Derek, you have a reference for this?
According to the research I have done, whey is absorbed equally as fast or more rapidly. And I am certain that in healthy people, whey is utilized to the same degree or greater - probably greater.
Transporters exist in the intestine for both peptides and for individual aminos, so more transporters are available for whole proteins, especially ones like whey which are digested very rapidly.
There are a few refs on the efficiency and rate of
digestion of whole proteins vs. free-form aminos in the
BCAA article (linked below).
Gut. 1982 Aug;23(8):670-4. Related Articles, Links
Comparison of plasma and intraluminal amino acid profiles in
man after meals containing a
protein hydrolysate and equivalent amino acid mixture.
Hegarty JE, Fairclough PD, Moriarty KJ, Clark ML, Kelly MJ, Dawson AM.
Plasma and intraluminal amino acid profiles were compared in normal subjects 30, 60, 120, 180 minutes after meals containing either a peptide-rich
protein hydrolysate (H) or an equivalent free amino acid mixture (AA) as the nitrogen source.
Except for asparagine (30 minutes) and glutamine (30 and 60 minutes), which were absorbed to a significantly (p less than 0.05) greater extent from the peptide mixture, there were no significant differences in the plasma increments of the remaining 13 amino acids at any time interval after the meals. Positive correlations (p less than 0.01 or less) between the amino acid composition of the hydrolysate and amino acid meals and both (1) the post-prandial increments in the individual plasma
amino acids and (2) the residual intraluminal amino acid content suggested that the amino acid composition of ingested
protein, rather than specialised free amino acid and peptide transport systems, dictated the pattern of amino acid absorption. The studies provide no evidence that peptides rather than free
amino acids are the ideal nitrogen source in elemental diets.
Whey vs BCAA which one is better?
