What few people know is the fact that whey protein was not always a really good supplement as it is today. When it first appeared on the market we had protein content of around 40% and the rest was made out of un-denatured protein, fats and lactose. That supplement is still available today and used by many athletes. This is what whey protein concentrate actually is. The good news is that there is a huge difference. Nowadays the protein quantity present in the concentrates is situated at around 80% thanks to getting rid of a lot of fat and lactose. The big problem is that whey protein isolate is very strongly marketed at the moment and that is why so many tend to think that it is a very bad idea to buy a concentrate whey protein supplement. Things are not actually like that.
It is true that you are going to find a lower percentage of protein in whey protein concentrate supplements but you are also going to locate some compounds that are not present in isolate products. If you are looking at the really high quality concentrate supplements you are going to notice that the growth factor composition is high. This includes IGF-1, TGF- Beta 1 and Beta 2. In addition, there is also an addition of phoso lipids that are combined with different bio-active lipids. The best examples that we can give are lactoferin and immunoglobulins.
At the moment we do not have a link between then and muscle muss building or performance but we do know of different studies that highlighted the fact that the mentioned compounds are helpful in improving intestinal health and immunity. Also, they bring in other great effects that are necessary for regular people and even bodybuilders. Such a fact does bring in different questions and there are actually many athletes that prefer whey protein concentrate as they noticed better results as compared with the isolate variation.
The conclusion is quite simple. We can say that whey protein concentrate does have a big disadvantage when comparing with whey protein isolate. This is that it has less protein while the content of lactose and fats is higher. However, this does not necessarily mean that we are in front of an inferior product that should not be considered. The truth is that choosing between the two is strongly linked with the goals that you have at the moment.
There is no denial in the fact that you will have to choose the isolate form if you are tolerant to lactose. It has low quantities of glucose but when you want to build muscle mass you can have great results with both- if you know what you are doing. In addition, the huge advantage of concentrate whey protein is that it is cheaper than isolate whey protein. If you are not doing sports at a professional level and you just want supplementation to help you out, then you should seriously also think about the concentrate whey protein option.