Should You Prepare a Protein Shake With Milk Or Water?
Author bio
Dr Jorge Metri PhD is a Nutritionist with vast experience in food design with natural ingredients. He also researches sensory sciences and food quality with cutting-edge technologies like Machine Learning. He writes and reviews content on these topics.
Dr Jorge Metri’s highlights:
- Invited Reviewer of two international scientific Journals
- PhD in Food Science with emphasis on reduced-fat salad dressings with non-animal derived proteins at Universidad De Las Américas Puebla
- Diploma in Artificial Intelligence at Universidad Anáhuac, México
- Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition at the Universidad Latino
“Science shows its true impact when we make it understandable for everyone” – Dr Jorge Metri PhD.
Professional experience:
Prior to doing his PhD, Jorge Metri worked as an independent nutritionist for almost two years, focusing on sports nutrition to enhance the performance of swimmers and triathletes.
Jorge Metri has worked on several multidisciplinary research projects, including fruit processing, the production of protein-based products, spices, seasonings, jams, and artificial intelligence applied to agriculture production and food quality.
In the food technology area, Jorge Metri has contributed to improving sales and profits of two entrepreneurs of artisanal food products by reformulating their products and standardizing their processes.
Due to the high volume of food production and innovation, the food industry will need new technologies for food characterization in the next years; Jorge Metri is looking for studying such technologies, in 2022, he was selected as a finalist in the IFT FIRST 2022 Food Science event for the Sensory & Consumer Sciences Division Graduate Student Pangborn Oral Competition with the work titled: Machine Learning Models for Mayonnaise Acceptability Prediction.
Education:
- 2018 – 2023: PhD in Food Science at Universidad De Las Américas Puebla of Puebla, México
- 2022: Diploma in Artificial Intelligence at Universidad Anáhuac, México
- 2011 – 2016: Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition at the Universidad Latino of Mérida Yucatán, México.
Main publications of Jorge Metri:
- Metri-Ojeda, J., Solana-Lavalle, G., Rosas-Romero, R., Palou, E., & Baigts-Allende, D. (2023). Rapid screening of mayonnaise quality using computer vision and machine learning. Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 1-13.
- Metri-Ojeda, J., Ramírez-Rodrigues, M., Rosas-Ordoñez, L., & Baigts-Allende, D. (2022). Development and Characterization of a Low-Fat Mayonnaise Salad Dressing Based on Arthrospira platensis Protein Concentrate and Sodium Alginate. Applied Sciences, 12(15), 7456.
- Ojeda, J. M., Rodrigues, M. R., & Allende, D. B. (2022). Study of the perception and the acceptability of mayonnaise ingredients among Mexican consumers and its global preference. Revista Española de Nutrición Humana y Dietética, 26.
- Metri-Ojeda, J., Nikiforidis, C., Sandoval-Peraza, M., Chel-Guerrero, L., & Baigts, D. (2019). Processing of Amaranthus hypochondriacus biomass for functional protein concentrates development. Journal of Food Research, 8(5), 70-81.
Conference papers:
- Allende, D. B., Alva, A. P., Haro, M. S., Martínez, A. S., & Ojeda, J. M. (2020). Bio-plastic polymers from renewable sources. INNOTEC, (19 ene-jun), 97-108
- Metri-Ojeda, J. C., Pérez-Alva, A., Recio-Cazares, S. L., & Baigts-Allende, D. K. (2020). Physicochemical and sensorial characterization of vegan mayonnaise using chia seed oil and mucilage (Salvia hipanica L.). Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, 5, 485-489.
You can view some of Dr Metri’s work below and links to his professional profiles:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorge-metri-ojeda/
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge-Carlos-Metri-Ojeda-2
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SBi5hE8AAAAJ&hl=es
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7333-3688
This brief guide will answer the query “Should You Prepare Protein Shake With Milk Or Water?”. Additionally, it briefly discusses the difference between using milk or water for your protein shake; how milk can help you build muscles, and when is the best time for having your protein shake.
Should You Prepare a Protein Shake With Milk Or Water?
Unless you are on a calorie restriction plan, you should prepare your protein shake with milk. Milk may add some calories to your protein shake, but it definitely improves the outcomes on muscle building and exercise recovery compared to using only water (1,2).
If you use only water, you are only consuming the protein and other ingredients contained in your supplement. Nevertheless, using water will not add calories. Not adding extra calories in your protein shake could be advantageous if you are on a weight-category discipline, like lifting or combat (3).
What is the difference between Milk and Water for Protein Shakes?
The difference between milk and water for a protein shake is that milk will provide an extra protein, vitamins, and minerals load, as well as some carbohydrates (4).
The proteins from milk are high quality proteins, it could provide you with all essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are needed for muscle development, among other vital functions. So, if you are looking to increase your muscle mass, you should consume all essential amino acids (5).
Milk also contains B vitamins like thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folate, pyridoxine, and cyanocobalamin. B vitamins are known for being crucial for cognitive development in children, but they are also essential for the correct usage of macronutrients in your body. Therefore, B vitamins will help your body to use the protein correctly! (6)
Moreover, Milk also contains calcium and zinc, these are minerals your body requires for bone health and growth. However, calcium is also important for muscle contraction, while zinc promotes muscle sensitivity for insulin, which induces muscle hypertrophy (7).
Of course, using milk will add some extra calories, which you may want to use water for your protein shake if you are on a strict calorie deficit.
In the following subheadings, you can find some information regarding why milk could be good for muscle hypertrophy and recovery.
What Science Says About Muscle Hypertrophy with Milk?
Based on the scientific evidence, milk could enhance muscle hypertrophy because it contains branched chain amino acids (or BCAAs for short), like leucine, isoleucine, and valine (8).
BCAAs are known to increase muscle synthesis, therefore, including milk in your protein shake will add extra BCAAs for improving muscle building (9).
What Science Says About Muscle Recovery with Milk?
The scientific evidence shows that muscle recovery can be better with milk because both proteins and carbohydrates of milk can help for recovering glycogen storage in muscles (10,11).
Glycogen is the main energy source for muscles in the beginning of the exercise. So, if you do not refuel your body properly, you could start your next workout without all the energy you may need, reducing your performance (11).
What is the Best Time to Drink Your Protein Shake?
There is no concrete best time to drink your protein shake. Some studies recommend that you can consume your protein shake within the 4 hours after exercise to refuel your energy storage, and promote muscle synthesis (10,11).
However, this is debatable, there is no concrete evidence to state what is the best time to drink your protein shake, the evidence has shown so far that the most important is to fulfill your protein requirements during the day (10,11).
Your protein requirements are totally dependent on your activities and needs, you should consult a nutrition specialist to define your protein requirements. Generally, the protein intake recommendations are: 0.8 – 1 g/kg for non-athletes and 1.5 – 2.2 g/kg for athletes (10).
Conclusion
This brief guide answered the query “Should You Prepare Protein Shake With Milk Or Water?”. Additionally, it briefly discussed the difference between using milk or water for your protein shake; how milk can help you build muscles, and when is the best time for having your protein shake.
References
- Ivy JL, Goforth HW Jr, Damon BM, McCauley TR, Parsons EC, Price TB. Early postexercise muscle glycogen recovery is enhanced with a carbohydrate-protein supplement. J Appl Physiol, 2002;93(4):1337–44.
- Cintineo HP, Arent MA, Antonio J, Arent SM. Effects of protein supplementation on performance and recovery in resistance and endurance training. Front Nutr, 2018;5:83.
- Barley OR, Chapman DW, Abbiss CR. The current state of weight-cutting in combat sports-weight-cutting in combat sports. Sports, 2019;7(5):123.
- Scholz-Ahrens KE, Ahrens F, Barth CA. Nutritional and health attributes of milk and milk imitations. Eur J Nutr, 2020;59(1):19–34.
- Venkatraman JT, Pendergast DR. Effect of dietary intake on immune function in athletes. Sports Med, 2002;32(5):323–37.
- Titcomb TJ, Tanumihardjo SA. Global concerns with B vitamin statuses: Biofortification, fortification, hidden hunger, interactions, and toxicity. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 2019;18(6):1968–84.
- Gumpper K, Ma J. Zinc Signaling in Skeletal Muscle. In: Zinc Signaling. Singapore: Springer Singapore; 2019. p. 123–37.
- McGregor RA, Poppitt SD. Milk protein for improved metabolic health: a review of the evidence. Nutr Metab, 2013;10(1):46.
- Plotkin DL, Delcastillo K, Van Every DW, Tipton KD, Aragon AA, Schoenfeld BJ. Isolated leucine and branched-chain amino acid supplementation for enhancing muscular strength and hypertrophy: A narrative review. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab,. 2021;31(3):292–301.
- Huecker M, Sarav M, Pearlman M, Laster J. Protein supplementation in sport: Source, timing, and intended benefits. Curr Nutr Rep, 2019;8(4):382–96.
- James LJ, Stevenson EJ, Rumbold PLS, Hulston CJ. Cow’s milk as a post-exercise recovery drink: implications for performance and health. EJSS, 2019;19(1):40–8.
