Best Benefits of Grass Fed Whey Protein Powder

Grass fed whey protein is one of the best source of undenatured protein and essential amino acids.

It also provides many potent nutritional elements for better health, such as conjugated linoleic acid, immunoglobulins, lactoferrin and high levels of cysteine for glutathione production.

Here’s why grass fed whey is so good for you, simple ways to add it to your diet and how to choose the best whey protein from grass fed cows.

Nutrition in Grass Fed Whey

Milk from grass fed cows has up to 4 times more important omega-3 fatty acids when compared to milk from grain fed cattle. And this superior fatty acid profile is just the start of the many health benefits of grass fed whey.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Grass fed whey is also a rich source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a powerful nutrient clinically shown to increase fat metabolism within your body. Milk from cows grazing on grass will usually contain 3 to 5 times the amount of CLA compared to milk from cows fed grain.

Recent research has shown conjugated linoleic acid increases basal metabolic rates, allowing your body to convert the food you eat more efficiently into energy, rather than store it as fat.

CLA has also been demonstrated in studies to improve muscle strength and endurance during exercise. It has even been praised for lowering the risk of diseases like breast cancer and heart disease while enhancing your body’s immune function.

Immunoglobulins

Found in significant quantities only in raw milk and high-quality grass fed whey protein like this, immunoglobulins are special proteins that can act as transporters of antibodies within your body to combat viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders.

Immunoglobulins have been used to treat chronic fatigue syndrome, anemia, hepatitis A, arthritis and many other diseases and can help build up your immunity against damaging microorganisms and toxins.

Lactoferrin

Found in some of the highest levels in grass-fed whey protein concentrate, lactoferrin is a bioactive molecule that helps regulate iron homeostasis within your body. This means that it provides iron to cells in need of it and limits it to those that have an excess.

Iron deficiency is common in America, particularly for women, and can lead to fatigue, lethargy, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and anemia. Grass fed whey is an excellent source of bioactive lactoferrin and may help maintain healthy iron levels within your blood.

Cysteine for Glutathione Production

Glutathione is your body’s master antioxidant and a vital component of good health. It provides your primary intracellular defense against oxidative stress from harmful free radicals. Quite literally, glutathione protects your cells from DNA damage and potentially cancerous changes every day.

Glutathione is a tripeptide composed of three amino acids – cysteine, glutamine and glycine. All three of these amino acids are found in a higher ratio in non-denatured whey protein than in any other form of protein available.

The amino acid cysteine is particularly important for glutathione production as it is scarce in our modern processed diets. When dairy products undergo prolonged heating or processing, as is the case with most whey proteins available, cysteine is denatured and converted to cystine.

As your body’s master antioxidant, glutathione can have wide-ranging benefits for your health and well-being. Regularly consuming a high-quality source of undenatured cysteine, glutamine and glycine, such as this minimally processed grass fed whey protein I use, can help increase natural glutathione levels in your body.

Glutathione Health Benefits

Immune System

People with a depressed immune system have much lower levels of glutathione for fighting off disease. Raising glutathione levels with grass fed whey protein supplementation may help increase your immunity against a variety of diseases.

Athletic Performance

Strenuous activity generates free radicals within your body that can lead to muscle fatigue and reduced performance. High levels of glutathione in your body help to neutralize these free radicals and may increase athletic ability.

Cancer Protection

Glutathione is involved in eliminating carcinogens within your body and maintaining immune function against tumor growth. Low glutathione levels are associated with a higher risk of many cancers.

Neurological Disease

Low levels of glutathione have been demonstrated in neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Regular use of grass fed whey protein powder may help lower your risk of developing these conditions.

Detoxification

Your liver is the main detoxification organ of your body, has very high concentrations of glutathione and is involved in numerous biochemical detoxification pathways.

Poor glutathione production may reduce your liver’s ability to deal with the many toxins in our processed foods and modern environment.

The Aging Process

As we age there is a significant drop in glutathione levels within the body. Low glutathione is associated with many diseases of aging such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cataracts.

Grass fed whey, with its glutathione precursors, can be particularly beneficial for elderly people wishing to increase their protection against such diseases.

Lactose Side Effects

Due to its minimal processing, grass fed whey usually comes as a whey protein concentrate rather than isolate. This is important to maintain the delicate conjugated linoleic acid, lactoferrin, immunoglobulins and cysteine. It does, however, mean that it also contains more lactose than whey protein isolate.

Most of us can handle small amounts of the milk sugar lactose, but larger amounts can cause digestive problems like bloating and gas. The best option would be to reduce unhealthy sources of lactose, like skim milk and processed foods, and your body should be able to handle the small amount in grass fed whey protein concentrate.

If however you know you are lactose intolerant, and even a small amount will cause problems, then unfortunately any milk based protein powder, grass fed or otherwise, is better replaced with free range eggs instead.

How to Use Grass Fed Whey Powder

With all of the many health benefits of grass fed whey powder, there’s a lot of good reasons to take it daily. The most common way to have your whey is in a shake or smoothie.

Whey Protein Shakes

Shakes are very simple to make in a shaker bottle with a sealed lid. Simply add some liquid, your whey protein and any other ingredients, put on the lid tightly and shake.

While quick and simple to make, shakes are a bit limited in the ingredients you can use. Anything powdered is great, but most fruits or solid ingredients don’t work as well.

You can mash up a banana or some berries if you don’t mind a not so smooth consistency, but for anything more solid you’re going to need to make a smoothie.

Smoothies with Grass Fed Whey

Smoothies have become incredibly popular in recent years as a convenient and delicious way to get a lot of nutrition into your diet. A good blender can blend up just about any fruit or even vegetable and, unlike juicing, you get the beneficial fiber in there as well.

Whey protein is an excellent ingredient to add to smoothies, not just for all the beneficial amino acids, CLA, immunoglobulins, lactoferrin and other nutritional elements, but also because it naturally slows down their digestion and minimizes blood sugar spikes for more stable energy levels.
Added:
Superfood Profiles has many superfood smoothie recipes like this to enjoy your whey protein in. Each one is designed to have specific health benefits and they taste great too.

The Best Grass Fed Whey Protein to Buy

There are several good grass fed protein powders available and each of them are a big step up from cheap heavily processed whey from feedlot cattle. Of all of them though, I think Vital Whey is the best available.

Vital Whey protein concentrate comes from cows that graze on natural pastures all year round. The milk from these cows is pesticide free, antibiotic free, hormone treatment free and GMO-free and of the highest quality.

Well Wisdom have their own proprietary filtration and drying method that involves minimal processing. The resulting grass fed whey protein powder is much higher in fragile protein components like immunoglobulins, lactoferrin and valuable amino acids that support and enhance a healthy immune system.

I also like that they label all their products with the exact amount of immunoglobulins and lactoferrin backed up by independent lab tests. The biological benefits of these compounds are well known and the amount provided by a single serve is significant.

Vital Whey comes in several flavors like vanilla and cocoa, with healthy stevia as a sweetener, and natural unflavored, which I personally use and love. All of them add a delicious creamy flavor to smoothies and shakes and you can see from the many positive reviews that people are very happy with this grass fed whey.

A single 20 gram scoop enjoyed once a day should provide extra high-quality protein and many health benefits for the average person. Those involved in a lot of physical activity could take two servings a day, ideally in the morning and again just after a workout or exercise.