Tips for Using and Choosing Protein Powders

Betty Rocker (00:15):
What’s up, Rockstars Coach Betty Rocker here. Thanks so much for tuning in and spending some time with me today. So this is actually part one of a two part episode, and today I’m gonna cover protein powders, how to choose them, how to use them, and whether or not you need them for support. And in part two, I’m gonna tell you the difference between protein powders, collagen, things like free-form aminos and BCAAs plus creatine. So stay tuned and let’s get started because first and foremost, why do we wanna pay attention to protein as active women? Why is it so important and why do I never seem to stop talking about it?

Well, first, protein is one of the main macronutrients that we need to maintain our health, right? And while many people associate protein with steak and eggs and lots of muscle protein can be found in many foods of both plant and animal origins, and it does a lot of crucial tasks in our body that go well beyond supporting our muscle tissue.

(01:18)
And when we eat a food that contains protein, that protein gets broken down in our body to amino acids. And there are 20 odd amino acids that we get from various food sources. And of these, there are nine that our body can’t make on its own and it has to get them from food. Those are the nine that are known as the essential amino acids. And don’t worry, , you don’t have to memorize them, but it’s cool to know what they actually are. So we’ve got leucine, isoleucine, and valine, and those are the branch chain amino acids, which you may hear about most commonly. And then there’s phenylalanine, methionine, threonine, histidine, lysine, and tryptophan. So that’s the nine your body has to get from food because it can’t make them on its own. And it’s very funny, if you’re ever trying to memorize all the essential amino acids, I would recommend going on YouTube because there are funny songs, that help you memorize all the different, all 20 different amino acids.

(02:20)
I was going down a rabbit hole enjoying those when I was getting ready for this podcast actually. So again, you don’t have to memorize those. And those are just the nine essentials, right?

So when we eat carbs or when we eat fat, our body uses whatever it needs for immediate energy and then it packages up what’s left over into ourselves for later use it warehouses the extra right to be unpackaged later, say in between meals when we need energy, like our carbs can be stored in our liver and our muscle tissue as glycogen and fat can be stored in our fat cells and within our muscle fibers. But our protein and the amino acids it breaks into mostly gets stored right in our muscle tissue, along with being used for many other important jobs that the body has for them. Now I mentioned that they’re stored in the muscle tissue because many of us are working on a body composition goal where we’re looking to get, you know, toned or look leaner or more shredded or actually build muscle.

(03:19)
And to accomplish that, we need to strengthen and preserve our muscle tissue, which not only supports and protects us, it gives us a metabolic advantage because the more muscle we have, the more effectively we burn body fat. So when your body needs energy in between meals, it’s gonna unpackage those stored carbs from its warehouse in your liver or stored fats from the fat cells.

But when your body needs amino acids and it doesn’t have any like circulating in your system because say you haven’t eaten much protein in your last meal, it’s going to break down your muscle tissue to access the amino acids it needs. And that process of, you know, muscle breakdown is a natural one. Our body’s always in a state of turnover to some extent rebuilding our muscle and breaking it down. But in order to gain muscle, we have to be in a greater rebuild or build state than we are in a breakdown or deficit state.

(04:13)
And one of the easiest ways to support that is to eat enough protein because like I was saying before, you know, muscle isn’t the only thing we need those amino acids for. We need protein to support things like a healthy immune system. Nobody likes to get sick, right? And the amino acids actually activate these guardian cells in your body called natural killer cells or NK for short. And these guys go to bat for us non stop limiting the spread of things like microbial infections and identifying and eliminating harmful bacteria. They also help to regulate your response to oxidative stress, which is when we’ve got too many free radicals running rampant in our system and not enough antioxidant support to eradicate them. And oxidative stress is really damaging to our cells and body tissues. So we totally wanna support the body in fighting it for us. And there’s a lot that those NK cells do for us to support our immune system.

(05:12)
And they need amino acids from protein to do their jobs. And we also need protein to form the building blocks for some of our hormones that have important signaling roles in the body, like insulin for instance, or human growth hormone. We need amino acids to construct things like enzymes, which helps speed up chemical reactions in our body like digestion, the breathing we do automatically all day things like nerve function, you know, the things that are on such total autopilot, we don’t even have to think about them, but without them we couldn’t survive, right? Plus we need aminos for our brain to function. We need them to form the neurotransmitters that carry information between our brain cells, which helps with things like our memory and mental alertness. And let’s not forget our mood. Without enough protein, the brain can’t produce key neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which are really essential for mental clarity and happiness.

(06:12)
And they also help to regulate things like pain and anxiety and also initiate sleep. And I always thought that these things were really significant for us as women. There’s a lot of studies that show that incidences of depression and anxiety are higher in women than in men. And it’s also reported that we eat less protein than men overall. Could we improve not only our mood and help reduce our stress response along with improving our body composition and our immune system by simply upping our protein intake a bit more? I tend to think that’s a big yes. Plus, you know, protein’s way more satiating or satisfying than fat or carbs, which means we feel more full when we include it in our meals. And that’s significant because one of the causes of weight gain and fat storage that we start to really see in our bodies comes from things like mindless snacking and from sugar cravings, which can be significantly reduced by just starting to balance our meals a little better and include more protein.

(07:15)
But you know, do you need a supplement to meet your protein needs? Generally speaking, no, because for the most part, you can meet your protein needs with your meals, assuming three meals a day is your consistent norm and you’re including a solid source of protein on your plate that accounts for say, 25 to 35% of your total meal intake. But it’s important to know that our protein needs may be a little higher than what they thought they were, especially in light of what we just went over, right? Since there’s a lot of jobs that your body needs amino acids for, from keeping your immune systems strong to supporting your muscle tissue. And if you’re highly active or you’re working on a body composition goal, you’re trying to build muscle, you’re gonna need a little bit more. And of course, those nine essential aminos can be found in both plant and animal sources of protein.

(08:01)
Animal-based protein is gonna contain all nine. So you’re covered there. With plants, most plants actually do contain all the essential aminos, but typically they contain different ratios of them, right? So they’re gonna contain really, really small amounts of some of those essentials, not enough to really meet your needs and then larger amounts of others. So all you wanna do there is just combine different plant sources to cover your bases like beans and greens or combining nuts and seeds and legumes. And some plant foods do contain all nine in abundance. For instance, soy or quinoa or buckwheat, those are right up there. And then back to how much we need, there’s something called the recommended dietary allowance or RDA of protein, which is the amount of recommended protein to prevent deficiency for sedentary adults. And they study this on sedentary men, not women. And this is something you’ll hear about and you’ll hear it like bandied around like you need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight.

(09:06)
And this is often mis contextualized as the amount we all need, but it’s actually the lowest amount a man could eat who is sedentary to prevent deficiency . And as an active woman, if you have a body composition goal like losing body fat and improving your lean muscle, or you’re over 40, you need more. And the science supports this. Here’s an excerpt from the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism:

“Substantial evidence supports the increased consumption of high quality protein to achieve optimal health outcomes. A growing body of research indicates that protein intakes well above the current recommended dietary allowance help to promote healthy aging, appetite regulation, weight management and goals aligned with athletic performance. Higher protein intakes may help prevent age-related sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength that predisposes older adults to frailty disability and loss of autonomy. Higher protein diets also improve satiety and lead to greater reductions in body weight and fat mask compared with standard protein diets and may therefore serve as a successful strategy to help prevent and or treat obesity.

(10:23)
Athletes can also benefit from higher protein intakes to maximize athletic performance. Given the critical role protein plays in stimulating muscle protein. Remodeling after exercise, protein, quality per meal dose and timing of ingestion are also important considerations despite persistent beliefs. To the contrary, we can find no evidence-based link between higher protein diets and renal disease or adverse bone health.”

So there’s a lot to unpack there and they really cover all of the bases. And one of the things that I think is really significant that they’re talking about is healthy aging and preventing sarcopenia or muscle loss because I alluded to this before, like if you’re over 40, because as we age, we just don’t absorb the amino acids from protein as readily as we used to. Meaning we need a little bit more protein to do the same amount of jobs and work for us than we used to.

(11:19)
But most people don’t know this. So if you are already eating a low amount of protein and then you’re getting into your forties and still eating low amounts, it it hits you harder, you lose more muscle more easily. And as we talked about, muscle really helps you more effectively burn body fat. And this is particularly important for us as women because when we hit perimenopause and our levels of estrogen and progesterone start to drop, we are already at a disadvantage when it comes to holding onto our muscle estrogen, for instance, very anabolic. It’s the first half of our cycle when we have more estrogen present that we have the greatest muscle building potential. Basically that’s the anabolic part. And we have more power and we have more drive. And then progesterone is also really important for our bone health and bone remodeling. And we have more progesterone in that second half of our cycle.

(12:10)
So as we start to lose our higher levels of these two important hormones, we may start to notice it’s harder to see the same results from our training, which coincides with the time in our lives when we’re not absorbing the protein from our food as easily as we did before. This sort of like, you know, double whammy causes us to see undesired results in our body composition, which leads to more fat storage and less muscle tissue and lower bone density, which we can’t see, but we know it’s an issue for us as we age. We see like our weight on the scale changing because our body fat’s going up and we are, we see that we’re gaining weight, but we don’t always realize that we’re losing our muscle and this is really important to understand. And we wanna be eating in a way that supports that muscle protein synthesis and training and exercising consistently and regularly, and then supporting that with the food that we eat.

(13:03)
And of course, protein is such an important part of that. We can totally turn that, you know, body composition shift that we see in those years around when we know what’s going on and we know what to do, right? And the simplest thing is just pay attention to your protein intake. That’s just a great place to start. And you can just start by looking into the number of grams in your meals, either by just reading your food labels or by looking up the grams in the different foods online. And keep in mind that things like calories and things like grams of nutrients that you find online, it, they may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. And that’s because all of those numbers are estimates. So don’t worry too much about the numbers being perfect, I just use a range. And if you’re under 40, like a great place to start out is to aim for 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal.

(13:52)
If you’re having three main meals a day and you’re exercising regularly, and if you’re over 40, a great place to start out is to aim for 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal, again, assuming three main meals a day and that you’re exercising regularly. Now, if you are really working on adding more muscle or you’re, you know, training really hard or you have a highly demanding physical job, you may need more than that, right? This is just a great place to start out and a great baseline to build from. But if you find it challenging to get that amount of protein in any of your meals, this is where it can be useful to have a supplement like a protein powder for instance. You could add some protein powder to your muffins or your pancakes like I do, to just increase the protein you’re getting over the course of the day.

(14:38)
Especially with things that are typically like sweeter treats like traditional breakfast foods. It can really help balance out the meal and prevent a huge sugar spike, which can trigger fat storage. My five minute pancakes are a banana mashed up with two eggs and a serving of protein powder, which gives you a little over 30 grams of protein. Two eggs alone won’t cut it, right? An egg is about six grams of protein. So two eggs, that’s just 12 grams, that’s like half of what you need per meal if you’re under 40. So we have to get a little more creative with our meals if we’re gonna meet our needs throughout the day. You could stretch out your whole eggs with some egg whites as another strategy that works great, or have a side of breakfast meat or beans to up that amount or have something else for breakfast like ground beef or Turkey with veggies.

(15:24)
And side note, I personally love making homemade buckwheat bread to have toasted my recipes on my blog. Or you could have ground tempeh with veggies, for instance, as a non-meat alternative. And you know, breakfast is a really important time to have protein, to have a protein source because you haven’t eaten overnight and your body needs fuel to start the day both for energy and for muscle protein synthesis and all of those other essential tasks that we discuss that the amino acids do for us. And without enough protein, your body is just going to be breaking down your muscle tissue to access the aminos stored there. And so a lot of women at this point in the conversation ask me, well, the only time I have to work out is first thing in the morning and I’m just not hungry at that time. And I’m like, that is totally okay.

(16:12)
But what I would suggest you do is eat your breakfast after you work out, don’t rush off to work on a cup of coffee after doing a tough workout because of what we’ve been talking about with that muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown. That turnover, you’re gonna get into more of a deficit and lose your muscle tissue that you’re trying so hard to build with your workout, right? And your body also is gonna be depleted of the amino acids that it needs if you’re going too long without them, especially after you’ve done a workout. Remember, a workout breaks down our muscle tissue and if our body is also going to be breaking down muscle tissue to get access to stored aminos in the muscle tissue when we haven’t fed ourselves, you’re giving yourself this double hit of muscle breakdown without rebuilding, without the fuel, without the aminos that it needs to do that process.

(17:03)
So if you were gonna have maybe something with your workout on that empty stomach, you might opt for something like my essential aminos formula, like my Rock and Restore. If it was like first thing in the morning and you needed something to, to just to have ’cause you weren’t hungry, right? And we’ll talk more about that in the next episode where I’ll explain the difference between, you know, protein powder, aminos, BCAAs, all of those other supplements, but that would be an option. So I just don’t want you to worry that I’m saying you have to eat first thing in the morning, . It doesn’t work that way for everybody. It’s okay. I’ll use protein powder as a really convenient way to just boost my overall daily protein intake, especially on days I’m working out though you could have it every day, really. I don’t tend to replace a meal with a protein smoothie though, a pinch when I’m really busy.

(17:50)
That has totally helped me out. And I’ll also have a protein shake after a workout if say, I’m not going to eat my next meal right away, or if it’s been a while since my last meal and I’m gonna work out, I might have a protein smoothie a little while before my workout, so I’m not going into it hungry. And since the things I put in a smoothie like fruit and protein powder, they’re usually pretty fast to digest so it’s not as heavy as a full meal. So I can have it a little closer to my workout and not feel like overly full. It’s like a concentrated nutrient dense mini meal, right? So you can use it on either side of a workout if you haven’t eaten a meal for a while, or you’re not going to eat your next meal for a bit after you train, because it’s really important to replenish your body with things like carbohydrates and protein after a workout within a, a, you know, a period of time when when you’re able, when your body needs those nutrients.

(18:43)
And for women that window’s a little bit shorter than it is for men. So when it comes to protein powders, there is so much out there, right? I mean it’s overwhelming . And I remember back like ages ago, trying so many different kinds and having to figure out what the difference was in all of them. And also like the ones that I tended to like that were like, you know, super clean and maybe organic and didn’t have a lot of extra ingredients or a lot of sugar in them. They didn’t taste very good . They were, they were not the greatest tasting. So I was being asked by people all over the place to create my own protein powders because you know, I was really interested in how these things were being made and what was being put into them. And really a good protein powder should be just like something you would put on your plate and have in a meal, only in a very condensed and concentrated form, right?

(19:31)
It’s convenient, it shouldn’t have stuff in it you wouldn’t wanna put on your plate that you could see. So when it comes to choosing your protein powder, if you choose to use one, I suggest reading the nutrition label and the ingredients list as your first step. I mean, I’m sure you already do that because when it comes to your protein powder, it’s really more about the ingredients and their source than it is about anything else. Is the source of the protein one that’s readily absorbed by your body, is it a complete protein? Which means are all the essential amino acids present? There’s this handy reference tool called the PDCAA’s, which is the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score that measures the nutritional quality of a protein, not only how much protein, but also how well our body can use and absorb it. And here’s like a little bit of a list of the order of absorbability from best to least absorbable.

(20:27)
And they’re all great, they’re just, some are a little bit more absorbable than others. And so at the top is egg, no surprise, right? It’s one of the most, you know, bioavailable protein sources that exists. Then milk whey casing beef, soy pea, chickpea kidney bean, oat, black bean, lentil, wheat being down at the bottom. So the animal-based protein is the most absorbable and plants are lower. But if you were to look at that chart, all the animal-based proteins score like a one on the scale, which is the highest. And then soy and pea protein are very strong in the plant-based categories, right at 0.8. So they’re really right up there. So the next thing you wanna do is see how many grams of protein the product has. Usually, you know, they’re typically somewhere in the 20 gram range that’s pretty normal. And hot tip, if you wanted to make your smoothie have 30 grams of protein, you could just add a serving and a half of your protein powder.

(21:22)
Now the other thing I look at when choosing a protein powder is the sugar content and the source. I generally opt for a protein that’s been sweetened with a natural plant source like monk fruit or Stevia. Though I’m also just fine with small amounts of things like coconut sugar or regular cane sugar, just as long as it’s not an excessive amount. And I am, you know, just considering that as part of my overall daily intake of sugar, which I’m mindful of keeping pretty low for good health, you wanna just read the label and be sure you know how much sugar is included in an actual serving. For example, if the label is referencing one scoop and it’s six grams of sugar, but you actually need two scoops to make a single serving, that’s actually 12 grams of sugar , which is nearly half of the daily recommended amount of sugar for women.

(22:10)
So I was thinking about all this stuff when I was designing my own protein powder, I learned so much about different kinds of sweeteners and ultimately I went with monk fruit for most of my products as I just like the way it tastes. And also that it’s very low sugar alternative that adds a lovely sweetness to our organic product line. It’s also known as lohan or Buddha fruit. The monk fruit is a small round fruit and it contains these natural sugars, but actually it derives its sweetness from these unique antioxidants called mogrosides, which are the part that we separate out and use to add sweetness to our Whole Betty protein powders like Berry Green Protein, or I Chocolate and I Vanilla Protein and it contains zero calories and it is far sweeter than regular sugar, which means we only need a small amount to give every serving like the perfect balance.

(22:57)
And I personally avoid things like sucralose, which is also known as Splenda. And I don’t tend to choose the manufactured low calorie sweeteners like dextrose maltodextrin and sugar alcohols in my protein powder choices. But it’s fine if you do. One thing I will say about sugar alcohols like erythritol and xylitol, those are no calorie sugars that add a lot of sweetness, but they don’t actually digest in the body. And when we take them in higher amounts, they can cause some bloating or irritation for some people, many people are gonna be just fine and notice no effects at all. I just wanna remind you to always, you know, listen to your body and notice the source of your sugar in your foods. Erythritol also is made from cornstarch, which may be GMO or genetically modified corn starch. And if you’re okay with sugar alcohols, I just give priority to the organic products whenever possible.

(23:47)
So then I just look to see what the other ingredients are in the product. I wanna see how they’re flavoring their products and what other ingredients are in there. Like when I was making my own protein powders, I learned about natural flavor. There’s this total spectrum of what you can do with that. For instance, we use a natural distillation process to extract our flavors from organic plants in our protein powders. Other manufacturing methods use chemical processing or synthetic flavoring methods. And there are other ingredients that you can see in a protein powder. These ingredients aren’t necessarily bad, it’s just helpful to know what they are. So if you see them on your label and you’re not sure what they are, just look ’em up. I know it might not be like, you know, the most mainstream thing to do, but I didn’t add filler type products to my organic protein powders because I just wanted to keep them really clean and simple and focus on the protein.

(24:36)
So if you happen to mix them in just water and then you let them sit for a while, you might see some separation happen and you just stir them again or shake them back up. But you know, since most people blend their protein in a smoothie, they never even notice that. It’s just one of those things that, you know, I didn’t know about till I started making my own. And since I had the choice, I opted for less things that my body doesn’t need to digest, along with the protein itself. But you know, those things are fine. They’re food grade and they’re rated that way. I just had the option so I didn’t include them in my own brand. And you as a consumer have choices. You get to decide what you put in your body. So the more you know, the better you can make decisions for yourself.

(25:16)
Right? And you know, I used pea protein as the baseline in my own protein powders because it has one of the highest absorbability scores for plants on the PDCAA chart I was telling you about. And it’s also one of the higher plant-based sources of the branch chain amino acids. And remember, those branch chain aminos are within our essential aminos and are three of the nine that our body needs to get from food. And the BCAAs are important for supporting our hardworking muscles and repairing and stimulating that muscle protein synthesis. So I used pea protein as my baseline in my organic protein powders and in my chocolate and vanilla protein powder. I also added some chia seed protein, some pumpkin seed protein, and some cranberry seed protein to really just increase the spectrum of amino acids even more. I just love how these products came out.

(26:04)
My whole family uses them. And so many of you Betty Rockstars all over the place do too, they’re organic and they have very simple ingredients that show you everything we use right on the label. And it’s a pretty short list. So I love products like that that are clean and you know exactly what you’re putting in your body and there are a lot more out there these days. So zero pressure to use mine, I just want you to be able to choose a good product for yourself. So that’s why I wanted to share, you know, what I look for and what I used as the standard when I was creating my own. And single source plant protein powders can be great too. For instance, my Berry Green Protein is made with just the pea protein alone, but then I added other fruits and veggies. So you get 22 grams of really quality organic plant protein plus a ton of other vitamins and minerals from things like spirulina and spinach and chlorella and beets and raspberries and so many more.

(26:55)
And that’s what I would consider a single source protein powder because it just has one source of protein. Hemp is another one that’s got a great amino acid profile and it may have a slightly higher fat content to protein than some of the others, but that’s totally fine. Soy is another one that’s a complete protein, as it contains all the essential aminos in a great enough quantity for your needs. But I would just opt for non GMO soy as genetically modified soy and other crops often have higher levels of pesticides and herbicides associated with them, which really have a track record for being connected to health risks, right? And, we just wanna watch out for that. Rice protein isn’t gonna give you the complete essential amino acid spectrum as it’s lower in lysine. So if you’re looking to get the most for your money, I’d opt for one that does give you that complete spectrum, right?

(27:44)
And if you’re fine with dairy, there are a lot of choices in that space too. And I’d give you the same advice to look for, you know, grams of sugar, grams of overall total protein, but know that you’re getting all the essential aminos with a whey or a casein based protein powder and casein is gonna break down and absorb more slowly into your system while whey is gonna absorb more quickly. And if you’re looking to maximize, you know, your muscle protein synthesis and recovery from a workout, I choose a whey protein as it absorbs faster and it just contains more of the branch chain aminos. And I’d also opt for grass fed whey or a non GMO or organic whe if you can find any of those options in an affordable product. So when it comes to choosing whey protein, in a nutshell, there are different types of whey, like whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, and whey protein hydrolysate.

(28:34)
And they’re all made a little differently. But the best one, in my opinion for your money is the whey protein isolate, especially if you’re a little sensitive to, to lactose, because the goal when they make that is to reach greater than 90% protein concentration and remove most of, or all of the lactose. I wouldn’t say I’m like the best expert on all the protein powder since I, I have some issues with dairy, but you know, when choosing a good one, I definitely read the ingredients and opt for something with the least amount of excess stuff in it and one that uses a minimal amount of sugar and typically a grass fed brand if that’s available. And then there’s egg white protein, also an option that’s a little less common I think, but totally valuable. Some people are intolerant to eggs, but if you’re good with them, you might like to try this form of protein powder as it’s got the full spectrum of aminos, it’s typically gonna have no fat or carbs.

(29:23)
And really the main thing to check for on the label are the source of the eggs and what they’re using as a sweetener. And any other ingredients like we’ve been talking about. I’ve used egg white protein in baking most frequently in the past as it can really add a nice texture to certain recipes. I personally don’t rely on egg white protein powder as my primary protein powder source just ’cause when it comes to eggs. I tend to want to eat whole eggs for their nutrients, though I will add egg whites to my whole eggs to sort of stretch out the protein while keeping the fat content to, you know, a reasonable amount for a meal and getting all of those nutrients that are in the eggy yolk that I just love. And they also, the yolk makes the protein in the egg more bioavailable to your body.

(30:06)
So it’s just, I like whole eggs. But anyway, Rockstar. These are just some of the more common protein powders and some tips for me on using them and choosing them, plus why protein is such an important nutrient in general.

And you can find links to my suggestions for all these different options, the things that I talked about on the show notes page over on thebettyrocker.com plus lots more goodies like my delicious protein powders, lots of great recipes, my best selling meal plans and workout plans, and so much more.

Now in our next conversation, I’m going to explain what is different about an amino acid formula like a BCAA, or an essential amino acid formula like my Rock and Restore, for example, what’s different about that than a protein powder. And then when to use it and also when to use things like collagen and why I don’t count my collagen peptides towards my total daily protein intake.
And I’ll also talk about creatine and how beneficial it is for women with some great newer studies that support women in post menopause as well. So I hope you will stay tuned and thank you again so much for joining me today. I’ll be back till then. I’m Betty Rocker and you are so awesome, flawsome, and amazing. Bye for now!