Combat CASEIN – Feed Your Muscles at Night with MusclePharm

MusclePharm is quickly rounding out their entire product line, with the recently-announced Combat Crunch Protein Bars^[1] and next year’s major Amino1 Sports Drink^[2] that intends to take on Gatorade.

But with the massive success of their protein powder, aptly named Combat Powder, MPNation has decided to rebrand their slow-digesting nighttime protein, Combat Casein.

Awesome name for an equally awesome product… but is it worth it at the premium price, or are the other casein products out there worth the better deals?

It’s also known as Combat 100% Casein, but that doesn’t sound as cool, does it?

Combat Casein Ingredients

The profile is very simple for a mass-marketed product – there are far less fillers than most other products, and the macronutrients look phenomenal:

Macronutrient Profile

Here are the macros for chocolate:

• 130 Calories

• 28g protein!

• 1g fat (0 saturated)

• 2g carbs

  1g is fiber, 1g is sugar.

  The sugar looks to be naturally-occurring from the cocoa content.

  The fiber seems to be from the inulin content (this is the same fiber-based carb used in Quest Bars).

Other flavors actually have another carb or so, but typically from sugar.

The protein

We’re very happy with 28g of protein per scoop – especially since it’s only a 34g scoop. You’re really not going to get a whole lot cleaner than that, especially if you want a clean-mixing protein!

There are no added amino acids, so you don’t have to worry about amino acid spiking or any other such nonsense.^[3] This looks extremely legit.

Micellar casein and the curds from the curds and whey

The protein source is micellar casein – pure. Micellar casein is the casein protein that’s separated (apart from the whey protein). When you hear curds and whey from milk… the casein is the “curds”. Micellar casein comes from a microfiltration process that concentrates the micellar segments out.^[4,5]

Casein protein is the slow-digesting protein. It forms a gel-like fiber, and is slowly absorbed because it moves slowly in the intestine.

This makes it popular to take before bed or during any long period of time when you won’t have much protein around (think: long days of school or business conferences).

Your diet should not rely on casein, but it certainly is a good way to mix up your protein regimen.

Is casein really necessary?

The quick answer is no, but it can certainly be beneficial. For all of the yammering about slow and fast proteins, the answer is… it really doesn’t matter much.

What’s most important is that you get enough protein each and every day. In general, that’s about 1g per pound of lean body weight – even on off days and especially on weekends when we sometimes get out of our eating rhythms.

Protein timing is basically meaningless

The whole idea behind the “protein window” or “anabolic window” has been debunked, thanks to some massive research performed by Alan Aragon.^[6,7]

Just mix it up – proteins coming from chicken, fish, quality beef, turkey, eggs / egg whites, and milk-based proteins. Even pea and rice based protein will work. Of those proteins, this casein can be one of them.

So who is Combat Casein best for?

Here’s when we best enjoy/recommend casein:

• Whenever there’s a great deal.

  To see the deals, sign up for price drop alerts on our Muscle Pharm Combat 100% Casein page, or monitor all casein protein products on PricePlow.

• If you consistently wake up absolutely starving

  In this case, your metabolism might be moving too fast, and if you think you’re breaking down over night, it’s time to switch to casein for the pre-bedtime snack.

• You go long periods of time with no access to serious food

  Your job might put you in a situation where you can’t eat for over 5 hours. In that case, make it last with some slow-digesting protein.

  Cottage cheese or anything high in fat (if it fits your diet) is also a good alternative.

Final thoughts on Combat Casein

We will need to review this, but we assume MusclePharm wouldn’t put out a bad tasting product.

It’s going to come down to price. MusclePharm’s stuff isn’t always the cheapest, but as we write this right now, the cheapest store being at $56 for 4lbs… well, there’s far better deals out there on our main casein page.