Toward Better Health

For anybody who is looking to increase health through physical fitness and possible meal replacement, understanding what goes into choosing the best protein shakes to meet both those goals can be important. Protein is one of the three main building blocks the body needs in order to operate efficiently, along with carbohydrates and fats. Without protein, muscles cannot repair themselves and a lack of protein can cause certain medical conditions.
Therefore, it’s important to understand how to look at, for instance, a high protein shake and what it is needed for. In general, protein shakes can be especially needed after extended bouts of hard exercise, for one. During exercise, the body’s muscles are extended and stressed in ways that deplete essential muscle fiber of many substances. Muscles can, in extreme cases, waste away if protein replacement is not undertaken.

In terms of body weight and which of the three building blocks (carbohydrate, fat, protein) are the most calorically dense and can therefore cause excess weight gain, fats literally take the cake in containing over 9 calories per gram of fat. Carbohydrates usually deliver around four calories per gram of carbohydrate and protein also delivers four calories per gram.

The body will always burn carbohydrate first and protein second. Fat, of course, will be guarded jealously. All of this is leading to the fact that choosing the best protein shake takes into account the need to restrict fat while providing adequate carbohydrate and a good quantity of protein. This is also a way of saying that the shakes that can serve as protein replenishment drinks after hard exercise or as a high protein meal replacement shake will work the best.
Protein can be gotten from a number of sources when it comes to making up an excellent shake. From foods, peanut butter is a great source of protein and it actually doesn’t have an access of saturated fat. However, mixing peanut butter into a shake can get really messy. That’s why protein powders tend to make for the best shakes. And there are usually two kinds of powders used in the best protein shakes.

One type is, of course, soy-based protein but recent studies in males are revealing certain issues with enlarged breast tissue that can result from too much hormone content in soy-based protein. That’s why the other major source of powdered protein can make the best protein shake. Whey protein is, generally, the recommended form of protein powder to mix into a good quality protein shake.

Therefore, consider choosing the protein shakes that can serve as a complete meal replacement shake and as a post-workout drink that helps to rebuild muscle that is exhausted after exercise. The best protein shake is out there; all that’s needed is to go out and find it or to make one of your own from readily available whey proteins and a healthy helping of fruits and skim milk or crushed ice.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 3:33 am and is filed under Shakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.