Adding a scoop of a protein powder to a shake or smoothie sure sounds like a good idea. After all, proteins\u00a0are essential nutrients for the\u00a0human body. They are one of the building blocks of body tissue and can also serve as fuel sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there\u2019s a very important distinction to be made between the protein in meat, fish, poultry (and other whole-food sources) and the powder that comes out of that box, bag, or jar. Read this post carefully before you touch another protein-fortified drink, snack bar or supplement. Your brain will thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amino acids<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds. During human digestion, proteins are broken down in the stomach to smaller polypeptide chains via hydrochloric acid and protease enzyme actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When protein is ingested and then broken into individual amino acids, those individual amino acids proceed slowly through the human digestion processes. Unless one is allergic or sensitive to the food that contains the protein, its amino acids continue along to be digested without adverse effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if protein is broken into individual amino acids before<\/em><\/strong> it is ingested, those free amino acids take on a toxic potential that they would never have ingested as part of a whole protein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take glutamic acid (glutamate). When released from protein during digestion, glutamate is vital to normal body function. Often referred to as \u201ca building block of protein,\u201d it is the major neurotransmitter in the human body, carrying nerve impulses from glutamate stimuli to glutamate receptors throughout the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, when freed from its protein source (be it from milk, peas, soy, etc.) and then consumed in amounts that exceed what the healthy human body was designed to accommodate, glutamate takes on \u201cexcitotoxic\u201d properties. <\/em><\/strong>What was a normally functioning neurotransmitter turns hostile, firing repeatedly and damaging receptor cells in the brain and elsewhere until they die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excitotoxins <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes a labeling distinction between whole protein foods and potentially excitotoxic processed protein products that are made up of individual amino acids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FDA rules say that an unadulterated tomato is to be called a \u201ctomato.\u201d A \u201cpea\u201d is required to be called a \u201cpea\u201d and whey is called \u201cwhey.\u201d Those are their common or usual names. No reference is made to the fact that these protein-containing foods contain protein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, when amino acids are freed from proteins such as peas, the resulting ingredients will be called \u201cpea protein,\u201d or \u201cisolated pea protein,\u201d \u201cpea protein concentrate,\u201d or \u201chydrolyzed pea protein.\u201d And you\u2019ll find these ingredients in all kinds of food products, including a popular dairy-free drink called Ripple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other food ingredients that have the same excitotoxic properties have names that include the words<\/a> \u201chydrolyzed,\u201d \u201cautolyzed,\u201d \u201camino acid,\u201d \u201cL-glutamate,\u201d \u201cglutamic acid,\u201d and \u201cL-glutamic acid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, why haven\u2019t you come across this information before? Why are products containing these brain-damaging excitotoxins even allowed on the market? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The answers lie in the dark history of an unregulated industry \u2013 \u201cpoliced\u201d by an FDA that chooses to look the other way. That history can be read in The Toxicity\/Safety of Processed Free Glutamic Acid (MSG): A study in Suppression of Information<\/a>. Accountability in Research<\/em>. 1999(6):259-310; by A. Samuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more about how the FDA cooperates with Ajinomoto, the world\u2019s largest producer of monosodium glutamate, check out this page<\/a> at our website. <\/p>\n