Shake it

Even I, with a complete lack of a mathematical side to my brain can work out that spending between £1.40 to over £3 on protein shakes seems a luxury for students. So why is it that in an increasingly health conscious and money conscious world the chemical-packed drinks are in every student kitchen? In order to get the same amount of protein as one serving of a more expensive shake (eg MyProtein ‘Hurricane Extreme’ All-in-One), you would need to drink almost twice the amount of milk, about two pints. This would mean spending almost £1 per serving on milk, roughly £3 a day. Ignoring the lack of ability to walk with that much milk in you, the cost compared to £3.16 a day on average having the recommended amount of ‘Hurricane Extreme’ isn’t much different.

Extra protein to build muscle does seem effective, but only when a level of exercise that makes it necessary is reached. Benjamin Ruthven, a first year history and economics student until recently just used a homemade protein shake made from porridge oats, skimmed milk powder and skimmed milk flavoured with Nesquik. To me this sounds even worse than the abattoir-smelling chocolate protein shakes, but then my rugby career is non-existent. Despite the amount of exercise he was doing playing competitive rugby, Benjamin was advised that shakes were ‘not necessary as long as he ate well’ and he only started taking extra protein shakes recently: “I only took them after doing weights exercises and did notice my recovery time getting better.”

Many rugby players are similarly happy with protein shakes when it comes to strength building. Mike Woods, a first year economics student and member of the York Rugby 2nds, says that despite only being able to afford the basic ones they still ‘seem to work’.

When asked why the popular use of protein is in muscle building and weight gaining, Mike replied that, ‘many people, especially girls, don’t know the other ways it can help’. Nutritionist Amanda Whitewood advises extra protein for many different reasons. It is the protein enzyme pepsin that sends the message to your brain telling you you are full, so protein can be used to stop cravings for sugars. Therefore it can be used as a meal replacement to regulate blood sugar levels which benefits diabetics as well as helping with weight loss. It is also beneficial for those that struggle to digest natural proteins, and for the elderly aiding overall health, giving muscle and bone strength as well as healthy hair and nails. So don’t get too worried that your granny is entering body building competitions if you start finding protein bars on her.

Despite the number of uses for protein shakes, most people seem to use it for one purpose, ‘to get huge and impress girls’ as Jordan Hazelhurst, a first year Mathematics student puts it. Whilst there are no serious health risks directly linked to protein shakes, too much protein can damage your kidneys which have to filter it from your body. This is not ideal health-wise and also is a huge waste of money. In order to make use of the protein, it should only be taken with a serious exercising regime, rather than in the hope it will be a ‘shortcut to getting bigger’ which Mike feels is an incentive for many.

Whitewood explains that the warning on the side of most shakes against under 18s taking protein is to stop young people taking them as a meal replacement. Meal replacement shakes on the ‘lighter life diet’ as advertised by Emmerdale’s Pauline Quirke come in at 150 calories per ‘meal’. Whitewood classes this as an anorexic diet whereby the body burns all the fat and goes into burning muscle. This is an unsustainable and unhealthy diet, especially dangerous at an age when the body has not stopped developing.

Giving authority to the rhetoric we’ve all been fed (sorry for the pun) that dairy products, ‘make bones grow stronger’, and that we must get our 5-a-day, Whitewood emphasises that “a balanced diet is always better than reaching straight for the shakes, and the quality of the protein used in cheaper shakes is often not worth using anyway. They are also often lacking important vitamins and minerals.”

As an example, drinking a pint of Tesco’s semi-skimmed milk throughout the day gives 72% of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin B12, and 31% of your RDA of calcium. In contrast a basic protein shake such as ‘Impact Whey Isolate’ from Myprotein has no extra vitamins or minerals; only one variation of protein and a long list of flavourings and other chemicals.

But milk alone is not efficient in providing the body with enough protein to help muscles develop when coping with a lot of exercise, as in the shakes it is already broken down to amino acid form, saving your body a job. And on top of this for all the protein you take in through milk, especially in whole milk, you’re taking in a lot more fat. So whilst I’ll never have the motivation to spend hours in the gym, for those that do some extra protein doesn’t seem as strange as I first thought. And I might even remember protein when I’m trying to control the revision-time comfort eating.