Well I just took the plunge and spent my money to try out something new. While I was at the 2006 Arnold Classic last weekend (March 3-5), one booth caught my eye, Egg Whites International. I am no fan of egg white protein because of the awful taste, but they had a sample chocolate protein drink and I thought I'd give it a second try. I was ready pucker my face as I normally do with egg protein, however no such pucker came. Actually, the taste was pleasant and I became interested in hearing more about this protein.

Egg white protein normally comes in powder form which tastes pretty lousy. Eggs Whites Int protein is in liquid form was tasteless at least in that chocolate drink.

The Eggs Whites International are not raw egg whites separated and sold but rather they are pasteurized and processed to insure disease free consumption. The liquid is no longer clear but yellow. Actually it looks like urine which at first sight is disgusting. As I heard the guy talk about this product, he recommended that you mix in a shake flavored with fruit, yogurt and, yes he mentioned, whey protein.

His claim on Egg White protein is that it is 100% bioavailable. By this, the body in theory can utilize every single gram of this protein. According to them, whey protein is only 70-80% bioavailable. With this information the salesmen takes a leap of faith as far as I’m concerned and states that whey protein can only support muscle growth for 2-3 hours while Egg Whites last 4-5 hours. It’s unclear to me if he means egg whites digest more slowly and time released or that more protein will last longer. If latter is the case, then simply add more whey protein to diet should match the egg protein duration.

Nonetheless I had to give this product a try, so I order 2 gallons. Getting this product is going to be a bit different than whey protein. Don’t expect your local health food store to distribute since, it has to be refrigerated. And I don’t expect to see it in frozen food section at grocer anytime soon either. I received my two gallons mostly still frozen in insulated lined container. I popped one in the frig and the other in the freezer.

As of this writing, I have tried this protein three times. I mixed it chocolate whey the first time and was really good. The last two times I mixed with strawberry whey and fresh strawberries. All in all, compared to a non egg white protein shake, these seemed a bit richer. I guess that should be expected.

As far as costs go, it is about triple the cost of whey. (See related article). I paid $56 for 2 gallons of Egg White International protein. If you do the math on cost per gram, it works out to be $.0359/gram. Typically you can buy whey protein at Netrition for $.011/gram. If you rationalize that egg protein is 100% bioavailable verses whey potein 70-80% availability then that will raise the effective cost of whey to $.0157. Egg Whites protein still costs twice as much as whey protein.

I’ll be giving you a complete summary later if Egg Whites facilitate better workout recovery or muscle gains. Too soon tell now.

"Sweat eventually hardens to Muscle".....Scott

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