When it comes to bodybuilding, you know that protein intake is vital to your success. Unfortunately, even if you are a big meat eater, you will find that you will not get the amount of protein - or even the right protein - in your diet without taking supplements. One of the most important supplements that body builders need is whey protein. Whey protein has many advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of whey protein are too numerous to list, however, here we will discuss some of the more important advantages. For example, whey protein stimulates the lGF-1 production, which stimulates growth. When you use whey protein isolates, you will be getting about ten percent of immunoglobulin proteins that are intact. This means that the proteins have two pairs of polypeptide chains. While that may be too confusing for the average person to understand, what it means to you is that your immune system gets a boost on top of helping your muscles to grow.

No other protein source in existence contains as much branched chain amino acids. You need these amino acids because you actually lose them when the muscles catabolize. Most people don't realize that muscles are damaged as much as they are built in body building, but whey protein essentially replaces everything that your muscles are losing during and after your workouts.

Whey protein helps to detoxify the body by making the body's production of endogenous glutathione greater. This too helps to make your immune system stronger as well, and this is just another of the many advantages of whey protein.

You may wonder how body builders can work out day after day, without muscle soreness. In fact, beginners often quit following their first couple of workouts, simply because they can't bear the pain. Here is another advantage of whey protein. Whey protein isolates have protein chains that contain four essential amino acids that also act as natural pain killers. Overall, whey protein is the best protein for the body, because the body makes excellent use of it…better use of whey protein in fact than any other type of protein.

But, as with anything else, there are disadvantages of whey protein. First, the best whey protein products on the market are fairly expensive, making them inaccessible to most people who get into body building. There are whey protein products that are affordable, but these are usually of a much lower quality, and are often full of sugar. Furthermore, these cheaper products are not digested as easily as a quality product.

Overall, however, most serious body builders will search high and low to find a whey protein product that is of high quality, and affordable at the same time, because the advantages are so plentiful, while the disadvantages of whey protein typically only involve the cost of the product. Simply put, you can't go wrong with a quality whey protein product when you are serious about body building. In light of how beneficial whey protein is, it is ironic that it was once considered a waste product in the process of making milk and cheese.