Rebam98 said:
They are near vitamins and other "health supplements" in my supermarket.
I put it in my smoothies and put it in my oatmeal too before heating it up. Does heating it up in the microwave ruin the protein?
I wanted to answer this and a couple of other questions on whey protein or protein powders in general.
Yes, heating denatures whey protein. If you're going to put it into oatmeal, add it after you've cooked it...whey protein powder dissolves pretty readily after being stirred or shaken. I have to say though, that I have seen a few recipes out there for protein pancakes and those are cooked with the powder in them, so .....
For the person who is going to start running, if you're that concerned about calories, there are a lot of whey proteins out there that are low carb and lower calories than others. Look for them. Also, if you mix it with water instead of any type of milk, it will cut the calories in the drink a lot. However, if you're going to be running, you'll probably be burning a LOT of calories, so I wouldn't worry about it. In fact, if you're worried about the calories in a whey shake, you're probably not eating enough (5-6 small meals a day) to begin with.
Also, when you go to buy a whey protein (or any type of protein supplement)....Whey is just supposed to be one of the most bioavailable preparations of protein, which is why it's recommended more often than other types...also, it's a little more expensive. Whey Isolate is supposed to be the best of the best, as opposed to the powders made from Whey concentrates and isolate....but, I think that unless you're a competitive bodybuilder or fitness or physique athlete, it's not going to make a bit of difference. Anyhow, what I started to say, was when you are looking at different brands of protein, to determine the quality of protein compared to "other ingredients" , look at the amount of protein in each serving (mine says "26g"), and divide that by the amount of each serving size (mine says 32 g") and then multiply by 100 to get the % of protein in each serving. You should be getting a number of at least 75%...otherwise, don't bother with it.