Casein protein is known as the “slow” protein. This is due to the fact that it is the slowest digesting protein there is (significantly slower than whey), which is why casein is not recommended for the meals around your workout. However, casein is an ideal choice when you don’t care about digestion speed, or when you just purposely want protein to digest slowly.
For this reason, casein protein is a perfectly fine choice for when you need a non-workout related protein source during the day as part of any normal meal. This is a perfect protein for getting the needed energy on a day to day basis. Also it is good when you want to repair your body from daily activity.
We must also keep in mind that whey protein combined with a normal meal containing carbohydrates, fat and/or other nutrients will actually slow down whey’s digestion to the point where it’s likely just as suitable as casein for those meals. Having said that, there is still one time of the day when casein universally beats whey in terms of usage and recommendations: the last meal before bed.
Numerous research showed that that it would be beneficial to have some protein in your system while you’re sleeping and your body is doing most of its recovering/repairing. Since you spend those 8 or so hours in a fasting state, it became a common recommendation to consume a slow digesting source of protein in your last meal of the day.
It is hard to say if the benefits of doing this as significant as some people think. However, since doing so won’t hurt you then using casein protein is definitely the ideal slow digesting source of protein to be taken for the last meal of the day.
© Copyright – Hector Sectzer
