How to Pick Your… Whey Powder

Let’s start with some science. There are two kinds of dairy protein: whey and casein. Both dish out all the amino acids you need, but have different digestion rates. Whey, the more popular, digests faster, which is why it’s used postworkout, ‘when we want to get amino acids to our muscles rapidly, for repair and recovery’, says Roberts.

If you don’t always fare well with dairy, look for whey ‘isolate’, which is low in lactose. The word ‘hydrolysed’ refers to a process that helps the amino acids to be absorbed more easily. In other words, it’s a bit fancier. Grass-fed powders are available, but that’s more a matter of personal preference than major functional gain.