Hydrolysate Protein

     The term used for digestion of protein is hydrolysis (hydro = "water" and lysis = "to loose". A hydrolysate protein is one which is partially but not completely broken down with enzymes and water. NeoLife protein products are in hydrolysate form because of the Protogard Process which utilizes enzymes to partially break the protein down
at body temperature. The low temperature prevents the protein from being denatured.
     Hydrolysate protein has definite nutritional advantages. Colgan writes, "The edge for absorption lies with hydrolysates. They are absorbed better than free-form amino acids because the human gut has a special transport system for dipeptides and tripeptides (combinations of two or three amino acids) that single amino acids cannot use."
     Colgan continues, "I used to favor the free-form amino acids, but numerous recent studies of burn and surgery patients have shown that nitrogen retention and recovery from injury is faster with hydrolysates than with intact proteins or equivalent free-form amino acid mixtures."
     Colgan notes that one animal study showed hydrolysate protein twice as effective as intact protein and seven times as effective as free-form amino acids. The small combinations of amino acids missing in free-form amino acids, but present in hydrolysate protein, stimulate the liver to produce a muscle growth factor. Colgan suggests that this form of protein offers the competitive athlete an edge.
Reference:
Colgan, Michael, Optimum Sports Nutrition, New York: Advanced Research Press, 1993, 160.