⚗️ Zoe launched a new Daily 30+ supplement. Is it any good?

Zoe launched a new whole food supplement, called Daily 30+

It contains 30 different plant foods to help you achieve the daily recommended fibre intake, and the diversity of fibre much needed for gut health.

It’s an easy and convenient way of getting more fibre and plants into your diet.

But it’s very expensive! Daily 30+ is available at Waitrose for £13.50 for 113g.

That’s only 6 tablespoon!

You could make your own fibre supplement by mixing different nuts, seeds and herbs for a fraction of the cost.

Some argue that Zoe has carried out a clinical study to show that their product improves gut health.

That’s true. But a trial showing that a high fibre supplement helps with gut health doesn't tell us anything we didn't know already. And it’s a tick box exercise to justify their marketing.

There are lots of low cost ways to get more fibre and plants.

And if you choose fresh fruit and veg, you also get the benefit of low energy density.

🥊 Punchline

Zoe Daily 30+ is a convenient way of getting more fibre and plants into your diet. But is it really worth your money when you could have your own ‘super food’ supplement for a fraction of the cost?

🧬 Obese people absorb more fat, study reveals

Obesity and gut health are linked, but which way around?

Is it obesity that affects gut health, or poor gut health that promotes obesity?

The belief is that poor gut health predisposes to obesity, which in a vicious cycle, promotes poorer gut health.

A new study revealed that obese people possessed more of certain bacteria (Megamomas) in their gut.

And these bacteria are responsible for increasing fat absorption in the gut.

Further experiments in animals, revealed that implanting mice’s gut with Megamomas bacteria increased fat absorption, leading to obesity.

The over concentration of certain bacteria, like Megamonas,  increases the risk of obesity. Even more so if combined with other risk factors.

🥊 Punchline

Shifts in gut bacteria composition can increase the risk of obesity and have an additive impact on existing risk factors (e.g. family history of obesity).

🥩 Is there a limit on how much protein to eat at once?

It is believed that only a limited amount of protein can be absorbed or used for muscle growth.

This is based on past research where the first 20g of protein were shown to strongly stimulates muscle growth. But further increasing the protein to 40g only had a small additional effect on muscle growth.

However, these past studies only measured muscle growth for 4-6 h after the meal.

The caveat is that a large dose of protein needs more time to be fully digested, absorbed, and kick start muscle growth.

A new study measured muscle growth over a 12 hour period after resistance training and protein intake.

25g of protein stimulated the most muscle growth within 4 hours, but this effect levelled off soon after.

100g of protein stimulated the most muscle growth overall across 12 hours.

Because a large protein dose needs more time to digest and absorbed, and so its effect is gradual but prolonged.

After 12h, the 100g protein dose was still being absorbed!

This shows that the upper limit on protein intake for muscle growth may not exist in reality.

However, small protein doses close to each other (e.g. 4 hours) can help compound the effect on muscle growth.

So if you can’t or don’t want to eat too often, then a large protein dose is best to promote muscle growth.

🥊 Punchline

Increasing the amount of protein in a meal can prolong muscle growth. This can be helpful when you can’t or don’t want to consume your next meal in the next couple of hours.