Eat Your Whey: It May Protect Against Prostate Cancer
 (Yahoo!News, 5/27/03)

When Joshua Bomser, Kyle Kent and W. James Harper, Ohio State University food scientists, exposed human prostate cells to whey protein, glutathione levels in the cells rose by up to 64%. Since glutathione is an antioxidant that can control free radicals that harm prostate tissue, the scientists speculate that whey may have an anti-carcinogenic effect on the prostate. Although whey is a byproduct of cheese production, the cheese itself would not have the same effect because the whey, which contains cysteine, is separated from the cheese. In fact, when the researchers exposed prostate cells to casein, the main protein in cheese, glutathione levels did not rise.