Whey Protein Dangers: The Dark Side of Whey Protein

[millenium girl]

You can never be too careful when it comes to your health. Extra care, attention and research is always needed to reach a balanced verdict on whether to include or exclude anything from your diet – particularly supplements, vitamins or pills. With scientists claiming whey protein in large doses and/or prolonged use may cause kidney or liver failure, there are important things you need to know about any lurking whey protein dangers. In this article I’ll tell you all you need to know, and give you advice on how to avoid serious negative health ramifications.


Let’s first clear up exactly what whey protein is. A lot of people carry the misconception that whey protein is somehow synthetic and unnatural, which isn’t true at all. While whey protein is refined and usually turned into powder form – usually with flavorings and other ingredients added – the whey itself is derived from milk, separated from the curd during the cheese making process. Whey, then, is a dairy protein; some of the best protein available. Approximately 20% of the protein in cows milk is made up of whey, with the remaining 80% being casein. If semi skimmed milk has around 19g of protein per, then, 3.8g of that will be from whey, direct from milk.


Let’s say the average bodybuilder drinks 4 pints of milk a day, that’d be 15.2g of whey protein right there – only around 10-15g shy of an average dose of protein powder.


Usually, the recommended dosage for whey protein supplements is 2-3 doses per day.


And this isn’t some outer limits guarded by a razor wire fence. You could probably have 5-6 doses a day and not experience a side effect. In fact, the most common side effect of whey protein is stomach upset or flatulence – and some people just do not suffer this at all.

Some scientists claim whey protein usage can cause serious kidney or liver damage…

Yet – surprise, surprise – there are no studies to back this up whatsoever and never have been, for the decades whey protein has been used worldwide by tens of millions of people. Scientists are always careful to say may.


Some day, aliens may take over earth. Some day, Elvis may turn out to be alive. May, may, may.


The problem isn’t with inherent whey protein dangers, but with scientists hungry for exposure and funding by whipping up a frenzy. It takes nothing more than an outrageous or scary claim to be made by a scientist eager for funding to get into the media, who are only too eager to latch onto such a story and scare the crap out of everybody. Yet, there is never any solid evidence to back up such stories, when all they need to say is ‘may’. That is usually enough to sow seeds of doubt.


As for people who abuse whey protein supplements – or anything else, for that matter – let’s take a look at that scenario. Take Morgan Spurlock and the furore which followed Super Size Me. Here’s a guy ate McDonalds every day, force-feeding himself to the point of spewing sometimes, to prove what? Eating insane amounts of junk food causes negative health effects and can make you feel like crap. Was anyone really surprised by this?


Hell, if he ate the healthiest foods going at that rate, he’d still have ended up fat and feeling ill. My point is: everything in moderation is just fine. Go overboard with anything – particularly overall calories – and you can be sure to experience some form of negative effect.


But, just look at what happened with Super Size Me. The media and lobbyists got their claws into it, and began hounding McDonalds into stopping their Super Size options – all for the sake of the fat greedy people who just can’t say no and can’t be trusted to eat responsibly.


(Yet, curiously, Tom Naughton who created the little-known counter-response movie to Super Size Me, entitled Fat Head: The Movie, actually ate fast ‘junk’ food sensibly and lost fat, and improved his health – but stories and truth like this which don’t scare people half to death seldom make the prime time news; they just aren’t juicy enough.)


Back to whey protein. You can bet your life on it that if anyone ever took so much whey protein that they did do themselves serious damage, the same would happen all over again as people attempt to demonize a supplement which is safe, yet was abused by an idiot. Yet, for all the tens of millions of people who take whey protein worldwide – including professional athletes who take far greater doses than most people – where are all of the athletes with failing kidneys and livers? All I see is people getting healthy by getting in shape.


You must remember, whey protein is a supplement. It should, therefore, be used in a supplemental capacity. No more, and no less. Even exceeding the dosage, however, is likely to only result in gastric discomfort, usually from any lactose content still present.

The fact is…

The media will do anything for a good scare story irrespective of facts, and unethical scientists eager for funding have no qualms about giving only one side of a picture or completely distorting test results to achieve their goals. Both the media and these shameful ‘scientists’ feed from one another to form a huge inferno of misinformation in which you, the public, lose out because you are scared away from a product which, when used appropriately, can only have great health benefits all around.


Unconvinced? No smoke without fire, you say? Still think there’s some whey protein dangers lurking?

Well, let’s see what else the wonderful folks at the media and these ‘whistle blowing’ hero scientists have so selflessly uncovered over the years, all for our own good…

You can’t eat eggs, they’re bad for cholesterol…
You can’t eat red meat, it gives you heart attacks…
You can’t eat bacon, it gives you cancer…
You can’t eat fish, you’ll get mercury poisoning…
You can’t eat vegetables, they’re sprayed with pesticides…
You can’t drink fruit juice, you’ll get diabetes…
You can’t drink water, too much fluoride…

Thank you Mr. Media and Mr. Scientist, you’ve saved my life.


Ok, I’m being facetious – but you can see how ridiculous and out of hand this health stuff is. Unless you are planning on regularly and excessively exceeding the dosage advice, you have nothing to worry about with whey protein whatsoever. Whey protein is probably the most proven safe sporting supplement of all time by virtue of the fact it’s been around for donkeys years and is used by tens of millions of people. You can bet if any proven, serious side effects or permanent resulting illnesses were linked to it, this would be on the banned products list overnight.


[Source: wheyproteinfiend.com]

[liftsiron]

Good read, I liked it.

[John Benz]

Thanks MG. I liked that article as well.

I have one disagreement concerning following remark about the movie Super Size Me.

"Take Morgan Spurlock and the furore which followed Super Size Me. Here’s a guy ate McDonalds every day, force-feeding himself to the point of spewing sometimes..."

I own the movie, and Spurlock was careful to eat sensibly and NEVER overeat. He NEVER force-fed himself to the point of spewing. He proved that eating NOTHING BUT fast food in a responsible manner was still highly detrimental to one's health.

[Magnesium]

great read on protein. I hear people talking about how it is hard on your kidneys, but they don't realize that it doesn't cause any damage unless there is another problem already.

John Benz is correct about Super Size Me, he only ate one of the "meals" and only supersized it if offered. He tried to mimic the life of a typical person, meaning how many steps they took a day, how much they ate and how often. He also had to eat everything on the menu at some point so it is not like he was picking the worst item on the menu to get those results. I think that movie is awesome. It is a bit of an extreme with the fast food thing, but it just condenses into a month what usually takes people years to take in.