If you drink a mix of free amino acids instead of whole milk protein, your body absorbs them faster and more of them—especially phenylalanine—show up in your blood over six hours.

80

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

80

Community contributions welcome

80

Ingestion of Free Amino Acids Compared with an Equivalent Amount of Intact Protein Results in More Rapid Amino Acid Absorption and Greater Postprandial Plasma Amino Acid Availability Without Affecting Muscle Protein Synthesis Rates in Young Adults in a Double-Blind Randomized Trial

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2022 Jan 11

The study found that taking amino acids in powder form leads to faster and higher levels in the blood compared to drinking milk protein, and more of the amino acid phenylalanine gets into the bloodstream—just like the claim says.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Ingestion of Free Amino Acids Compared with an Equivalent Amount of Intact Protein Results in More Rapid Amino Acid Absorption and Greater Postprandial Plasma Amino Acid Availability Without Affecting Muscle Protein Synthesis Rates in Young Adults in a Double-Blind Randomized Trial

Score: 80

DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxab305

Similar Assertions

If you're a healthy young adult, your muscles might use amino acids from supplements better than from real milk—scientists tracked this by seeing how much labeled phenylalanine ended up in muscle over 6 hours.

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If you're a healthy young adult, drinking amino acids might help your body build more muscle in the hours after eating than drinking the same amount of protein from milk.

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For healthy guys, drinking regular milk protein gives your body more usable protein building blocks over 5 hours than taking just whey or just casein alone.

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If you're a healthy young adult, drinking a supplement with 30 grams of broken-down amino acids won't help your muscles grow more than drinking the same amount from real milk protein—even though your body absorbs the amino acids faster.

80

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When healthy guys drink milk protein, about half of the protein gets into their bloodstream within 5 hours — that's what muscles can use. The rest is either still being digested or gets used by organs like the liver before it ever reaches the rest of the body.

88

0

76%