Unlock the Power of PROTEIN Powder

Unlock the Power of PROTEIN Powder: Boost Muscle Growth, Accelerate Healing, and Enhance your Well-being!

 

BENEFITS:

There are numerous benefits to supplementing your diet with a protein powder:

• • Promotes muscle growth and strength
  • Supports a healthy weight and shape
  • Reduces hunger and improve satiety
  • Provides amino acids necessary for tissue healing
  • Supports gut health repair (especially with added healthy fats and fiber)

 

Note: If you are focusing on building muscle mass and strength, protein is only one of several requirements. Below all play a crucial role in building strength and endurance:

1. Resistance training: Engaging in exercises that challenge your muscles beyond their current capacity.
2. Proper nourishment: Ensuring you get the necessary micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) and macronutrients (protein, fats, carbs), as well as staying hydrated.
3. Sufficient rest and recovery: Allowing your muscles time to recover between resistance workouts, as well as getting sufficient restorative rest each night.

 

WHEN TO USE:

A protein powder “shake” is ideally suited as:

• • A post-workout meal or addition – to ensure adequate protein intake to optimize your workout benefits
  • An occasional meal replacement (lunch or dinner) – for convenience or when time is limited
  • A protein “boost” to a low-protein meal (like a salad)
  • A snack – that is both delicious and satisfying

It can also be useful to give your digestive system a bit of a rest while still providing your body with some fundamental nutrients – especially when mixed with berries and healthy fats (flaxseed, hemp seed, coconut milk/oil, etc.).

 

WHICH TO USE:

Quality

As with all types of supplementation, to gain any real benefit from protein powder (i.e., do more good than harm), it must be of high-quality and not include any unhealthy ingredients, e.g., artificial sweeteners, high sugar, artificial flavors, toxic chemical residues, and more.

Food-sourced supplements – like plant-sourced protein powder (like pea/rice, hemp) – are ideally certified organic to help ensure you are not also consuming the toxic chemicals commonly used in farming or food processing (like glyphosate and many more). For animal-based protein powder (collagen, whey), you want to ensure that it is derived from healthy animals. This means that they were fed on pastures (and any supplemented feed) void of chemicals (pesticides, fertilizer), not given hormones (to fatten them up) nor antibiotics (in lieu of a healthy, clean environment).

That said, some products (like protein powders) are derived from “clean” sources (free of chemicals) but that has not received the official “organic” certification (for various reasons). So, to ensure that your protein powder is guaranteed for purity (and potency), it makes sense to only use those manufactured by reputable manufacturers – like Xymogen, Inc.

 

Purpose

The next consideration is the primary goal or purpose of the protein powder, as well as the source, although ALL quality protein powders (as noted below) contain all benefits to some degree.

 

Animal-sourced Protein Powder:

• • FitFood Lean Whey or IgG Pure – for those focusing on muscle growth and strength (if not whey-sensitive)
  • Marine Collagen – particularly beneficial for bone, joint, hair, and nail health and repair

 

Plant-sourced Protein Powder:

• • FitFood Lean Complete – for a high-quality, fiber-rich, “clean,” tasty, protein supplement

• • OptiCleanse GHI – for those desiring anti-inflammatory, gut, and detoxification support

 

Amino Acid Formula:

• • XymobolX – to retain or build muscle, particularly with weak or impaired digestion, highly stressed, or physically impaired in some way (bedridden, injured, etc.)

 

When it comes to protein supplementation, there are several options, each of which has their pros and cons.

 

ANIMAL-BASED Protein Supplementation:

Types:

Whey (dairy-sourced), collagen (from fish scales and beef/chicken bones), casein (dairy-sourced)

 

Advantages:

⇒ Less animal-based protein is required (per calorie) than plant-based protein to satisfy the body’s protein needs.

⇒ Often contain many – if not all – essential amino acids

 

Caution:

⇒ Low quality sources contain higher concentration of herbicides and pesticides

⇒ Casein-source protein carries risk of potential allergenicity

⇒ Dairy-sensitive people may “react” to whey protein (though less often than with casein protein)

 

Recommendations:

✔ FitFood Lean Whey or IgG Pure particularly beneficial for muscle growth – a “clean” source of whey protein  concentrate (extract from cow’s milk), naturally rich in branched-chain amino acids (“concentrate” is less processed than “isolates” and contain a broader spectrum of beneficial nutrients; BCAAs may be beneficial for muscle protein synthesis)

✔ Marine Collagen particularly beneficial for bone, joint, hair, and nail health and repair – a dairy-free protein containing collagen from the scales of non-GMO, wild-caught white fish

 

PLANT-BASED Protein Supplementation:

Types:

Pea, rice, pea-rice mix, seed-based (hemp, flaxseed, pumpkin seed, etc.), soybean

 

Advantages:

⇒ Avoids potential allergenicity of dairy-sourced protein (and Vegan-friendly)

⇒ High-quality plant-based protein mixes contain all essential amino acids and other beneficial substances (polyphenols, bioflavonoids, etc.) 

⇒ Often contain added anti-inflammatory and detoxifying botanicals

 

Caution:

⇒ May pose digestibility issues (and potential lectin reactions)

⇒ Single-sourced proteins contain a limited amino acid profile

⇒ Soy-based protein has potential allergenicity and goitrogenic effect

 

Recommendations:

✔ FitFood Lean Complete for all-purpose, “universal” protein supplement – a dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, low-lectin pea-rice protein mix with all essential amino acids and fortified with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and enzymes to improve digestibility (lightly sweetened with monk fruit extract).

✔ OptiCleanse GHI for anti-inflammatory, gut, and detoxification support – a high-quality, low-lectin, pea-rice protein mix containing all essential amino acids, enhanced with an array of anti-inflammatory and detoxifying botanicals (lightly sweetened with monk fruit extract).

 

AMINO-ACID Protein Supplementation:

Amino acids are the individual building blocks that comprise protein. The advantage of consuming an amino acid supplement is that it does not require any digestion (unlike protein), which can become an issue with many people as they get on up in years.

 

Advantages:

This amino acid formula would be particularly beneficial for those who wish to build or retain muscle mass yet have difficulty with strength-training (due to injury, disability, or illness), for those with impaired digestion (from long-standing digestive challenges, chronic gut disorders, or prolonged, high stress).

 

Recommendation:

XymobolX: Certain amino acid formulas (specifically, XymobolX) have been highly researched and shown to help preserve muscle mass, even when the muscle is not stressed (as with bedridden patients in the hospital). 

 

Note: This formula contains branch-chained amino acids in concert with other amino acids – the combination of which has been shown to be particularly beneficial for muscle growth and preservation (and even more so, and safer than, BCAAs alone).

 

My recommendation for those considering protein supplements in powder form is as follows:

1. 1. Don’t replace whole foods with protein supplements. Instead, prioritize a healthy diet with natural sources of protein, whether animal or plant-based, like eggs, fish, legumes, and seeds.
   2. Don’t over-supplement; take only what your body needs which is largely dictated by your muscle mass (as a guideline, consider ½ to 1 serving a day).
   3. Choose a high-quality product from a reputable manufacturer, preferably a “clean” source (organic, as available) to avoid unnecessary contaminants which are concentrated in protein powders.
   4. Pay attention to how your body responds to the supplement, including how you feel (energy, sleep, digestibility), as well as your strength, waist measurement, and other metrics, as available (like body composition).
   5. Rotate different compatible protein sources that you respond well to, just as you should rotate protein sources in your regular diet.

 

Bottom-line:

Protein is required for muscle growth and strength development … but there is no “magic bullet” protein powder that will build muscles without exercise and good nutrition.

 

To minimize potential risks from protein supplementation, follow the guidelines mentioned above, including quality and quantity.

 

Your overall diet and lifestyle, including your thoughts, feelings, and actions, play a crucial role in your health, well-being, as well as in building muscle mass and strength!