India, Sept. 10 -- There's a question asked more often than almost any other, usually in the same slightly hesitant tone: "Isn't whey protein just for men trying to get bigger?" It's a myth that has quietly kept an entire generation of women out of a category never built to exclude them. The gap between what the science says and what the marketing implies has real consequences for how women train, recover, and feel in their own bodies.

Let's start with the biology, because it settles the question faster than any opinion can. Protein isn't a gendered nutrient. Every cell in the human body, regardless of sex, depends on it for tissue repair, immune function, hormone synthesis, and the maintenance of lean muscle. "What actually differs betw...