May 29, 1998


 

No way-whey!

Can Little Miss Muffet's favorite food help athletes?


ROGER ARMSTRONG
Folio Staff


Dr. Paul Jelen

Some claim whey is not only a good source of energy for competitive athletes but that it is anti-carcinogenic, wound healing and a healthy substitute for steroids. "Body builders use it and swear by it," says Dr. Paul Jelen from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences who is investigating the tissue healing effects of whey.

"I am basically a walking advertisement. and I say that only half tongue in cheek," says Jelen. "Because I got my hip replaced middle of November. I was back on both feet, threw away the crutches and basically walking without any problems by the end of December and I was taking about two spoons of the whey protein every day."

Jelen says he knows of a professional hockey player who, when injured, heads to the health store to pick up some whey powder in order to return to the rink faster. This healing property of whey is where Jelen will be concentrating his research.

So what exactly is whey? It's the greenish liquid that comes out of a cheese vat -- "out of milk really," says Jelen. To make one kilogram of cheese, you require 10 kg of milk and what is left over is nine kg of whey. Ninety-three per cent of whey is water, five per cent lactose and two per cent other nutrients, but it is the effect of this two per cent which gives rise to all the claims of whey.

Whey is not new. "There were whey houses in England for example in the 19th century," says Jelen. ".Even before that. there was the little Miss Muffet sitting on the tuffet -- she was drinking whey and eating curd."

"Today the main thing is not to dump it down the drain," says Jelen. "It is the second most potent pollutant from a food industry if you dump it down the drain untreated." Whey stimulates growth of algae, which takes oxygen out of the water, and suffocates other aquatic life forms.

"There is more whey than the whole world can drink," says Jelen, which is why researchers are anxious to find a good use for it. "This is a world-wide problem and now it becomes a world-wide opportunity."

Once water is removed from whey a white powder rich in lactose and protein is left. "Chemically speaking there is quite an array of individual proteins that have different properties.milk of every mammal has these proteins." The nutrients in milk are said to have bioactive properties. Jelen says, "20 per cent of milk protein does not end up in the cheese and that is now being looked for all kinds of almost magical, mythical properties."

Jelen's colleagues in Australia have been working on the anti-carcinogenic aspects of whey. "They have used the animal models, they have got several publications that show clearly that, at least in the animal model with chemical induction of the cancer, this is a very effective protein," says Jelen. Human testing is next.


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