Two emerging nutritional approaches are increasingly being adopted by athletes to optimize health, performance and recovery according to Dr. Jeff Volek, PhD, RD. Unique qualities of whey protein make it an ideal protein source to consume for athletes, especially around workouts. This nicely compliments a low-carbohydrate diet which is found to accelerate use of fat or fuel well beyond what can be achieved with training.

These findings were communicated on September 13 in Beijing, China at a sports nutrition conference organized by the Sports Nutrition Sub-branch of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology. In his address, "Emerging Practices in Sports Nutrition: Whey Protein and Low-Carbohydrate Diets," Volek highlighted his research published in 2013 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

The study demonstrated whey protein consumption is more effective than soy protein in enhancing lean body mass as part of a resistance exercise training program. These findings are welcome news for health-minded consumers trying to improve their overall wellness with whey protein, a complete, high-quality dairy protein. The positive results were achieved at levels that food and beverage manufacturers can readily incorporate into new products that would be convenient to meet consumers' desires.

Whey protein's role in optimizing human health, athletic performance and post-exercise recovery from his research has highlighted:

• Compared to soy, whey protein is higher in leucine, absorbed quicker and results in a more pronounced increase in muscle protein synthesis.
• Despite consuming similar calories and protein during resistance training, daily supplementation with whey was more effective than soy protein or isocaloric carbohydrate control treatment conditions in promoting gains in lean body mass.
• The low carbohydrate diet has been shown to accelerate the body's ability to access and burn body fat.

This study contributes to the growing body of research showing that high quality dairy proteins have valuable benefits compared to other protein sources.