However, I was in for the shock of my life when I began to research the amino acid profile on the label. I was shocked to see glutamic acid and aspartic acid! In fact, the label almost proudly displayed to four significant digits the glutamic acid as 3,146 mg and aspartic acid as 1,961 mg per serving.
Are all of those mg excitotoxins? No. But a significant percentage were, because almost all modern whey are processed at high temperatures that leads to high levels of free glutamine. And it is the free glutamine which is the true excitotoxin. (Natural glutamates are actually good for you and can lower blood pressure.)
So with each and every scoop I was inadvertenly flooding my system with excitotoxins. That’s right – glutamic acid and aspartic acid are just the downstream versions of monosodium glutamate and aspartame. If you don’t know what these bad boys do to your neurons, read more here about Excitotoxins, Testosterone and Your Brain.
Of course, I called Body Fortress and asked their nutritional representative essentially, “How could you poison my neurons with megadoses of excitotoxins?” His answer? “What’s an excitotoxin?” I quickly realized this conversation was going nowhere, so I did a little research and found that the excitotoxins glutamic acid and aspartic acid are created in the hydrolyzation process that creates whey protein isolates and concentrates. And virtually all bodybuilding whey powders are composed of these isolates and concentrates.
Once again, it just goes to show that you do not want to touch processed foods, because corporations, for the most part, have little to no regard for your health. These whey powders are created and manufactured by supplement companies that should know better and, in many cases, probably do know better but still put out a dangerous product to squeeze out extra profits.
YET ANOTHER CAUTION: The above whey powder also had L-Taurine of energy drink fame, L-glutamine and creatine added. I asked the rep how much of the first two were added and he said that it was “proprietary”. Translated that means, “We are going to throw a bunch of chemicals in your whey and you just have to trust us”. They also put in sucralose, an Artificial Sweetener that likely attacks intestinal flora.