Yo,
Supplements are everywhere. To be frank, they’re marketed as if they’re essential.
Every fitness influencer seems to be sponsored by some supplement company and it’s promoted. Unfortunately, the necessity and dependence of whole foods have gone down.
Protein Powder vs Whole Foods. This is the topic for today.
Before we continue, I’d like to ask you to do something.
Picture an individual with an incredible physique, or search “impressive physique” online. Alright, now that you’ve done this task, imagine asking that person “do you use protein powder?”
Imagine their response. Be honest with yourself.
Do you think they would say no or yes? I’m almost certain that all of you would expect them to say “yes”.
I believe that’s the problem. The industry has skewed people’s perceptions towards the effectiveness of protein powder. Consequently, I believe whole foods have become slightly undervalued.
So today we’ll be explaining the pros of protein powder and whole foods. We will then explain the weaknesses and differences between the two.
Today’s post is not to condemn the use of protein powder, but instead to change your perception and expand your knowledge about both of these categories.
Let’s get into it.
Underlying principle
What is the underlying prince of these two categories? Let’s explain.
Protein powders are a “nutritional supplement”. So what is a nutritional supplement?
A nutritional supplement is a product that contains ingredients to supplement an individual’s diet and provide additional nutrients. The purpose of this supplement is to serve as an “addition” to what you’re already consuming and fill the areas in your diet where there may be a lack of nutrition.
An example may be that you don’t consume enough nuts and fish, resulting in a lack of omega-3 in your diet. You then choose to take omega-3 tablets each day. Makes sense right?
The tablets fill in the gaps in the diet.
Alright, let’s switch to whole foods.
I think the best definition of “food” is the standard dictionary definition. It states that food is “any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth”. No one thinks of protein powder as key to “maintaining life and growth”, but people do towards whole foods.
Whole foods are the building blocks of our body. It is absolutely vital that we consume food to maintain, grow and fuel our bodies.
Let’s make an analogy. The whole foods are the house. The essential place that you need to live in. On the other hand, the protein powder is the furniture and decorations. You still live in the house without the furniture and decorations, but you ultimately need the house.
So the underlying principle is that your whole foods are the essential factor that you need to grow and maintain your body. You cannot live without it.
The underlying principle is that protein powder is a supplement, it’s an addition to your diet. You can live without it.
Protein Powder Pros
Protein powder certainly has it’s pros and for good reason too.
I believe the biggest benefit is the convenience that this supplement presents. It takes two seconds to make a protein shake that can fill you up for around 3 hours.
Imagine a busy morning and you’re preparing for wherever you need to go. You’re on a time crunch and don’t have time to make your standard eggs, avocado, toast, fruit salad or whatever large meal you normally have.
Enter protein shake. Quickly get your shaker, 1-2 cups of milk and 1.5 cups of protein shake, grab an apple and you’re set.
Another situation is that you’re too tired to make your lunch, or you simply are low on protein for the day. Protein powder caters to all these situations and fills in the gaps.
Another benefit of protein powder is that it can be specific. There is not just one specific type, as there are numerous variations. Some of these include whey isolate, whey concentrate, rice and many more. If you want to know more about the various types, you check this post here.
It is likely that there is a protein powder for everybody, as new types continue to be produced in the market.
Whole Food Pros
A big pro of whole foods is that they’re less processed. An apple is an apple. A carrot is a carrot. A potato is a potato.
Essentially, they haven’t been subjected to numerous processes (mostly), mixes and other factory practices. This, in turn, can improve the quality of the food and can also provide peace of mind to the consumer because they’re less worried about fillers and other junk being added.
Additionally, The biggest benefit of whole foods is that you can live off of them. I believe this goes without saying, however, some individuals believe that they can continue replacing meals with protein shakes and believe this is fine.
Quite frankly, you’re depriving yourself of the opportunity to maximise your health by replacing three meals with protein shakes. It’s not viable in the long term and is sure to have some effects in the long term. Instead, it’s better to have the majority of your meals consist of whole foods (all of them consisting of whole foods is even better) as you’re exposing yourself to nutrient variety.
Remember, whole foods are the primary and protein powder is the secondary.
Side by Side
Alright, let’s place these two groups side by side.
Narrow vs Wide
For the most part, protein powder is very narrow. As the name suggests, it’s a supplement focused on maximising protein. This means that it can have little to no presence of other nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, fibres and others. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many people purchase protein powder purely for extra protein. However it is good to compare this with whole foods.
Take a steak (and other red meats) for example, it’s certainly high in protein and has a good amount of iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B6, zinc and selenium. Let’s also look at potatoes, where they contain Vitamin C, B group vitamins, potassium, iron, magnesium and phytonutrients.
It’s clear that whole foods have a wider nutrient profile than protein powder.
Expansive
Although there continue to be more protein powder variants being produced, they cannot compare with the wide options of whole foods. Currently, the protein powder options on the market range from about 5 to 15 types. This is unlike whole foods, where there are tens of thousands of whole foods available.
Digestibility
In general, protein powder is considered easier to digest than whole foods. Assuming you’re choosing the right protein powder for you (being mindful of your allergies, the quality and ingredients within the protein powder) it should be easier to digest.
This is because of a few reasons. One reason is that the protein powder has undergone processes to remove most of the fats and carbs that would normally be found in whole foods, to create a purified protein source. This process helps simplify the digestion process simply because there is less to digest.
Furthermore, some protein powders have had lactose and gluten removed. Having these allergens removed can reduce the chance of digestive discomfort.
Therefore, in most cases protein powder would take the point for digestibility.
Protein and calories
For the amount of protein and calories that it offers per serving, protein powder is superior than whole foods in this area.
Let’s use an example. For about 40g of protein powder, you can get around 28g of protein with 150 calories. If you compare this to 120g of chicken breast, you’ll get around 130g of calories with around 24g of protein. Furthermore, with lean beef mince (120g serving), you can get around 25g of protein and 213 calories.
Now these are not 100% relative to each other, however, it’s apparent that protein powder has the highest amount of protein per serving, with the lowest calories.
The chicken breast and mince have a higher caloric amount. Furthermore, another thing that goes under the radar is that it’s much easier to consume 40g of protein powder, in comparison to the chicken breast and the mince. Keep that in mind.
Emergency
Imagine you have surgery on your mouth and you’re not permitted to consume whole hard foods for a few days (I know I wasn’t when I had my wisdom teeth removed). This is where protein shakes come into play.
Protein shakes are liquids after all and are easy to get down. So in terms of emergency situations when it’s hard to chew, protein powder takes the cake.
Therefore…
Protein powder has a place, as we’ve gone through. Whole foods will always be superior and should be your primary source of calories and protein, however, protein powder usage can be helpful in many situations.
As long as you don’t make it your primary source, then protein powder usage will be absolutely fine.
That brings us to a close. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next time.
