What You Need to Know About Gut Health

We know it’s been a few months since we gave you a peek into PROTEIN+, so if you need a quick refresher, feel free to find your way back to a previous article where we talked about all things collagen.

Now, it’s time to move on to yet another set of noteworthy ingredients in PROTEIN+: probiotics and digestive enzymes. 

Praise Probiotics

Probiotics are live bacteria (the beneficial kind) that line your gut and keep your digestive tract running smoothly. These friendly microorganisms promote healthy digestion and immune function.

The dynamic community of microorganisms in your gut is called the gut flora. Digestive experts say that gut flora should be maintained at a healthy balance of 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria.

If this ratio gets out of whack, then dysbiosis occurs—this is basically just a fancy way of describing a negative imbalance in the gut. Symptoms of dysbiosis can include fatigue, poor memory, insomnia, anxiety, digestive issues, skin problems, and more.

By consuming various types of probiotics (from certain foods and dietary supplements), you can help correct this imbalance. Probiotics work by crowding out bad microbes and replacing them with good bacteria. This, in turn, boosts your immune system health by improving the breakdown of toxins produced during metabolism.

Probiotics have gained renewed popularity in our modern-day culture, but they’re actually ancient history—quite literally. The history of probiotics is associated with the earliest record of cheesemaking that dates back at least 7,200 years ago!

Throughout time, people have consumed enough probiotics in their diet by eating fermented foods. This is because the process of fermentation was used to help preserve food before refrigerators were invented.

Nowadays, many of us don’t get nearly enough probiotics from our food due to refrigeration, agricultural methods that require soaking foods in chlorine to kill bacteria (both beneficial and harmful), and growing food in nutrient-depleted soil.

Welcome to the Family, DE111™

In an effort to help restore gut imbalances, our newest product PROTEIN+ has DE111™, which is a clinically-studied strain of Bacillus subtilis that offers digestive and immune health benefits. What makes this probiotic remarkable is its impressive spore and shelf-stability properties.

DE111™ explicitly functions to form spores that protect microbes from harsh conditions until they enter an environment suitable for germination, such as the GI tract. This means the probiotic can withstand high temperatures and the acidic environment of the gut. It can also survive without refrigeration.

DE111 remains stable over 24 months at 25°C and 40% relative humidity.

DE111 viability is maintained under a wide pH range for a period of three weeks.

DE111 viability is maintained under temperatures up to 100°C for up to 5 minutes.

Functions of DE111™ include:

• Crowding out bacterial pathogens and maintaining healthy gut flora
• Supporting the normal immune reaction of intestinal cells
• Communicating with intestinal cells to maintain the gut barrier’s function
• Persisting in the GI tract, increasing its numbers and then re-sporulating

The benefits don’t end there, though. Let’s take a look at what Deerland Inc., the curators of DE111™, have to say about the exclusive probiotic in terms of sports performance, body composition, and recovery:

“In a study involving female collegiate athletes during offseason training, researchers found that DE111 (1 billion CFU), in conjunction with adequate post-workout nutrition, can improve body composition and indices of athletic performance. The results of the study showed that compared to the placebo, the probiotic DE111 produced statistically significant improvements in the reduction of body fat percentage, and a strong trend indicating improved performance of the deadlift exercise.

In [another] study involving male collegiate athletes during offseason training, researchers found that DE111 (1 billion CFU), in conjunction with adequate post-workout nutrition, can promote tissue recovery and reduce likelihood of injury. The results of the study showed that compared to the placebo, the probiotic DE111 produced a statistically significant reduction of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNA-α).”

Maximize Protein Digestion with ProHydrolase®

By now, you should know that we take pride in developing products with ingredients that help your body increase nutrient absorption—so it should come as no surprise that PROTEIN+ follows along the same path. Before we get into what ProHydrolase® is, we need to first understand how protein is digested. 

To be effective, protein has to be broken down into smaller particles within approximately 90 minutes of consumption—a process known as hydrolysis. During this time, whey protein passes from the stomach through the small intestine for digestion, absorption, and assemblage into a muscle protein (a bio-usable form for muscle synthesis).

Any undigested whey protein is simply excreted from the body, making it useless to anyone hoping to build muscle and improve recovery. 

In addition, it’s important to understand that the body’s failure to break down whey protein into the smallest composition results in the formation of large peptides. These large molecules cause the stomach discomfort—such as bloating, nausea, and cramping—that many people experience after consuming whey protein.

Some people confuse these symptoms for lactose intolerance, since whey is derived from dairy. However, lactose isn’t present in whey isolates, so the underlining cause of discomfort is peptide sensitivity.

This knowledge opened up the opportunity for PROTEIN+ to be formulated with ProHydrolase®—a patented digestive enzyme that’s been proven to maximize the benefits of protein supplements.

In a recent double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study, 20 volunteers (aged 19 to 35 with normal healthy BMI) were split into two groups: one group consumed whey protein with ProHydrolase® for nine days, and the other group consumed whey protein by itself for nine days.

At the end of the study, the researchers discovered that total amino acid concentrations increased significantly (by 55 mg) more after taking the whey protein with ProHydrolase® supplement, compared to taking the whey protein-only supplement. In other words, taking whey and ProHydrolase® together provided 20% more amino acids than whey protein alone! 

Additional clinically-proven benefits of ProHydrolase® include:

• Quick break down of protein
• Decrease of C-reactive protein (CRP—blood test marker for inflammation in the body) levels
• Decrease of large peptides associated with stomach discomfort that results from consuming protein

We're Paving the Whey with PROTEIN+

PROTEIN+ is a unique blend of whey protein isolate and concentrate, collagen peptides, DE111® probiotics, and ProHydrolase® digestive enzymes. We can say with absolute confidence that you will not find any protein powder supplement like ours on the market. 

PROTEIN+ is now available in three enticing flavors: Chocolate Cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie, and Vanilla Creme Cupcake. Did we mention the product has zero artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners? It’s time to jump on it!