My Whey Powder is Better Than Yours?!

Are you a fitness junky who's always hitting the gym? The one that's always pushing themselves to do that one more rep in the last set? Who's always challenging yourself to lift heavier weights because you wish to see those smooth guns, sleek thighs and “chocolate bars” for abs? Or maybe you just want to maintain as fit a physique as possible?




Unfortunately, y’all know that fitness is 80% diet and 20% exercise. Build muscle in the gym and lose fat in the kitchen. No matter how much sweat you lose in the gym or while exercising, if you can’t control what you put inside your oral cavity, your muscles will be covered by that thick layer of fat. I know I know, this is not what we want.




Hate it or love it, protein plays a critical role in muscle building and fat loss. However, rice being a staple diet for us Malaysians, our protein intake is much lower because rice is mainly made up of carbohydrates. Besides maintaining a balanced meal to achieve your protein goal, you can include whey shakes to boost protein intake in your diet!

Whey protein is one of the most discussed and researched topics in the fitness and nutrition world. It is an excellent protein source that aids in muscle building and tissue repairs. And no, you don't have to be a body builder to take it!

But, the question is how? How do we know which protein powder to add to our groceries list? When it comes to whey protein, which is best for you – grain fed or grass fed?




What is grass fed whey? Grass fed whey comes from grass fed cows. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS), grass-fed means the animals’ lifetime diet consist of merely grass and forage without the consumption of grain or grain by-products such as corn or soy (Gwin 2009).

You might be curious, is grass fed whey more superior than grain fed whey?

Well, the answer could be yes considering all the extra health benefits that grass fed whey brings to you besides their rich source of protein. According to studies, grass-fed milk contains higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids and also higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (Benbrook et al. 2013), a fatty acid that could supports lean muscle mass. On the other hand, grass-fed animal products are also higher in antioxidants such as vitamin A and E (Daley et al. 2010).

According to the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the researchers found that organic whey contained more beta-lactoglobulin, lactoferrin and lysozyme than conventional whey (Kuczyńska et al. 2012).

Besides being 100% NATURAL, grass-fed whey protein comes with various benefits due to the presence of bioactive compounds as mentioned above:


(Tai et al. 2016) (Geiser 2003, Chitapanarux et al. 2009, Falkowski et al.2018) (Rosa et al. 2017, Kanwar and Kanwar 2013, Iigo et al. 2014, Tai et al. 2016) (Davoodi et al. 2016)

I believe many of us have heard the phrase, “You are what you eat”! The same applies to cows as well. The nutrient composition of grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef shows stark differences, especially in regards to the composition of fatty acids.

Omega-3 contained in grass-fed protein can be up to 5 times higher while the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) levels could be twice as much as the grain-fed beef and these values are associated with desired health benefits especially for athletes! Here are the awesome health benefits for athletes, gym junkies or even those simply wanting to maintain a fit and healthy physique:




Last but not least, as compared to conventional farming, grass-fed farming actually uses less antibiotics (and in Signature Whey's case, NONE!) and this is not only beneficial for the animals but is definitely good for you. The rotational grazing used by organic farming not only promotes the soil quality but also produces better and more nutritious milk. This is also beneficial in the long term with respect to nutrient cycling, hydrological function, stability of animal production and erosion control (Earl and Jones 1996).

What are you waiting for!? Just by upgrading your whey protein from conventional whey to grass-fed whey you're instantly provided with all those extra health benefits that serves you better and at the same time, saves our planet!

Head on over and grab Signature Market's very own GRASS-FED WHEY PROTEIN that comes in THREE delicious flavours: Vanilla Rich, Milk Tea and Luscious Chocolate.

References

Benbrook, C.M., Butler, G., Latif, M.A., Leifert, C. and Davis, D.R., 2013. Organic Production Enhances Milk Nutritional Quality by Shifting Fatty Acid Composition: A United States–Wide, 18-Month Study. PLoS One. 8 (12), e82429.

Chitapanarux, T., Tienboon, P., Pojchamarnwiputh, S. and Leelarungrayub, D., 2009. Open-labeled pilot study of cysteine-rich whey protein isolate supplementation for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis patients. J Gastroenterol Hepatol, 24 (6), 1045-1050.

Daley, C. A., Abbott, A., Doyle, P. S., Nader, G. A., & Larson, S., 2010. A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutrition journal, 9, 10.

Davoodi, S. H., Shahbazi, R., Esmaeili, S., Sohrabvandi, S., Mortazavian, A., Jazayeri, S., & Taslimi, A., 2016. Health-Related Aspects of Milk Proteins. Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research, 15 (3), 573–591.

Earl, J.M., and Jones, C.E., 1996. The Need for a New Approach to Grazing Management - Is Cell Grazing the Answer? The Rangeland Journal, 18 (2), 327-350.

Falkowski, M., Maciejczyk, M., Koprowicz, T., Mikołuć, B., Milewska, A., Zalewska, A., & Car, H., 2018. Whey Protein Concentrate WPC-80 Improves Antioxidant Defense Systems in the Salivary Glands of 14-Month Wistar Rats. Nutrients, 10 (6), 782.

Geiser, M., 2003. The Wonders of Whey Protein. NSCA’s Performance Training Journal, 2, 13-15.

Gwin, L. (2009). Scaling-up Sustainable Livestock Production: Innovation and Challenges for Grass-fed Beef in the U.S. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 33 (2), 189–209.

Iigo, M., Alexander, D.B., Xu, J., Futakuchi, M., Suzui, M., Kozu, T., Akasu, T., Saito, D., Kakizoe, T., Yamauchi, K., Abe, F., Takase, M., Sekine, K. and Tsuda, H., 2014. Biometals, 27 (5), 1017-29.

Kanwar R.K. and Kanwar, J.R., 2013. Immunomodulatory lactoferrin in the regulation of apoptosis modulatory proteins in cancer. Protein and Peptide Letters, 20 (4), 450-8.

Kuczyńska, B., Puppel, K., Gołȩbiewski, M., Metera, E., Sakowski, T. and Słoniewski, K., 2012. Differences in whey protein content between cow’s milk collected in late pasture and early indoor feeding season from conventional and organic farms in Poland. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 92 (14), 2899–2904.

Rosa, L., Cutone, A., Lepanto, M. S., Paesano, R., & Valenti, P., 2017. Lactoferrin: A Natural Glycoprotein Involved in Iron and Inflammatory Homeostasis. International journal of molecular sciences, 18 (9), 1985.

Tai, C.S., Chen, Y.Y., and Chen, W.L., 2016. 𝛽-Lactoglobulin Influences Human Immunity and Promotes Cell Proliferation. BioMed Research International, 2016 (7123587).