Milk & Weight Training: Does Drinking Milk Really Blur your Musclularity
( The Deep and Informative Scoop on Milk and Muscle Building Effects - fitFlex Articles - Learn, Share and Discover! ) ..
Proteins derived from milk, mainly whey and casein, are recognized as the best sources of supplemental protein for bodybuilders and other athletes,
as well as for anyone else seeking a quality protein source. Milk itself, however, is an entirely different mailer. From a health perspective, nothing
beats mother's milk as a primary source of nutrition for humans and other animals. Few would argue that point. The necessity of drinking milk after
infancy, however, is controversial.
Entire Web sites are devoted to the alleged health dangers of drinking milk for anyone over age one. Many problems associated with milk, say these
groups, relate to the hormones in milk, such as insulin like growth factor 1. IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone in muscle, but it can also act as a growth
factor for cancer spread. IGF-1 is a peptide hormone, meaning that it's nothing more than a long string of amino acids held together by bonds in a
specific sequence.
Any protein you take in orally is degraded by gastric acid and then further degraded by the liver. The odds of a hormone the size of IGF-1 surviving
that formidable digestive barrier and entering the blood are remote at best, though that happens sometimes in infants. Some scientists, however, suggest
that milk contains other proteins that shield IGF-1 in the digestive process, allowing some active hormone to reach the blood. The proof of that contention
is skimpy at best.
From a bodybuilding standpoint, milk is considered good and bad. For those seeking to gain weight and add muscle mass, milk is a nearly ideal nutrient
source. Some bodybuilders avoid milk at all times but often cannot explain why. Those training for contests say that the sodium content of milk leads to
water retention, even though milk isn't particularly rich in sodium.
Still, there must be something about milk that makes it taboo for so many bodybuilders. Even if we discard obvious factors, such as lactose intolerance-
the inability to fully digest the lactose, or milk sugar, due to a lack of the enzyme lactase-or an allergy to milk proteins themselves, which is rare,
something in milk appears to obscure bodybuilders' muscular definition.
Bodybuilders often think that whole milk is loaded with fat. The truth is that it contains a mere 3.5 percent fat. The alternative to whole milk is
nonfat milk, containing less than 1 percent fat. There is nothing about nonfat milk that should promote either water retention or fat accretion. Or is
there?
The glycemic index is a measure of how rapidly carbohydrates are absorbed into the blood. Though originally developed for diabetics in 1981, the 0.1.
also provides useful and interesting data for people interested in the fate of the carbs they eat. The 0.1. exposed the fact that some venerated 'complex
carbs" actually act more like simple sugar when eaten alone. Examples include baked potatoes and carrots. Using the 0.1., however, mandates some common
sense, since many big-carb foods also contain fat, which slows the entry of carbs into the blood. An example of that is ice cream, which has a low 6.1.
but which is not a diet food.
Some foods provoke considerable release of insulin, which is measured on its own index. Milk is an unusual food because while it has a moderate number of
41, it also has a high insulin index number Something in milk promotes a huge release of insulin in the body which was originally demonstrated with whole
milk and has more recently been demonstrated with nonfat milk too. What causes it? Certain amino acids in milk promote insulin release! including two of
the three branched- chain amino acids leucine and isoleucine, and tryptophan. Beet contains the same amino acids yet has low 6.1. and insulin index numbers.
Another possibility is that lactose has an additive effect when it!s taken in with the amino acids in milk. That makes sense when you consider that adding
protein to carbs increases insulin output by about 37 percent.
Other factors in milk may also be responsible for the insulin effect. Besides the primary milk proteins, whey and casein, milk contains a number of smaller
proteins known as peptides, which many scientists think may exert physiological effects in humans! Most of the effects are beneficial! But some may heighten
insulin response to where it's out of proportion with the calorie and nutrient content of milk! Milk contains small amounts of hormones! such as estrogen and
testosterone. Again! the likelihood that those hormones survive the gamut of digestive barriers and liver degradation is remote.
Studies show that the only dairy product that doesn't promote a large insulin response is cheese. All other dairy foods-including whole and nonfat milk yogurt
ice cream and cottage cheese-promote a larger than expected insulin release in the body. In sensitive people those dairy foods may produce an insulin release
large enough to produce reactive hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. The effect is so potent that even adding milk to a meal containing a mixture of high- and l
ow-G.I. foods can result in increased insulin release.
The paradoxical insulin release has implications for both health and bodybuilding and may help explain the frequently observed water retention that happens
after somebody drinks milk. High-level insulin release promotes the release of another hormone, aldosterone, from the adrenal glands. Aldosterone promotes
sodium and water retention! while also promoting potassium excretion.
While a potent anabolic hormone in muscle, insulin is also the most potent promoter of fat accretion in the body Whenever insulin is secreted all mechanisms
that affect fat oxidation are blunted, while all mechanisms that promote fat gain are increased. Insulin itself will not make anyone fat, but when combined with
sugar) its fat-promoting effects are magnified.
The bright side of this otherwise grim information about milk is that its insulin-promoting effects can be used to advantage following a workout; that's when
you want an increased insulin release. Following training, insulin promotes the activity of the enzyme that dictates glycogen synthesis in muscle. The increased
glycogen synthesis results in faster recovery. Insulin also promotes the entry of amino acids into muscle, which increases muscle protein synthesis for added size
and strength. That's why experts often recommend having a drink containing both fast-acting protein-such as whey-and simple sugars as soon as possible after a workout.
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