Speaking specifically, I mean supplementation.
And regarding the most basic of basics, that just about everyone who hits the weights crows on about, are protein powders.
Here are the top Casein Protein we’ll be reviewing:
- Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
- Dymatize Elite 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
- Legion Casein+ Pure Micellar Casein Protein Powder
- Bulk Supplements Casein Protein Powder
- Naked Casein 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
So What is Casein Protein?
Casein is well known to the workout community as a slow digesting protein. For most people, this information combined with the various pros and cons is all they need to know.
Going a little deeper, casein is one of two types of protein that is found in milk. Somewhere around 80% of this muscle building nutrient is contained in a glass of dairy, with the other 20% being made up of whey protein.
As a product derived from an animal, both casein and whey are complete proteins that provide all the essential amino acids necessary to build, grow, and repair the complex biological machine that is your body.
Casein powder is most commonly used for the ‘recovery’ portion of your day, otherwise known as sleep. As a slow digesting protein, this type of supplement is an important fuel source for your torn and shredded muscles to use. While you’re off in dreamland, your body spends this important period rebuilding you into something better, harder, faster, and stronger.
Daft Punk reference aside, this slow digesting source of calories also is popularly used as a tool to maintain muscle mass during the ‘cutting’ process.
Other Types of Proteins Powders
There are two other types of protein powder commonly marketed towards people looking to get fit. These are whey and hydrolyzed proteins.
Whey Protein
Whey is a fast digesting protein that is most often used in the immediate post workout period. Being able to be fully broken down by your stomach in a single hour, the purpose of this type of product is to get your body the maximum amount of protein in a short a time as possible.
The driving idea behind this type of protein powder is that it very quickly provides your body with all the nutrients it needs to repair your muscular system in a very short period of time. This allows your body to begin repairing the countless micro tears in your body every time you work out.
You can think of this type of protein as an injection of nitro into your engine. It gives you an immediate source of nutrition to begin repairing your body and pairs nicely with slower acting casein.
Hydrolyzed Protein
Like whey, hydrolyzed protein powder is fast digesting, and it provides all the essential amino acids required for rebuilding your body. This type of protein is ‘pre-digested’ and further broken down into more easily absorbed nutrients and amino acids.
While this does mean your body gets the necessary fuel faster, this type of product is generally more expensive. There is also some debate about whether or not it is even all that more effective than whey protein.
The Advantages
Casein works great as a tool for fueling your body during those long periods your body won’t be eating. Most commonly this is during sleep, but this type of protein is also suitably effective at combating hunger pangs. For those of you who fast for religious or dietary reasons, a casein shake is effective at keeping your stomach feeling full.
Another positive about this slow digesting product is that beyond supplementing your daily protein requirements, it’s efficient for burning calories. Now I’m not saying that you should only eat protein, but your body ironically needs to burn calories in order to digest food. Being a tough to digest food, your body will be using up calories during the night.
Even better is that your muscle mass won’t be as heavily affected compared to sleeping on an empty stomach. Given that it takes several hours to break down into usable nutrients, a casein shake gives your body a long-lasting source of fuel to draw from.
It’s important to note that given the chance, the human body draws necessary nutrients from its muscles. While you’d think fat would be the first cells to be cannibalized, protein is actually easier to convert into an energy source just behind carbohydrates.
The Disadvantages
When compared to faster digesting protein, casein is lacking primarily in one department.
Absorption speed.
While on paper you’d get the same essential aminos from both products, whey protein is far more effective at providing an immediate source of nutrients post workout. My personal recommendation would be to use both products for maximizing your gains.
In short, bring a scoop of whey in a shaker with you to the gym to act as a snack. When you get home, down a scoop of casein right before you go to bed. Just make sure to adjust portion sizes to account for your lean body mass, otherwise, you might find yourself overloading your body with unnecessary protein.
It may be tempting to drink a shake with every meal, but that’s generally not a good idea. If that happens, you’re probably going to have problems taking a #2.
There are also people who are sensitive to casein that will immediately disqualify using this product. And in the longer term, studies have shown that regularly consuming excess protein also raises the risk of cancer.
Too much of anything is bad for the body, but you can mitigate these risks by doing a little research and being sensible.
The Contenders for Best Casein Protein
Something to keep note of is that while this is a list regarding the Best Casein Protein, the winner is going to be a product that works well for me and fits my personal requirements.
People react differently to specific brands and supplements, what works for me might not work quite as well for you. Just think of this as a recommendation more than a ‘must buy’ type of review.
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
Let’s start off with the big one. Optimum Nutrition is the world’s leading poster boy regarding protein supplements. I can guarantee that out of ten gym regulars, at least nine of them have tried a product from this company.
I’m no different in that regard. 100% Casein and Whey were some of the first protein powders I used way back when. And personally, this product is the standard by which I judge all others I’ve tried.
One scoop of this stuff provides you with 24 grams worth of protein, around 5 grams of BCAAs, and is a good source of calcium. The chocolate shake flavor is also quite low on sugars and carbs.
For anyone new, I would highly suggest using protein powders from this company as a baseline for experimentation.
Pros
- Most flavors taste pretty good.
- These products are viewed in a favorable light by testing labs.
- 24 grams of protein is one of the main standards by which other products are compared to. This product actually has the least amount of protein per serving among the list, but the amount is negligible.
- 24 grams worth of protein is nearly equal to half the amount needed by the average adult male on a 2000 calorie diet.
- I’ve always been able to get results with this product, and combined with the great taste, it’s been a staple in my shaker bottles for years.
Cons
- While the quality of this product is difficult to argue against, one negative to becoming the baseline standard for comparison, is that it feels and looks somewhat generic.
- Second most expensive product on this list. As a well known and regarded brand, it’s a little pricey.
- That said, one of these is going to last you about a month, so you can make room by offloading unnecessary groceries from your shopping list.
Dymatize Elite 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
Coming in at 4 lbs of hefty goodness, this product has five fewer servings than the Gold Standard, but contains an extra gram of casein per scoop to make up for it. Costing slightly less than its competitor, this item makes for a good replacement when it comes to quality.
Filled with 5.4 grams of BCAAs and 2.3 grams of L-leucine per serving, this product is also tested for banned substances and is gluten free.
Pros
- Another well received product, this is a good alternative to the ON’s casein powder.
- A great option for those who are gluten intolerant or don’t consume gluten products for dietary reasons.
- L-leucine is an essential amino acid that is effective in stimulating protein synthesis. A few grams of this with the correct diet will lead to notably less soreness in the morning.
- Contains a low amount of sugar, carbs, and is a minor source of iron.
Cons
- This stuff mixes decently in water or milk, but it can be overly thick.
- Scooper is pretty big so this powder feels like it gets used faster than other protein supplements.
Legion Casein+ Pure Micellar Casein Protein Powder
With a 100% satisfaction guarantee offer, if you’re not happy with this product, you’ll get your money back. Offering 25 grams of protein per rounded scoop, this non-gmo grass fed cow milk product provides a hefty source of healthy casein.
The powder itself contains no artificial sweeteners and is low in carbs and sugars. This product prides itself in being derived from hormone free milk procured from small dairy farms in Ireland.
Pros
- This product contains very few additives that more health conscious people are leery of.
- Its free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, soy protein, gluten, GMOs, MSG, hormones, and antibiotics.
- The flavor I got from Vanilla was extremely agreeable. I made some damn good ice cream with this powder as a base.
- The results I got from this product were nice as well. With some other products, I wake up with a ravenous appetite, not so much with Casein+.
Cons
- I usually add closer to a scoop and a half worth of casein powder to my pre sleep shake. The smaller size of this product lasted me somewhere around 3 weeks.
- Doesn’t mix well with almond milk.
Bulk Supplements Casein Protein Powder
Another low carb low sugar option, this awesome supplement also is bursting with nutrition. Along with the usual aminos, this product holds a whopping 26 grams of protein per serving, and it also contains almost half of your daily calcium intake.
I would wholly recommend this product for people suffering from calcium deficiency, even if you aren’t completely destroying yourself at the gym every day. For pregnant women who’ve recently given birth, I’d probably check with a doctor first, but this is a good option for older women who are beginning to lose bone mass.
There is one sticking point to this product, however.
It contains no additive flavorings. At all.
Good news, it works.
Bad news, unless you mix this powder with something tasty, you’re going to have trouble choking the resulting mess down.
Pros
- Lab tested for quality and purity.
- Good source of calcium on top of protein and BCAAs.
- Comes in a portable ziplock bag that is easy to stuff into your gym bag.
- Works solid when added to pancake batter.
Cons
- Don’t try this without mixing it into something sweet. While it’s possible to drink it if mixed with only water, it isn’t exactly desirable.
- The lecithin within is based from soy products. (Could be a positive for some as it makes mixing with liquids easier.)
- While the container is convenient, it increases the likelihood of an accident.
Naked Casein 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder
The single priciest product at a little more than a buck an ounce, a 5 gallon tub is going to set you back a Benjamin. But with this expensive price tag comes a high quality product that comes packed with a whopping 18 amino acids in various forms.
This impressive casein powder contains no growth hormones, rBGH, rBST, or other additives. What’s more, this product is cold processed. In other words, the process that goes into creating this product is free of chemical contamination, heavy metals, and synthetic additives.
With 26 grams of protein, 0 grams of sugar, 0 carbs, 110 calories, and 5.9 grams of BCAAs per serving, this exceptional tub of casein powder is one of the best on the market.
Pros
- You get a whole lot of bang for your buck.
- Everything about this product, including ingredients and processing, is done in the US. Pricier, sure, but its quality is assured.
- Actually has 0 sugar and contains no flavorings or additives. The 2 grams of sugar was a misprint from the initial batch of labels.
- GMO, soy, and gluten free.
- Acid and bleach free processing.
- Nutritional values are verified by independent third party tests.
Cons
- You’re going to need to mix this in with something. It tastes disgusting without something to flavor it. Works well with brownie mix among other things.
- A little tougher to mix with a shaker, but that’s nothing too major.
- It’s a big tub so you might have to dig the scooper out.
- Look, it’s difficult to find anything completely terrible about this product, okay?
Which is My Choice for Best Casein Protein?
Well, I said before that Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard 100% Casein was the baseline by which I’d be comparing all of these products to. I must have gone through three dozen tubs of various products from their company over the years.
But while I have a great fondness for that company’s products, the Best Casein Protein on this list is going to have to be the Naked Casein.
While the unflavored version isn’t the best introduction for anyone new to supplementing, the chocolate and vanilla flavors are solid. More importantly, the method by which these tubs of protein are produced ensure that there aren’t any unnecessary additives or subpar ingredients.
Is it more expensive than other options? Sure. But unlike an exercise machine, I grade what I put into my body on a completely different standard.
Naked Casein isn’t littered with additives, it does an excellent job in keeping my body fed through the night, and is only slightly inconvenient to flavor up. That’s a price I’m gladly willing to pay if it means keeping myself as healthy as I can.
