Soy Protein Is Very Efficient in Making Your Muscles Grow

We go to the gym to build that wiry body to charm chicks on the beach.

Well, at least we all like to fool ourselves.

But if we want our muscles to grow after resistance exercise (strength training), our protein synthesis in the next 24 hours must exceed muscle protein breakdown due to the training. And this will happen only in the case of a protein rich food income.

Many sportsmen avoid soy protein, even if studies have proved its abundance of health benefits, like lowered cholesterol and anticancer effects. But a recent study proved that soy protein and whey protein are equally beneficial in enhancing muscle growth, breaking out the myth that body builders should avoid soy as being inferior to whey protein in promoting muscle growth and recovery.

A team at Indiana University's School of Medicine - Evansville experimented on rats how do mucle react to soy protein intake. The rats exercised for 120 minutes at the treadmill and then were fed a sugar-only, sugar and whey protein, or sugar and soy protein diet and after one hour the scientists assessed the muscle protein synthesis in each rat.

Soy and whey proteins proved equally beneficial (and soy proved in some cases even better) at promoting general protein synthesis in the rats' muscle, and sharply inferior synthesis was connected to sugar-only diet. "Taken in total, our study suggests both soy and whey proteins are useful sources of protein for muscle support following aerobic exercise," the researchers wrote.

"Soy and whey proteins actually complement each other well when used in an exercise regimen," said Dr. Greg Paul, a nutritionist and global director of nutrition strategy. "Whey protein is high in branched chain amino acids, while soy protein has high amounts of the amino acids arginine and glutamine."

A mix of soy and whey protein would combine the beneficial digestive aspects of both protein types. Whey protein is digested faster, while soy protein more gradually. A combination provides a prolonged, deliberate amino acids' income into the blood stream from where the muscles collect them to start their syntheses.