This is an interesting product. A lot of people hate on milk for various reasons. One of those reasons is that 80% of the protein found in milk is casein protein. People think of this protein as indigestible. Well guess what? Here’s a product designed strictly to deliver your body with a strong dosage of casein protein.

The reason bodybuilders like to use casein is its ability to deliver a slow trickle of prolonged nutrients.Is this casein worth your money though? The bodybuilding community is quite vocal about the 100 Gold Standard Casein Protein.

What Makes It Unique:

Whey protein is known for it’s extremely high bio-availability and fast absorption rate. Casein is quite the opposite. Casein protein is ph sensitive. Because of this, once it mixes with the acids in your stomach the protein turns into a gel. This gel acts as a slow release nutrient source that must be broken down by the digestive enzymes slowly. This provides a constant slow trickle of protein and nutrients to your body.

Bodybuilders like this concept because when you’re sleeping your body is fasting for 8 hours. Food typically works its way through your small intestines and stomach in 2-4 hours. So you’re left with 4-6 hours of being without a source of nutrients. This causes your body to go into a catabolic state where your body actually eats away at tissue as opposed to repairing and rebuilding muscle like you want it to. You want to stay anabolic as often as possible after training with your workout routine to gain muscle.

This is where 100 Gold Standard Casein Protein comes into play. The idea here is to consume a casein shake right before bed. Casein typically takes twice as long to digest fully. This provides your body with a longer consistent flow of nutrients theoretically keeping you in an anabolic state and gaining muscle. Many bodybuilders actually wake up half way through their sleep to make another protein shake just to avoid this catabolic state.

100 Gold Standard Casein Protein claims to deliver 24 grams of protein in each serving and 9 grams of BCAA’s. Since this is a protein shake that is taken before bed, you don’t want to consume any high glycemic index carbs. Many people like to cut out carbs completely when having a meal before bed. For this reason, Gold Standard Casein Protein has only 3-4 grams of carbs in each serving.

This will ensure that you don’t gain any fat cells due to the pre-sleep meal. So that’s the premise behind this supplement, but does it work like it claims to? Let’s look at how the real world views this supplement.

Reported Pro’s:

1) Helps with recovery

2) Not as sore upon waking up

3) Don’t feel starved when you wake up

4) Gains muscle

Reported Con’s:

1) Gets thick if you let it sit too long

2) Need a blender to mix it properly

3) More expensive than whey protein

4) Some have reported it to be a bit gritty

What Do Real People Think?

Final Thoughts:

If you understand how protein synthesis and the body works, then you realize the importance of staying in an anabolic state. Providing your body with a constant flow of high quality nutrition is the best way to accomplish this. For this reason alone, this is a great product to take before going to bed. If the price is too much for you, the next best thing is to put extra virgin olive oil and milk in your protein shake.

The milk and the oil will slow down your rate of digestion allowing a slow trickle of nutrition. If you don’t mind dropping some cash to ensure you’re staying anabolic, this product is definitely worth a try. The concept is sound. The bodybuilding community more than approves this supplement. Overall, if you train with a workout routine to gain muscle, you need a consistent flow of protein at all times.

This product also has a generous amount of BCAA’s which is a nice bonus. It also contains a decent amount of glutamine and arginine which is generally found in supplements like BSN NO Xplode (refering to the arginine for the pump effect). When it’s all said and done, this product is a form of food. It’s nothing ground breaking or cutting edge, just a convenient and effective nutrition delivery system.