Heat + Whey... opinion

[defcon]

In the morning I like to cook some oatmeal (well, by cook I mean, mix large flake oatmeal + raisins + cinnamon in a bowl and add boiling water to it from the kettle...) and have a protein shake to get me started. Recently I tried also adding the protein to my oatmeal mixture as well to see how it tasted. Result: not bad.

My only concern is that, if I remember correctly there is some concern over whether or not the heat from boiled water alters the usefulness of the whey protein. Does anyone have any opinions/information to back up if I should or should not be concerned with this or is it just that the structure of the protein changes by is still useful?

Thanks.

[f=ma]

i actually tried this very thing a few weeks ago. chocolate ON whey + oatmeal = vile

edit: denatured protein is still nutritionally available unless it is badly damaged by heat (grill marks, burnt etc). i wouldnt worry about it

[Mercuryblade]

To further elaborate on f=ma's post, protein gets denatured during cooking. The 3 dimensional structure of the molecules are altered, but your body doesn't actually use the protein in its original state. The protein gets broken down during digestion and processed into its component amino acids, then those amino acids are used in a myriad of ways, and to our hopes they end up being turned into proteins in our muscle tissue.

[defcon]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Apparently the temp. that it starts to denature the protein is at 72 Celsius.

f=ma, I used ON "Cake Batter"... not so bad! It is very dependent on the ratios of whey/oats/other stuff though... it seems I can never make it twice with the same taste.

[Invain]

It would have to be extremely hot, or burned, to damage the individual amino acids.