Muscle Meals represents a true breakthrough in nutritional science in a high-quality meal replacement for serious bodybuilders.

While Muscle Meals offers the highest nutritional combination for replacing a meal, it also possesses a unique combination of anabolic/anti-catabolic ingredients responsible for tissue repair, muscle recovery, growth and fat loss.

New research proves conclusively that the combination of the anti-catabolic, long-term affects of micellar casein protein and the short-term, anabolic effects of whey protein is much more effective for muscle growth and repair than whey alone. It's a well-known fact that muscle mass is influenced by the rate of anabolism which increases muscle and the rate of catabolism which reduces it, a continual process in the human body.

Whey protein is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, causing an anabolic effect. Yet, the effects of whey are short-lived as the blood amino acid levels of whey only last for a short period of time. Micellar casein enters the bloodstream at a much slower rate while its effect on blood levels of amino acids lasts for hours, unleashing its anti-catabolic action.

Since it's absolutely critical to ingest the proper combination of fast- and slow-absorbing protein to insure a consistent blood amino acid level to maximize anabolism and minimize catabolism, the availability of this special formulation makes Muscle-Link's Muscle Meals an obvious choice.

All of these methods refer to the type of mechanism used to remove some of the fat and lactose from the whey protein isolate. Which whey product is actually better? Manufacturers who incorporate these methods would like to lead the uninformed consumer to the erroneous conclusion that these processed proteins are superior; however, standard whey processing steps often destroy and/or denature certain fractions of the whey proteins (usually the most biologically active fractions are also the most fragile).

Although ion-exchanged "whey protein isolate" has the highest protein content, it may be missing critical fractions, such as lactoferrin, some of the immuno-globulins, etc., necessary for growth and repair. And it usually contains an abnormally high amount of beta-lactoglobulin ... the one fraction of whey protein not found in human milk and which has been found to be the most allergenic to humans.

Many "whey protein isolate" manufacturers include pH adjustments (ion exchange) as steps in their processing to make their manufacturing run smoother. These pH adjustments often destroy and/or denature certain fractions of the whey proteins as well. The "filtered whey protein" isolates tend to have more fractions present than ion exchange whey protein isolate, but less than the Whey Protein Concentrates. As a result the "filtered" whey protein isolates are a cross between the ion exchange whey protein isolate and whey protein concentrates.

Whey Protein Concentrates have the advantage that they have usually been the "least" processed of all whey proteins. Thus, it is only logical that the least processed whey proteins (Whey Protein Concentrates) will have most of the biologically active fractions remaining. Many of these fractions are critical for maximum growth and repair. Thus, the informed consumer can only draw the conclusion that using Whey Protein Concentrates such as those found in Muscle Meals offers the greatest advantage to the hard-training bodybuilder in pursuit of maximum growth and repair.

• It's a complete meal replacement containing the nutritional components necessary to maximize growth and repair.
• It contains Pro-Fusion Proprietary Protein Blend (Complete Milk Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Egg Albumen, Glutamine Peptide from Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein), which has more of the minor biologically active protein fractions not found in whey isolates alone and offers a protein combination found to be responsible for short- and long-acting anabolic and anti-catabolic properties necessary for growth and repair.
• It's high in lactoferrin, which, according to studies, can help cut the time required for tissue repair in half.
• It contains natural essential fats, and according to university studies, these fats have anabolic as well as anti-catabolic properties.
• It's low in carbohydrates.
• It's high in glutamine content, the most prevalent amino acid in muscle tissue.
• It contains the proper balance of calcium and magnesium to improve regularity of the delicate digestive tract. Magnesium has been shown in university studies to have a significant effect on strength and muscle growth.
• Each packet contains the proper amount of protein (40 grams) for optimal digestion.