates alone. Compared with the casein diet, the whey protein diet increased the activity of liver glucokinase, and the total glycogen synthase activity of skeletal muscle in the whey protein group was significantly higher than that in the casein group.
5． Strengthens bone mass
Calcium is necessary for physiological functions such as bone growth, nerve conduction, muscle contraction, and human circulation, and calcium is the basis of life. A good source of calcium can help children's nootropics, provide nutrition for adolescent growth and development, and prevent osteoporosis in the elderly. The far-reaching significance of calcium supplementation for a high-quality healthy life has been well known. For athletes, good calcium nutrition is essential, the average intake of calcium in Athletes in China is less than 800 mg/day, which is lower than the recommended intake of calcium for athletes 1200 mg/day. In high-intensity sports training, weaker bone is likely to fracture, and eventually delay the training process and affect the training results. Therefore, a high-quality calcium source is especially important for energy replenishment for exercise and increased bone strength. Whey protein products contain 500 to 2000 rags of milk calcium. Milk calcium is the best source of bioavailable calcium. Studies have shown that the absorption rate of calcium in milk-fortified soy milk is 25% lower than that of milk calcium. Therefore, whey protein is a high-quality source of calcium that is not only easy to absorb but also affordable. In addition, whey acidic proteins such as osteopontin, casein phosphopeptide, glycopeptide active protein, epidermal cell growth factor, etc. in whey protein affect bone metabolism by changing the state of calcium ion dissolution, participating in osteoclast-mediated bone resorption and osteoblast-mediated bone formation, etc., to delay bone loss due to aging and other reasons, and enhance bone biological strength. Whey protein peptides also have a non-negligible effect on enhancing bone mass, and the whey protein peptides obtained after whey protein hydrolysis have antihypertensive, fatigue relief, anti-aging and other physiological effects.