*Raynes*

LittleKatie13

Do you have an article about protein denaturation rendering the protein less useful to the body?  I've done some light googling and after found anything trustworty.  I'm trying to figure out if this is urban legend or real.  I (and my labmates) cannot come up with any reason why denaturing the protein makes the amino acids any less useful and that's why protein is beneficial right?  Please set me straight if I'm confused.  Thanks!

msange727

i'm not raynes and i'm not an expert, but my bio background leads me to believe that the amino acids would be damaged if the proteins are denatured... i don't know for sure if they'd be less useful to the body that way, but my instincts tell me they would.

AdeleDazeem

You cook an egg, which denatures all the protein in the egg and yolk, and that is an excellent source of protein.  You also cook meat, which denatures all the proteins in the meat and we eat that for protein as well. 

I've actually never thought about this before, but now my head's all whirring.  Before the proteosome can degrade proteins into their amino acids, the protein must be unfolded (ie denatured).  If proteins are not folded properly, they immediately head to the proteosome to be broken apart and the amino acids re-incorporated into new proteins.  Also, the pH of the stomach is very acidic, which will immediately denature most proteins we ingest that are otherwise folded properly.

I'm not saying I know the exact answer here, I'm just thinking outloud.  It seems to me that it should make no difference... but maybe Raynes has some good secret knowledge.  She's smart like that.

Msange: denatured simply means unfolded.  Yes, damage can happen to the side chains of amino acids, but that can happen whether the protein is denatured or not.  In order for a protein to be broken down, it has to be unfolded first so denaturing doesn't inherently hurt the amino acids, otherwise we would have all sorts of big problems building new proteins. 

raynes

Um, Joy, FTW?

No, I don't have any super secret knowledge on why they say not to cook the protein.  I've probably read the same articles you have LittleKatie.

What Joy's said makes a lot of sense (especially the part about the eggs), so hey, if you want to cook it, cook it!  I'm not sure if, say, a whey protein would react differently then egg proteins, but it's worth a go if it gets more protein into your body.

msange727

*slaps forehead*

ok - i'll just stick to grammar and workout-related questions now :]

AdeleDazeem

Haha!  I was honestly thinking out loud.  And I have spent entirely too much time with proteins in the past six years.

LittleKatie13

Joy-That's exactly what my labmates and I discussed yesterday.  We went through all these different scenarios in which denaturing could be bad, and couldn't come up with something.  Especially since whey is animal protein right? 

So if someone argued that maybe soy (plant protein) couldn't be heated, then maybe I could see that (though I'd still want proof), but animal protein?  I mean we cook cheese and it still seems to work as a protein source right?  And whey is from cheese processing (I'm pretty sure, not exactly sure what the process is), so... I don't get it.  But I'm gonna go ahead and bake some protein powder tonight.  I'll let you all know how it goes.

Raynes-It always seems like you have a magical library of health articles and I know you like proof just like I do.

Dang it, now I really want a real answer!