Oats & whey protein powder

[Oros]

I have been adding my protein powder to my morning porridge for quit some time now, but it has suddenly dawned on me, that the high heat of the micro-waved oats could be damaging the whey protein. Is this a possibility?

[Paul]

I always mix me protein sepratly to the prridge .Then pour the protein mix over your porridge like a sauce :nod: not sure if nukeing it or not damages though.

[Varven]

I remember reading somewhere that heat denatures whey.

Let me see if i can dig up any links.

Might be better to pour it over as a 'sauce' as Paul mentioned.

[ExpensiveUrine]

It won't matter much as it will break down to aminos. When you cook chicken it goes from pink to white, protein is denatured.

[Pseudonym]

What it can do, if the porridge is too hot, is alter the texture of the whey. I'm not sure what it is that gets affected, but I suspect it's the artificial sweetener. Perhaps someone can confirm this? Flex? Waldo?

I haven't tested this theory with unflavoured whey yet - I'll try it tomorrow for breakfast, and let you know the results!

[waldo]

Stolen from a website somewhere in cyberspace....

As most of us are now using some form of protein powder it is important to remember that cooking or heating of our favourite protein powder may make it less effective and in some cases put our health at risk....

Most protein powders today contain nutrients, naturally occuring and added, that have many health benefits. These include the immune system enhancing immunoglobulins in whey, and the various added vitamins and EFA’s (essential fatty acids) as well. When cooking at high temperatures, especially for longer periods of time, you will damage vital nutrients. Vitamins and EFA’s are the most at risk. EFA’s will be totally destoyed, vitamins lose at least 75 percent of their benefits, and immunoglobulins will lose at least 20% of their action. Remember to add your protein to your porridge only after cooking and once it has cooled slightly, this will protect the activity of the sensitive nutrients. If you care about the special nutrient properties (and you should as they offer many advantages) keep any cooking time to an absolute minimum. One very important point to remember is you should never heat any product that uses the artificial sweetener aspartame, these sweeteners are found in many protein formulations so check the ingredients. When heated, the artificial sweetener aspartame decomposes into diketopiperazine (DKP) a known carcinogen.

For those that don't know, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E951. Check the ingredients list on your powder's tub, and look at the sweetners used.

[deegee]

I only use aspartimine free brands for the most part, unsure about ON whey though cant find anything on the container. My days of trying to cook home made protein bars finished with disaster some time ago.

[waldo]

Optimum use Acesfulame K (Potassium) as their sweetener. Number to look for is E950.

[deegee]

Optimum use Acesfulame K (Potassium) as their sweetener. Number to look for is E950.

I take it that is a good thing or at least better than aspartamine? Thanks

[Oros]

So, reading between the lines, the answer to my query is a resounding "NO",.....do not add protein powder (whey, or other forms of protein) to my HOT oats, preferrably do not add heat to protein supplements at all.

Mix seperately, and drink as a "side dish"

Unflavoured whey protein isolate, in water,......yumm.

[waldo]

Most of your powders out there will have been heat-treated at manufacture, that is, heat treated to destroy pathogenic organisms (organisms capable of creating disease). Some are treated at 63-66 degrees celsius for 30 minutes, and up to 132 degrees celsius for 1 second (UHT drinks like Musashi P30).

I would have to say if these products can withstand (and they have to) these temperatures for these times without hurting the quality of the product, then you'd probably be safe putting your powder on a cooled bowl of microwaved porridge.

[lazyone]

Stolen from a website somewhere in cyberspace....

As most of us are now using some form of protein powder it is important to remember that cooking or heating of our favourite protein powder may make it less effective and in some cases put our health at risk....

Most protein powders today contain nutrients, naturally occuring and added, that have many health benefits. These include the immune system enhancing immunoglobulins in whey, and the various added vitamins and EFA’s (essential fatty acids) as well. When cooking at high temperatures, especially for longer periods of time, you will damage vital nutrients. Vitamins and EFA’s are the most at risk. EFA’s will be totally destoyed, vitamins lose at least 75 percent of their benefits, and immunoglobulins will lose at least 20% of their action. Remember to add your protein to your porridge only after cooking and once it has cooled slightly, this will protect the activity of the sensitive nutrients. If you care about the special nutrient properties (and you should as they offer many advantages) keep any cooking time to an absolute minimum. One very important point to remember is you should never heat any product that uses the artificial sweetener aspartame, these sweeteners are found in many protein formulations so check the ingredients. When heated, the artificial sweetener aspartame decomposes into diketopiperazine (DKP) a known carcinogen.

For those that don't know, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E951. Check the ingredients list on your powder's tub, and look at the sweetners used.

Sorry... do you have a reference for this?

[waldo]

http://www.reactiv.co.nz/Page.php?page= ... =Nutrition

This discussion alerted me to this particular page. It's not a gospel...but may help.

[lazyone]

http://www.reactiv.co.nz/Page.php?page=10&articleId=4&articleSection=Nutrition

This discussion alerted me to this particular page. It's not a gospel...but may help.

Thanks for that!

[lazyone]

So, reading between the lines, the answer to my query is a resounding "NO",.....do not add protein powder (whey, or other forms of protein) to my HOT oats, preferrably do not add heat to protein supplements at all.

Mix seperately, and drink as a "side dish"

Unflavoured whey protein isolate, in water,......yumm.

I don't think the protein in pp is negatively affected by heat. Like EU said - it denatures it, but it wouldn't change the constituent amino acids.

[Flex]

Heating whey protein does actually change the amino acids causing cysteine to convert to cystine. Cysteine is a glutathione precursor which is very important for your immune system. Cystine is not that important.

Heat also denatures whey by damaging the protein fractions - GMP's, BSA, IgG's, ect

These microfractions are what sets whey protein apart from other protein sources and by damaging these you nullify much of the benefit of using whey protein. Because of this denaturing of the protein fractions the BV or bioavailability will be reduced lowering the amount of usable protein you absorb.

I wouldn't recommend baking with whey, or heating to high temperatures for any length of time.

[2guns]

so wat about making a protein shake and putting it in the fridge for a few hours whill at work does this damage it in any way to?

[Varven]

I dont know about damaging it but I once left a protein shake mixed in milk in the fridge for circa 4 hoours and it had gone bad

[Pseudonym]

Ooops! I never did post the experiment results as I promised above, did I? Well, here's the definitive report...

I wanted to see whether the change in consistency that occurs in protein powder when cooked was caused by the extra goodies like flavouring, colouring, preservatives, added aminos, EFAs etc that you get in most powders now. So I resolved to experiment - for SCIENCE! :grin:

I used a scoop of plain whey ion exchange isolate with no extra goodies. The only addition to the protein since it left its Fonterra sack was a pack of Cadbury drinking chocolate - basically just cocoa and sugar (no milk powder) and mixed at roughly a 3:1 ratio of protein to cocoa. I don't think the drinking chocolate would have affected our experiment, but it made the protein taste nicer.

I mixed up a bowl of rolled oats, water and a pinch of salt. Then I remembered the experiment I was supposed to be doing, and belatedly added the scoop of protein powder. Obviously the protein was much harder to mix in this way than it would have been had I mixed it into the dry oats first, but I got the lumps out in the end. Again, I don't think this would have unduly affected the experiment.

I put it in the microwave and nuked it for a couple of minutes. After pulling it out and stirring it, it still looked a little sloppy, so I put it back in for another short blast. RESULT! This time it came out like a cake, with a very familiar consistency - the same over-cooked-protein texture I've had when using "commercial" brands with additives.

Conclusion: I am forced to conclude that my initial hypothesis was wrong. It can't be the additives in protein powders that cause the alteration of texture when cooked. Therefore it must be the protein.

Speaking personally now, I didn't like the altered texture, which certainly seemed to indicate a chemical change of some sort had occurred. Henceforth, it will be uncooked whey protein only for this scientician.

[Varven]

Nice little experiment and report admin, enjoyed it.

Henceforth, it will be uncooked whey protein only for this scientician.

Just to be pedantic you'd be grammatically correct in referring to yourself as a scientist and not a scientician.

[sponge]

haha, hilarious

[Pseudonym]

Just to be pedantic you'd be grammatically correct in referring to yourself as a scientist and not a scientician.

You obviously haven't watched enough Simpsons episodes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made-up_wo ... cientician

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... cientician

[lazyone]

Heating whey protein does actually change the amino acids causing cysteine to convert to cystine. Cysteine is a glutathione precursor which is very important for your immune system. Cystine is not that important.

Heat also denatures whey by damaging the protein fractions - GMP's, BSA, IgG's, ect

These microfractions are what sets whey protein apart from other protein sources and by damaging these you nullify much of the benefit of using whey protein. Because of this denaturing of the protein fractions the BV or bioavailability will be reduced lowering the amount of usable protein you absorb.

I wouldn't recommend baking with whey, or heating to high temperatures for any length of time.

Urmm.. in the extracellular fluid, cysteine auto-oxidises to cystine, and once taken up by the cells cystine is rapidly reduced to cysteine. So it doesnt matter if some is intra-converted, as the body knows what to do with it anyway. By sayin that cystine aint important is the same as saying that cysteine aint important.

If you really care about the biologicals, then don't cook with it. But if you're just using whey as a source of amino acids then who cares. It doesnt really do a lot to the BV of the protein.

[Flex]

1: J Dairy Res. 1991 Nov;58(4):431-41. Related Articles, Links

Extent of damage to amino acid availability of whey protein heated with sugar.

Desrosiers T, Savoie L.

Department de nutrition humaine et de consommation, Faculte des Sciences de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation, Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada.

The effect of heat treatments, at various water activities (aW), on digestibility and on the availabilities of amino acids of whey protein samples in the presence of lactose was estimated by an in vitro digestion method with continuous dialysis. Four aW (0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.97), three temperatures (75, 100 and 121 degrees C) and three heating periods (50, 500 and 5000 s) were selected. The initial lysine:lactose molar ratio was 1:1. Amino acid profiles showed that excessive heating of whey (121 degrees C, 5000 s) destroyed a significant proportion of cystine at all aW, lysine at aW 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7, and arginine at aW 0.5 and 0.7. At aW 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7, protein digestibility decreased (P less than 0.05) as the temperature increased from 75 to 121 degrees C for a heating period of 5000 s, and as the heating time was prolonged, from 500 to 5000 s at 121 degrees C. Excessive heating also decreased (P less than 0.05) the availabilities of all amino acids at aW 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7. The availabilities of lysine, proline, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, threonine, alanine, glycine and serine were particularly affected. Severe heating at aW 0.97 did not seem to favour the Maillard reaction, but the availabilities of cystine, tyrosine and arginine were decreased, probably as a result of structural modifications of the protein upon heating. Heating whey protein concentrates in the presence of lactose not only affected lysine, but also impaired enzymic liberation of other amino acids, according to the severity of heat treatments and aW.

PMID: 1765592 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Flex]

Cystine vs Cysteine

Cystine is a sulfur-containing amino acid that helps form healthy skin, hair, bones, and connective tissue. It is also required to make glutathione, one of the natural antioxidants that fight free-radical damage (glutathione detoxifies the liver). Each molecule of cystine is made from two molecules of cysteine, another sulfur-containing amino acid that, as its name suggests, is very similar to cystine; in fact, cystine is generally regarded as the more stable form of cysteine, although both amino acids can be converted into the other as needed.

Cystine works closely with glutathione to remove toxins from the liver. In fact, cysteine is often used in emergency rooms to treat acetaminophen overdoses, which are known to cause liver damage. It also protects the liver and brain against toxins absorbed from alcohol and cigarette use, and may be effective in preventing hangovers.

There’s a lot of cystine in alpha-keratin, the protein that makes up the fingernails, skin, and hair. For this reason cysteine supplements are sometimes marketed as anti-aging products that claim to stimulate the formation of collagen and improve skin elasticity. Cysteine supplementation may also help speed the healing of burns and wounds, and improve joint flexibility in those with rheumatoid arthritis.

Because it promotes the production of the antioxidant glutathione, cysteine supplementation may be useful to those suffering from conditions that have been linked to free-radical oxidative damage, such as hardening of the arteries and cancer. It may also help treat emphysema, tuberculosis, and bronchitis—cysteine has been shown to help break down mucus in the respiratory tract.

Cystine is a nonessential amino acid, which means the body manufactures its own supply of this substance. However, foods such as eggs, meat, dairy products, and whole grains are also good sources of cystine.

Cysteine is more easily absorbed by the body than cystine, so most supplements contain cysteine rather than cystine. In addition, too much cystine in the body can cause cystinosis, a rare disease that can cause cystine crystals to form in the body and produce bladder or kidney stones. This side effect has not been associated with cysteine; however, as previously mentioned, cysteine is unstable, and is often converted to cystine in the body. To avoid the conversion of cysteine to potentially harmful amounts of cystine, it is advised that you take vitamin C supplements or consume citrus fruits along with cysteine supplements. Cystine cannot be used by the body without adequate amounts of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folic acid, so you’ll want to make sure you get the right amount of these supplements as well. B vitamins are also needed to help the body get rid of homocysteine, a waste product that is formed when the body uses cysteine. Homocysteine has been linked to inflammation in the arteries that results in heart disease. ----- src http://www.vitaminstuff.com/amino-acid-cystine.html