Cooking your protein powder. Bad idea?

[Anya]

First time I heard of anyone doing this was probably from Spatts many years ago. She added her unflavored whey powder to her oatmeal and cooked it for breakfast each day. I myself have added my own unflavored whey to my oatmeal bar batter on occasion and cooked it.

However, I've also read that keeping the whey cool during the filter process is advisable so I'm wondering if heating the end product to 350 degrees for 15 minutes is going to degrade the quality of the protein in any way.

Opinions? What say you peeps?

[strawberryriddick]

I see recipes for protein pancakes pretty often, so it'd be too bad if something happened to it. I google'd it and found someone's comment on bodybuilding.com:

From ON's site: ...excessive heat can reduce or destroy delicate peptides (i.e. microfractions) within a protein. For this reason, it is best to limit the exposure of 100% WHEY Protein to high heat

Others: "Let there be no mistake about it, heat damages protein. Especially whey protein. Heat processing ruptures and reforms protein molecules. It's called denaturing, and it makes digestion and absorption difficult."

But many nutrition experts say that it doesn't affect the protein content:

"even if whey is denatured by heat (a good bet), the worst case scenario is that is less water soluble, so it might take a bit longer to get into the small intestine. But of course, if its in something that you cooked, its probably stuck with other stuff anyway, so it would be slow even if it were soluble. Plus, you probably aren't concerned with 'fast nutrition' with the baked item."

[Anya]

Originally Posted by strawberryriddick

I see recipes for protein pancakes pretty often, so it'd be too bad if something happened to it. I google'd it and found someone's comment on bodybuilding.com:

Oh I didnt see that anyone had responded. Sorry!


Heat processing ruptures and reforms protein molecules. It's called denaturing, and it makes digestion and absorption difficult."

"even if whey is denatured by heat (a good bet), the worst case scenario is that is less water soluble, so it might take a bit longer to get into the small intestine. But of course, if its in something that you cooked, its probably stuck with other stuff anyway, so it would be slow even if it were soluble. Plus, you probably aren't concerned with 'fast nutrition' with the baked item."


Sounds like conflicting opinions on this topic. Both arguments sound reasonable. I wish we could get some anecedotal evidence to try to judge if cooking it has perhaps slowed anyone's gains.

[strawberryriddick]

Originally Posted by Anya

Sounds like conflicting opinions on this topic. Both arguments sound reasonable. I wish we could get some anecedotal evidence to try to judge if cooking it has perhaps slowed anyone's gains.

Keep this in mind: strict purists will tell you that food is virtually destroyed by high heat cooking...and I'm talking the "high" heat we use to cook, well, everything.

So take that for what you will.