I was thinking the other day when my wife bought a protein shake that I didn’t know anything about how they worked. ‘Protein’ is sort of generic, as there are thousands of kinds of different proteins. I know they are for building muscle mass. Is there a generic protein that does that, or do they all have different protein formulas?
Protein shakes are just powdered forms of the proteins found in various foods. Milk proteins are the most common, but you’ll see egg and soy proteins as well. They’re metabolized in exactly the same way that the protein in other foods is.
Proteins are made out of amino acids. There are twenty amino acids that we use.
The food we eat is also made up of proteins built up from amino acids. Not every food has all twenty, but most animal proteins do. Plants are often missing one or more of the vital amino acids but by combining them properly, as in rice and beans, you have a meal that contain the full complement.
When the body digests a protein, it literally means that the protein is broken down to component amino acids, which are then used by the body in various ways, including being combined to make needed proteins. (The body makes hundreds of thousands of different proteins.) The body can make ten of the twenty amino acids out of simpler chemicals but it must get the other ten, called “essential,” amino acids from foods.
A protein drink is just a way of getting a lot of protein in a concentrated form. The actual protein doesn’t matter all that much. Whey protein from milk is often used because it is complete and a cheap by-product of cheese production, but the source really doesn’t matter all that much. (Unless you happen to be allergic to that protein.) Whatever the protein is, the body will treat it as nothing more than a source of amino acids and break it down in the process of digestion. Any generic protein will do, but don’t tell the customers of the protein shake manufacturers that or they might realize how much they’re paying for something they can get in their food for no extra cost.
I think this applies to most goods and services in a consumer economy. ‘Manufactured need’. 
Thanks for edifying me on that subject.
Actually protein shakes are more or less essential if you’re trying to build muscle mass for almost any one else, unless you have weird dietary habits and have extremely low protein intakes, you won’t need one.
When actually building muscle mass I tend to try and eat 1 g of protein per pound of body weight (I usually weigh 220-235 lbs.) try getting that much protein on a normal diet. If I ate a lunch of tuna with slices of turkey a midday snack of a chicken breast and a dinner of 2-3 filets of salmon I’d still probably not get to that amount of protein (some lifters even advocate 1.5g/lbs.)
Trying to get that much protein for building muscle will typically result in a diet with too many calories as meats and nuts which are rich in protein are also high in calories, it can also result in not getting enough carbs or getting too much fat, as it’s not that easy to get protein with no fat at all (it’s not hard to get very low sat. fat totals but most sources of protein have fat as most common sources are nuts and meats which by their nature always have some fat.)
GNC and other stores sell overpriced stuff. All The Whey protein ((www.allthewhey.com)) sell whey protein in bulk for prices sometimes $10-30 less than what you might get in a retail store.
It really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. For the average person a protein shake is nothing more than a high dollars per calorie meal. For bodybuilders, protein shakes (along with high glycemic carbs) immediately post-workout make a lot of sense. See the book “Nutrient Timing” by Ivy & Portman for a complete discussion of the science. Most protein shakes are low carbohydrate so if you’re into that sort of thing they are ok now and then and better than skipping a meal for those on serious nutrition programs but fresh foods are always a better choice for the average person. I’ll take a protein shake over a bag of potato chips, but a salad and some turkey is real nutrition and generally a lot cheaper too.
Simple - they build muscle mass while simultaneously draining mass from your wallet. It’s a perfect equilibrium.