If you have ever belonged to a gym, you know what I am talking about when I refer to that guy or gal in the weight room (who could easily crush you in their bicep) walking around with a 128 ounce protein drink in their palm.
From the time I first joined a gym as a scrawny 16 year old until now, it seems like whey, dairy and protein powders have gone from a specialty item only found in supplement stores or mail order catalogues (remember those!) - to a mainstream pantry staple, and important source of nutrition.
Unless you are in the dairy or supplement industry, it would be hard to decipher the differences between all these products. Most people make their best guess when purchasing dairy powders, but we are going to demystify them!
To talk about these dairy powders, we must first talk about the composition of milk.
Milk is composed of 87.5% water, 4% milk fat, 3.1% protein, 5% lactose,1% ash.
There are two types of milk protein: casein and whey
When cheese is produced, most of the casein protein ends up in the cheese. Since the cheesemaking process removes much of the water, the remaining whey is mostly whey protein, and some casein protein. Here is the composition of liquid whey.
To create a powder, the whey producer goes through a couple of steps to remove the remaining liquid and make it a powder.
