Whey is the kind of food that wears many hats. It’s a boss at making you gain muscle. It’s an essential inclusion if you’re trying to lose fat. You’ll recover faster if you have it straight after training. Incredible. Those are three high performance boxes that are comprehensively ticked, by a single supplement. Very few foods can boast that kind of pedigree. Job done. Buy it. You don’t need any more convincing. It does what it says on the tin and has almost zero side effects that are negative. However, what you don’t see the supplement marketers singing about from the rooftops are some of the more mundane benefits it can give to your body. It’s rare change of pace. That said, these benefits may not be super sexy, but your internal organs will thank you, even if you don’t know it. Here’s what you may have forgot it does.
Your heart will beat stronger
Blood pressure is an excellent marker for your overall health. Fortunately, your whey shake could be keeping yours in check, says a study in the journal Obesity. Overweight people who took 54g per day for 12 weeks lowered their systolic blood pressure by 4%. Not a bad effort from a powder that you may not even think is doing you any other favors. Your heart begs to differ.
Whey can uppercut diabetes
It’s not quite a knockout punch, but it may stop diabetes in its tracks when taken on the regular. A paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found whey protein offers a means for you to control your blood pressure levels by increasing your insulin levels. It’s so powerful that many believe it could be a supplement taken specifically to treat type 2 diabetes. It’s a smart move to have a whey protein shake before a big meal or meal at a restaurant because that strategy may make you eat less.
You could fend off inflammation
Inflammation is scourge of modern life. It creeps into your body through all sorts of sources. This can be through stress, food, exercise and even pollution. Short term it’s not a big deal. However, over the long term it can turn your body against you. Whey steps-in to its part. A paper in the journal Nutrients did a meta-analysis of several studies about whey protein and found people who took lots of it had lower markers of inflammation than those who didn’t. It’s even been thought to be beneficial at fighting off inflammatory bowel disease.
Whey too perfect
Whey is no one tricky pony. It seems like your body thrives on its presence so make sure you cash in on these secondary positives by having a few serves each day. The best time to take it is in the morning when you wake up as well as before and after your workouts. This will optimize your chances of building the muscle that helps you to look your best on the outside and on the inside.
