Not All Protein Is Created Equally

Not all protein has the same value to your body. The amino acid profile is the reason for this. Proteins are made of amino acids, there are 20 different amino acids in the human body. Of the twenty, 9 of them must be consumed to meet your daily needs and these 9 amino acids are called Essential (EAA) or Indispensable.

The 9 EAAs are needed in certain proportions. A protein scoring system called Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Scoring (or PDCAAS) was developed to show which products contain all the EAA and in the correct proportions. It is supported by the FDA, the World Health Organization, and perhaps most importantly, the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences. The highest possible score is 100.

-- Collagen Protein gets a 0 (the lowest possible score)
-- Whey Protein Isolate gets 100 (the highest possible score)

Some proteins such as collagen or HYDROLYZED COLLAGEN protein are missing one of the EAAs entirely. So the PDCAAS for collagen is zero. Collagen is often the main ingredient in protein supplements that come in a liquid form, and they usually have lower PDCAAS scores.

Here are some collagen products that have lower PDCAAS scores:

New Whey and Profect1: These products appear to have a PDCAAS score of 5 or 6 out of 100. Lab analyses of several samples suggest that about 94% of their protein, by weight, is from collagen.

Proteinex2: The Proteinex OTC products appear to get protein only from hydrolyzed collagen, so their PDCAAS score is 0 or virtually 0.

Pro-Stat 64 / Pro-Stat 1013: These products appear to have a PDCAAS score of about 37 out of 100.

The BEST products to purchase are products made from whey protein ISOLATE (not concentrate) and soy protein ISOLATE.