Wasn’t quite sure this was G.Q. Material so I’m parking it here. Mods, if this belongs elsewhere feel free to migrate it.
So. For various reasons I want to start drinking protein-heavy drinks daily. There is an endless offering in the local health food stores of protein powder mixes with all sorts of added elements. Virtually all of these are off the table. The proteins are - almost to the last - derived from whey. I’m lactose intolerant, and ingesting volumes of whey protein would cause me intestinal distress on a scale that’d be wretched. I’ve tried these once or twice many years ago. This class of protein drink mix is a no-go. ( And no, Lactaid™ pills don’t work for me. Haven’t for 20 years. )
It occurs to me that as a source of protein, quinoa may be perfect. It is the only grain known to man that is a complete protein on its own. That is to say, it does not need to be coupled with something like rice to be absorbed as a source of good protein by the body. ( Rice and Beans isn’t Rice and Beans just for tradition’s sake ).
Were I to start with Greek Yogurt ( zero lactose. The whey is strained out, I can ingest buckets of the stuff safely ) and then toss in dry quinoa and water and a bit of flavoring- maybe a drop or two of pure peppermint oil, or a similarly strong but zero sugar flavoring agent- and a ton of ice, might I come up with a protein shake that’s palatable and delivers a decent bit of protein per…say…20-30 ounces ingested?
Anyone ever tried this? Any traps or tricks? I was given a wicked blender a few years ago, it’s a Harley Pasternak blender and it does whip up ice and other bits into a nice thick shake in short order. Heavy duty motor.
Oooh- good idea !! There’s a display area in the local market of boutique flours. I know that quinoa is one of them. Might give a nice smooth thick shake instead of one with little gritty bits in it.
Does it have to be grain-based? Soy protein is quite famously complete but soybeans are a legume. I dunno if there is any linkage between lactose and soy intolerance.
Not to fight the hypothetical, but there are tons that are not whey based. Soy as mentioned. Egg white based powders. Pea protein based ones. And if you want to pay the money and order it - cricket! Heck you can even get beef protein powder.
Problem with quinoa is that while it is complete protein it is not very protein dense/heavy. 1 cup of cooked quinoa, a pretty decent serving to eat or somehow drink, or alternatively 1/2 cup of the flour, has only a hair over 8 g of protein. Per unit dry weight 24% of quinoa is protein.
Half that much of egg white powder (roughly 1/4 cup, a 1 oz scoop) has 28g and is 82% protein per unit dry weight. Pea protein powder is more than 55% protein. Cricket 70%.
Yogurt has plenty of lactose, it makes me violently ill. As does cottage cheese and sour cream and cream cheese. And milk.
GREEK yogurt has the whey strained out of it. No whey, no lactose. I know whey isn’t lactose. But in this situation, whey based protein drinks are TEEMING with lactose.
Try reading the labels. Whey protein powder drinks? One of the first ingredients is “ milk products/ milk whey products “.
Good link, very informative. Everyone’s body is different.
If I ate 1 cup of normal yogurt I would have uncontrollable diarrhea for 12 hours. I eat Greek yogurt, which lacks the whey and the lactose IN the whey, almost every day.
Heh. I’ve eaten cricket. Nutty tasting !! I’ll lean towards them and egg, the percentages- good research, thank you for this. No reason to look for quinoa if it’s so low compared to other sources.
And just to clarify the source of some confusion in these discussions: “whey” has variable meanings.
There’s the whey of “curds and whey” which is the liquid component compared to the more solid component produced making cheese and yogurt. The curds contain lots of casein, a slow to digest protein. Whey, often thought of as waste in cheese making, contains water, whey protein (faster to digest), and almost all of the lactose. Isolated whey protein is the protein of that component. Greek yogurt is thicker because it has the whey (the liquid) strained out … leaving little lactose and making its protein almost if not all casein and not whey protein (again, slower to digest and thus allegedly keeping hunger at bay longer).
I found out the other day, to my astonishment, that ricotta cheese is made from whey – the YouTube video about making Parmigiano-Reggiano I watched mentioned it in passing so I read up on it.
Every winter the CostCo here offers fresh curds in five pound packages, only to discontinue it when the snowbirds from Wisconsin depart. I looked up some recipes but the top ten involved deep frying so I stopped looking. A lot of people who are lactose-intolerant can eat cheese. I assumed this was not the case with 'Verse or we wouldn’t be talking about grain smoothies.
I thought I had articulated this up in the thread but perhaps I did not.
I cannot eat milk regular yogurt cottage cheese cream cheese or sour cream. I can eat virtually all cheeses that are considered regular cheese such as Brie, American cheddar and so on.
