This is more than just a fruit blend. When reading the ingredients list for Organic Superfood Reds, here are a few aspects worth noting:
Instead of including 900 mg of one single red superfood, this powder includes a wide variety of red superfoods (from beets and strawberries to pomegranates and acai berries). Why? To provide a well-rounded, nutrient-dense blend. All fruit is not the same; each fruit has a different nutrient profile to offer. Variety is a fundamental principle for a healthy diet because it helps provide a larger, more diverse nutrient profile.
This powder includes a digestive blend of fiber and digestive enzymes. One of the fibers - organic acacia fiber - has been shown in human studies to be an effective prebiotic for supporting populations of the beneficial gut bacteria Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. 1 Prebiotics are essentially food for healthy gut bacteria, supporting their growth and activity in the gut.
A Greens Plus Organic Phyto-Endurance blend: This is a plant-based endurance and performance blend to help sustain energy, including the adaptogens maca, holy basil, and eleuthero (also known as Siberian ginseng) and sea vegetables (a red algae known as dulse). Eleuthero has been shown in a well-conducted study to enhance endurance and cardiovascular function in recreational athletes. 2 Dulse algae studies show anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity in this sea vegetable. 3,4 A recent 2017 review of 24 studies showed that holy basil supplementation can be a safe way to help fight psychological stress, balance blood sugar levels, normalize blood pressure, and support immune function. 7 Use Organic Superfood Reds in your pre or post-workout smoothie to maximize the advantage of the phyto-endurance blend.
A Greens Plus Organic Nitro Blend: Nitric oxide (or NO for short) is a an important and potent gas that helps maintain the health of blood vessel walls, helps maintain normal blood pressure without overworking the heart, and helps slow down the progression of hardening in the arteries (atherosclerosis). 5 When humans eat sources of dietarynitrate, the body can convert it to NO. Our Nitro Blend has a vegetable classified as very high in dietary nitrates - beetroot powder. 6
This powder is free of artificial flavors, artificial coloring, and artificial sweeteners, all of which contribute to added stress on the gut and body overall. There are no added sugars. That’s right, zero sugars, which means zero blood sugar spikes. A subtle, natural sweetness is provided by organic stevia leaf extract.
A list of top scoring foods on the ORAC scale, including raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and beets.
Detoxifying ingredients: Research has demonstrated that the typical Western diet has a significantly high acidic load that can negatively influence health in many ways, including promoting obesity, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Plant-based supplements can increase urinary pH (not blood pH, which is tightly controlled by the body) and, thus, increase overall alkalinity of the body. 8,9 Research shows that improving alkalinity can lead to more effective removal of toxins from the body. 9 Also, a nutrient-dense, antioxidant rich diet can help support the body’s detoxification systems. 10
References:
1. Calame, W. Weseler, A. Viebke, C., Flynn, C., & Siemensma, A. (2008). Gum arabic
establishes prebiotic functionality in healthy human volunteers in a dose-dependent manner. British Journal of Nutrition, 100(6), 1269-1275. Doi: 10.1017/S0007114508981447
2. Kuo, J., Chen, K. W., Cheng, I. S., Tsai, P. H., Lu, Y. J., & Lee, N. Y. (2010). The effect of eight weeks of supplementation with Eleutherococcus senticosus on endurance capacity and metabolism in human. The Chinese journal of physiology, 53(2), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.4077/cjp.2010.amk018
3. Yuan YV, Bone DE, Carrington MF. Antioxidant activity of dulse (Palmaria palmata) extract evaluated in vitro. Food Chemistry. 2005 Jul;91(3):485-494. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.04.039.
4. Millan-Linares, M. C., Martin, M. E., Rodriguez, N. M., Toscano, R., Claro, C., Bermudez, B., Pedroche, J., Millan, F., & Montserrat-de la Paz, S. (2019). Nutraceutical Extract from Dulse (Palmaria palmata L.) Inhibits Primary Human Neutrophil Activation. Marine drugs, 17(11), 610. https://doi.org/10.3390/md17110610
5. Smeets, E., Mensink, R. P., Hoeks, J., de Vogel-Van den Bosch, J., Hageman, R., & Joris, P. J. (2020). Effects of Beetroot Powder with or without L-Arginine on Postprandial Vascular Endothelial Function: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial with Abdominally Obese Men. Nutrients, 12(11), 3520. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12113520
6. Norman G Hord, Yaoping Tang, Nathan S Bryan, Food sources of nitrates and nitrites: the physiologic context for potential health benefits, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 90, Issue 1, July 2009, Pages 1–10, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2008.27131
7. Jamshidi N, Cohen MM. The clinical efficacy and safety of tulsi in humans: a systematic review of the literature. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:9217567.
8. Berardi, J. M., Logan, A. C., & Rao, A. V. (2008). Plant based dietary supplement increases urinary pH. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 5, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-5-20
9. Minich, D. M., & Bland, J. S. (2007). Acid-alkaline balance: role in chronic disease and detoxification. Alternative therapies in health and medicine, 13(4), 62–65. 10. Sears, M. E., & Genuis, S. J. (2012). Environmental determinants of chronic disease and medical approaches: recognition, avoidance, supportive therapy, and detoxification. Journal of environmental and public health, 2012, 356798. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/356798
