Whey: More Than Just A Protein Supplement by Jerry Brainum 4/24

 

 

When archeologists unearthed large ancient jars in a section of Turkey called Anatolia, they thought they might have contained food. When they analyzed the jars, it turned out that their previous content was pure whey. Does this mean that bodybuilders existed in ancient Turkey? It isn't sure, but the jars were prized for something back then. Indeed, the man known as the "Father of Medicine," Hippocrates, suggested medicinal whey in 460 B.C. However, whey was even more ancient than that. The process of cheese making was developed in what is now Poland in 5,000 B.C., and whey was a waste product that appeared in the making of cheese. In fact, for centuries, whey was discarded in the cheese-making process and considered a useless waste product. Ancient Greek medical practitioners, when they weren't removing copious amounts of blood to treat diseases, often prescribed a type of whey called "Lactoserum" to their ill patients. The name made sense since whey is milk protein serum, a clear liquid in its native form. In the 1700s, whey became so popular in England that "whey houses" and "whey spas" began to appear. But it was Italian food scientists who first developed a process where whey could be isolated from milk. However, scientists didn't know what proteins comprised milk until 1800, when the two primary milk proteins, whey and casein, were recognized. But they weren't called "proteins" until 1838.

Although whey protein supplements are considered a recent addition to sports supplements, the archetypical bodybuilder Eugene Sandow endorsed a type of biscuit primarily made of whey, and later began selling his own health supplement containing whey and cocoa. Like modern bodybuilders, Sandow attributed much of his outstanding muscularity to his whey cocoa supplement. It wasn't until the 1930s that modern processing methods emerged for whey protein. The first person to successfully produce a whey protein supplement was a pharmacist named Eugene Schiff. Schiff formed a company in his name to market the product in 1936, but it failed to catch on with the public. Schiff's whey concoction was green and tasted like paint remover. Not a good recipe for sales! After that initial failure, whey was forgotten as a popular food supplement, but in 1951, Irvin Johnson, a gym owner in Chicago, developed a milk protein supplement for his gym members that proved so popular that he opted to market it with advertisements in bodybuilding magazines, mainly Ironman magazine. Among those who used Johnson's milk protein was the 1952 Mr.America, Jim Park, who credited it with helping him to win the title. Johnson then moved to Los Angeles and changed his name to "Rheo Blair." He had perfected his milk protein supplement by adding egg whites to the formula along the way. Since milk and eggs . . .