On of my favorite myths that is pretty much ubiquitous - that your average person needs protein powders for their workoutpic.twitter.com/vwI6Mgy4FJ
Epidemiologist. Writer (Guardian, Observer etc). "Well known research trouble-maker". PhDing at @UoW Host of @senscipod Email gidmk.healthnerd@gmail.com he/him
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On of my favorite myths that is pretty much ubiquitous - that your average person needs protein powders for their workoutpic.twitter.com/vwI6Mgy4FJ
The basic idea - protein helps to build muscle. Therefore, taking more protein = more muscle = swolepic.twitter.com/9DFLYj9qOj
So, if you wanna build muscle, take a protein supplement. Right?
The thing is, most people don't actually need that much protein (<150g per day even when trying to get bigger). So, a few eggs or a large steak would probably be fine
So, we have a conundrum. There isn't that much plausibility for protein supplements - but everyone uses them! What does the evidence say?
...and here we come to the first issue. The evidence is, in a word, crap. Most studies a bit like this one - small numbers, poorly controlled, surrogate outcomes etc etcpic.twitter.com/4QTgdg1i0r
The other issue is that many studies of protein powders look at professional athletes, and while it's interesting to know that sprinters move ~.5% quicker if they take a protein supplement, that's hardly applicable to the average person
Luckily, there have been systematic reviews of the evidence! They are not hugely positive:pic.twitter.com/f6sfUNEjck
Health Nerd Retweeted Health Nerd
This review from 2015 found that there are potential benefits to protein powder - key word here POTENTIAL - but that they are small and unreliablehttps://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1006081330071781377 …
Health Nerd added,
There are also serious issues with protein powders! Side-effects can be really problematic, especially with those ones that are not well-regulatedpic.twitter.com/DVbtB3huEE
In summary: protein powders have very limited benefits, only occasionally demonstrated in small trials
This should be weighed against the substantial evidence that they are poorly-regulated and may have serious side-effects
Protein powders: probably not worth it, unless you're a professional athlete. Even then, it might be best to eat some extra eggs
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