YES. Will Brink has some nice articles on whey http://www.brinkzone.com/?s=whey .

Depends on the product you buy. Most whey protein isolates or concentrates have artificial sweeteners or MSG which cause all kinds of problems so make sure to find one that has nothing artificial, I've found a few out there. It is natural in the sense that it's found in milk, just not in isolation. It depends on your activity levels as well. I don't think its effects on insulin matter if you take it after an intense workout since exercise increases insulin sensitivity. It also depends on whether you have whey from raw milk or not, since there is some changing of the proteins from pasteurization denaturing them, although this whey is prohibitively expensive for most people. There are a lot of studies on whey showing a range of health benefits, http://proteinpowder.mercola.com/Miracle-Whey-Protein.html I would say the three main benefits it gives are because of its high amounts of branched-chain amino acids for your muscles, high amounts of amino acids that increase glutathione production, and significant amounts of immunoglobulins and other molecules that have been shown to boost the immune system. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/23/ori-hofmekler-on-whey-protein.aspx

It depends. I get very very bad acne from it, even if I eat a paleo diet apart from the whey. I believe whey is the whole reason why I started to go paleo.

I don't have an answer to the question but have been wondering about alternatives to Whey like Pea, Egg and Hemp proteins. I use MyProtein.com in the UK: any thoughts on the following products?

http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/pea_protein_isolate http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/organic_hemp_protein http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/egg_white_powder

Cheers

Not sure if this helps:

From a university study:

1. J Nutr. 2004 Jun;134(6):1454-8.

A high-whey-protein diet reduces body weight gain and alters insulin sensitivity relative to red meat in wistar rats.

Belobrajdic DP, McIntosh GH, Owens JA.

Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Health Sciences and Nutrition, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia.

A high-protein diet can reduce body weight and increase insulin sensitivity, but whether the type of dietary protein affects these outcomes is unknown. We hypothesized that feeding insulin-resistant rats a high-protein diet (32%) containing whey protein concentrate (WPC) would reduce body weight and tissue lipid levels and increase insulin sensitivity more than a diet containing red meat (RM). Rats were fed a high-fat diet (300 g fat/kg diet) for 9 wk, then switched to a diet containing either 80 or 320 g protein/kg diet, provided by either WPC or RM, for 6 wk (n = 8). The rats were then killed after overnight food deprivation. High dietary protein reduced energy intake (P < 0.001) and visceral (P < 0.001), subcutaneous (P < 0.001), and carcass fat (P < 0.05). Increasing the dietary density of WPC, but not of RM, reduced body weight gain by 4% (P < 0.001). Dietary WPC also reduced plasma insulin concentration by 40% (P < 0.05) and increased insulin sensitivity, compared to RM (P < 0.05). These findings support the conclusions that a high-protein diet reduces energy intake and adiposity and that whey protein is more effective than red meat in reducing body weight gain and increasing insulin sensitivity.>

I watched this last night, and it aggravated me a bit because she didn't talk about diet at all:

Cynthia Kenyon on experiments that hint of longer lives

So, if you watch that, you'll see that there is this relationship between insulin, IGF-1 and ageing. The upshot being, if you don't want to age, you probably don't want to eat whey.

The other side of the coin- do you want to gain some muscle? Whey protein seems to help a lot with gaining muscle. It would likely be easier to keep the muscle, once you gain it, while dropping whey. Milk is for growing; meat is for maintaining? One could theoretically turn on the growth for a few weeks, and then spend the rest of the year in an age defying mode.

The video left me thinking maybe I should read Nora Gedgaudas' book, because if I remember her AHS talk correctly, she's not only mentioned low-carb, but less protein, which is exactly what Cynthia Kenyon would have talked about if she wasn't funded by drug pushers.

I'm not into paleo re-enactment, so for me, the question is whether something will help or hurt me re my specific goals. In general, the less processed the better, especially since you're putting your trust that the corporation doing the processing has your health in mind along with their other motivations ($$).

But there are plenty of foods that PHers like that are processed ... Artisana coconut butter doesn't come off the tree that way!

Me, I love Primal Fuel, cocoa, and cinnamon mixed into greek yogurt (tastes like chocolate cheesecake mousse ... yum!). But someone pointed out here that dairy is really meant to support growth, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. So since my goal is weight loss, I try and keep dairy (other than butter) to an occasional thing. I think if you're into gains, it's another question entirely.

For those of us lifting weights, we need a quick pre-workout source of easily metabolized protein. I've found, when I'm out of BCAA pills, ~40g. of whey protein to be perfect.