Your body uses protein as its major source of material for building and repairing blood, muscles, bones, teeth, skin, hair, nails, and your internal organs. Protein comes from a Greek word meaning "of primary importance."

Without protein, you may spend hours in the gym and never increase your lean muscle mass simply because you cannot grow a muscle without protein.

It has also been discovered that protein supplements have many other health benefits. They are useful for weight loss, specifically fat loss. Brain function relies on appropriate protein. They enhance immune function by increasing important glutathione levels. There is much more. Whey protein has been researched in prevention and life extension studies for such things as cancer, AIDS and other degenerative diseases. It may help T-cell activity and decrease wasting tissues during illness and therefore increase well-being and the speed of overall recovery.

Protein is made up of amino acids. Your body needs a total of 22 different amino acids to form all of its necessary protein. Your cells can make many of them, but 8 of them can be obtained only through the food you eat. These 8 are called the essential amino acids. They are tryptophan, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine.

Failing to obtain enough of even 1 of the 8 essential amino acids, those that we cannot make, results in a breaking down of the body's proteins (i.e. muscles!) to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. The body doesn't store amino acids, like it does fats or carbohydrates. The body needs a daily supply of amino acids to make new protein.