Heating Potein Shakes

Boru.

Hey all,

A client asked me the other day if there were any adverse affects in heating up a protein shake. I couldn't hink of any at the time but siad to hold off till I researched it. To date I have found nothing but I know we have several experts here on boards giuys anything you can think of?

To be more specific the client is using a title whey powder, chocolate I believe, to supplement his diet. He used to drink a hot chocloate or two during the day and his wife recently substituted in the protein powder thinking it was a new hot chocolate drink. It tasted delicious and he's been heating them since.

I've tried one and I have to say it nearly beats a classc cadbury's.

So could heating it have any adverse effect that you guys may be aware of.

Many thanks.

kstanl

Well if you over-heat it the protein can become denatured and therefore less effective. It should be fine just to warm it up a litte though. In fact the ideal solution would be to heat it up a wee bit as it aids digestion. Don't bring it anywhere near boiling though!

Boru.

Excellent!

Many thanks kstanl.

BrianD3

Don't know. But I also use hot water with whey protein. However I boil the water first, cool it down a bit by adding some cold, then add the whey and blend it with a fork. I think there is less risk of denaturation this way compared to blending the whey into cold water and then heating it (which seems to be the way your mate is doing it)

g'em

kstanl wrote:

Well if you over-heat it the protein can become denatured and therefore less effective. It should be fine just to warm it up a litte though. In fact the ideal solution would be to heat it up a wee bit as it aids digestion. Don't bring it anywhere near boiling though!

if the protein is denatured it'll render it pretty useless for nutritional purposes, the structure and shape of the protein is changed chaging its properties

unfortunately proteins are pretty sensitive, and heating up even a little over noraml body temp (37C) won't do them any favours. You may notice theat if you put most whey proteins in hot water/milk they tend to clump and not dissolve very well? that's denaturation for ya. Think of an egg white- heat it over 40C and it clumps and turns white, an irreversible process.

I am SUCH a nerd.

joc_06

g'em wrote:

if the protein is denatured it'll render it pretty useless for nutritional purposes, the structure and shape of the protein is changed chaging its properties

unfortunately proteins are pretty sensitive, and heating up even a little over noraml body temp (37C) won't do them any favours. You may notice theat if you put most whey proteins in hot water/milk they tend to clump and not dissolve very well? that's denaturation for ya. Think of an egg white- heat it over 40C and it clumps and turns white, an irreversible process.

I am SUCH a nerd.

Id like to get a definite answer on this too because im fairly sick of the taste of my whey and any improvement would be great without having to resort to a milkshake.
Easygainer will surely know...

joejoem

Something Ive been meaning to find out, does caffine inhibit protein?

joc_06

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi5.htm

not sure but it doesnt inhibit creatine effectivenees anyway,
I think this guy berardi is very good.
Id highly recommend reading all hiss articles here:
www.johnberardi.com

joc_06

Yeah i reckon the protein should be ok as long you dont cook it like.
a bit of warm water and drink immediately, should be fine.
id still like some definite info though

BrianD3

There has been some discussion on this topic in misc.fitness.weights and uk.rec.bodybuilding newsgroups. I haven't foudn a conclusive answer yet. But apparently some brands of whey proten have a statement on the packaging which says it's OK to incorporate the protein into a cake and bake it in an oven. How true this is I don't know. More googling required.

LiamONeill

i heated one in oatmeal and it coagulated. tasted like chocolate scrambled eggs...

tribulus

generally it's not a good idea but it can depend on the type of protein and it's amino acid profile

for example(from two textbooks: Garrett and Grisham-Biochemistry and Voet, Voet and Pratt-Fundamentals of Biochemistry)

when amio acids are boiled at 110C with HCl for 24, 48 and 72 hours it was found that over 90% of the non-peptide bonds had remained. However the peptide bonds had nearly all been broken

Some amino acids were deaminated, glutamine, asparagine while some were completely destroyed, Tryptophan

Also some compounds that allow proteins to fold such as ligand complexes and di sulfide bridges can have bonds broken from heating.

Obviously body temp isn't 110C but the addition of HCl was to simulate stomach pH.

It's possible however that when heated in standard tap water the same effects might not be seen due to the higher ph. This is just speculation on my part because amino acids are zwitter ions and are largely protonated at lower pH's which could(speculation) have an effect that would not be seen at a more neutral pH

Easygainer

Warm water/milk should be ok but again protein has enzymes so over heating, say past 70 celcius would ruin it but I don't think anyone's having protein in their tea, so shouldn't be a problem.

I know most of the top proteins are cold filtered to ensure no denaturing of the proteins but I can't imagine anything below body temp denaturing the proteins....

joc_06

heres a good test:

If you find that you get really flatulent, you probably overheated the protein. When protein is denatured, it becomes much harder to digest, which means that some of the aminos and sugars will eventually make their way into your colon undigested. When your intestinal flora get ahold of this, they will consume it, and as a biproduct, will produce methane gas (in the same way yeast produces carbon dioxide).The notorious "Protein Farts" come from either iactose intolerance, or cheap, highly processed, denatured protein. This is also why people claim too many eggs will make you very gassy... I eat at the least 6 eggs per day, and have no problem with gas, because my eggs are always served soft scrambled, soft boiled, or over-easy.

joejoem

joc_06 wrote:

heres a good test:

If you find that you get really flatulent, you probably overheated the protein. When protein is denatured, it becomes much harder to digest, which means that some of the aminos and sugars will eventually make their way into your colon undigested. When your intestinal flora get ahold of this, they will consume it, and as a biproduct, will produce methane gas (in the same way yeast produces carbon dioxide).The notorious "Protein Farts" come from either iactose intolerance, or cheap, highly processed, denatured protein. This is also why people claim too many eggs will make you very gassy... I eat at the least 6 eggs per day, and have no problem with gas, because my eggs are always served soft scrambled, soft boiled, or over-easy.

oooooooooooooooooooooook I was blaming the Tuna! Actually I dont heat the protein but still get farty at times. Is there anything you can do to combat this apart from holding it all in till you feel like burping?