Protein Pizzazz
Unless you’ve been hibernating with Grizzly Bears in the Rocky Mountains, you’d probably heard by now the importance of adding protein to the ‘traditional’ carbohydrate-electrolyte only sports drink. Recent investigations have indeed shown that that cyclists who consumed beverages enriched with a specific type of ‘protein’ called PeptoPro® during time trials had faster times and had reduced muscle soreness post-activity compared with those drinking traditional, carbohydrate-only sports drinks. What is PeptoPro? PeptoPro is a peptide derived from milk protein. Specifically, it is derived from casein; thus, when casein is ‘cut up’ into smaller units, you end up with small di- and tri- peptides (two and three amino acids units) that are likely more quickly absorbed and therefore assimilated into the body.
In an study done at James Madison University, he had subjects complete
two 60 kilometer (37.2 miles) cycling time trials. Each trial consisted
of three simulated laps of a 20 km or 12.4 mile cycling loop, a 407
meter vertical climb, followed by a final five km climb. Throughout
the trial, participants consumed 200 ml (6.8 ounces) of a sports beverage,
either PeptoPro enriched (CHO+PRO) or carbohydrate-only (CHO) every
five km (3.1 miles), plus an additional 500ml (16.9 ounces) immediately
after completion.
What did they find? All of the time differences between treatments occurred
in the final 20 km or 12.4 miles of the time trial. Meaning that the
benefits of the CHO+PRO drink takes place near the end of intense exercise.
Therefore, cyclists rode 3% faster and produced 5% more power over the
final 5 km or 3.1 miles of the trial.
Post-exercise plasma creatine kinase (CK), which is a measure of muscle damange, and subjective muscle soreness ratings were not significantly different between treatments. Nevertheless, post-exercise increases in CK and muscle soreness were 61% and 93% higher, respectively, in the CHO trial than the CHO+P trial.
Take home message: For those of you who participate
in intense and prolonged endurance exercise, consuming a sports drink
is good, but not good enough (heck, it’s better than water). However,
if you consume a beverage that has carbohydrate and protein, recovery
is enhanced, performance is better, and soreness diminished. PeptoPro
is a special class of peptides derived from the milk protein casein
that when combined with a carbohydrate-containing beverage, may indeed
confer these benefits.