Milk outshines soya at building muscle mass

Milk protein has shown to be significantly better than soya protein at building muscle mass. Milk not only helps in building bones, but also helps in gaining muscle. Weightlifters have long turned to protein supplements such as whey to help them build muscle. Milk provides not only whey, but other proteins as well. Milk proteins contain amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — in quantities and ratios that may be more effective than soya protein in building muscle. Also, milk proteins are digested differently from soya proteins. This difference may help muscle retain more of the amino acids from milk. Researchers from the McMaster University in Ontario, Canada studied 56 men between the ages of 18 and 30 years and put them on a strength-training regimen. All of the men worked out five days a week for 12 weeks. One-third followed their workouts with two glasses of skimmed milk, one immediately afterward and the second an hour later. Another third drank a fat-free soya beverage, and the rest consumed a high-carbohydrate sports drink. All the beverages had the same number of calories. The findings showed that young men who followed their weight training regimens with glasses of skimmed milk gained extra muscle mass. Compared with their counterparts who consumed soya or carbohydrate drinks, the milk drinkers gained up to 60 per cent more muscle mass, on average. They also lost substantially more body fat over the 12-week exercise period. On an average, milk drinkers lost six per cent of their original fat mass, versus only about two per cent in the soya group and about three per cent in the carbohydrate group. It was also found that there were no clear differences in muscle strength among the three groups. Gain in muscle mass and loss in body fat are beneficial regardless of the effects on strength. This is because muscle increases metabolism and acts as a disposal site for blood sugar and fats, which means building muscle mass could potentially protect against health problems like obesity, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.