Not Just For Bodybuilders: Why Whey Protein Can Improve Your Health

When most people think of whey protein, they imagine the gym freak that eats six meals a day and struts around in a tiny vest top. There?s also another idea that it?s a ?poor replacement? for real food that only athletes and weightlifters take.

While it?s true to an extent that whole foods should be the foundation of everyone?s diet, whey protein can actually have huge benefits to the average Joe on the street. This is where we divert our attention to Mark?s Daily Apple, which has a great post on just some of the ways whey protein can improve our health. It goes into scientific detail about the healthy amino acids that are in whey plus it discusses other benefits such as the prevention of diabetes, obesity, fatty live and stress:

How does all this bioactivity play out? What happens when actual whey is consumed? Well, evidence suggests whey can help in a number of?health?conditions, like:

Obesity?? Whey tends to?reduce fasting insulin levels in the obese and overweight?(but not?healthy prepubertal boys, who could use the growth promotion),?increase satiety,?reduce food intake, and?improve resting energy expenditure.

Diabetes?? Eaten before?a meal,?whey reduces the glucose spike?from the subsequent meal in non-diabetics and?type 2 diabetics alike. It achieves this by ?spiking??insulin, but transiently; the insulin area under the curve?improves?even as the immediate insulin response increases.

Fatty liver???In obese women, a whey supplement?reduces?liver fat?(and as a nice side effect increases lean mass a bit). Fatty liver patients also?benefit from whey, enjoying improvements in glutathione status, liver steatosis, and antioxidant capacity.

The rest of the article has plenty more other health benefits including the prevention of cancer, HIV and cardiovascular disease. By the end of it you?ll realize it doesn’t matter if you’ve never lifted a barbell or you cook everything from scratch, there?s still room for whey protein somewhere in your diet.