At Nourished we encapsulate all our active ingredients into our patented* pectin formula. This allows us to make personalised blends and combine 7 different vitamins, minerals and super-foods together without them interfering with each other. A study has suggested that gummy form allows for increased absorption of Vitamin D (see below).
Gummy Nutrients are chewable and easy to consume
Nourished stacks are available as a gummy form and this means that you can consume them as you would any food, meaning they are easy to eat. Vitamin tablets are often very large to fit the doses of nutrients inside them, and therefore can be particularly hard to swallow. If you are taking several different vitamins or supplements this can mean a painful process of swallowing many tablets.
Taste and Enjoyment
The gummy form of supplements is also much more enjoyable to consume. We can provide superfoods and vitamins that are usually quite unpleasant in a tasty form and so making it an enjoyable experience, whilst still delivering some excellent ingredients.
Benefits of encapsulating probiotics
Probiotics are a living bacterium with multiple benefits for the digestive and immune systems. They need to be kept protected from their external environment through consumption and digestion until the bacteria reaches the small intestines where it can get to work. This can be done by a range of different methods including spray-drying, freezing and vacuum-drying or encapsulating in a gel type formula similar to we do at Nourished. A recent report titled, ‘Encapsulation Technology to Protect Probiotic Bacteria’ states why encapsulating probiotics is so important, ‘The goal of encapsulation is to create a micro-environment in which the bacteria will survive during processing and storage and released at appropriate sites (e.g. small intestine) in the digestive tract.’[1]
Vitamin D absorbed better in gummy format
Vitamin D is an extremely popular supplement and is currently recommended by Public Health England to be consumed by the entire UK population to support healthy bones and muscle. A recent study looked to establish whether Vitamin D supplements are best absorbed when taken as a pill or gummy.[2]
The study found that there was a significant increase in the bio-availability of Vitamin D prepared in gummy than those manufactured in tablets. The factors for this result were multiple but included the preparation and coating of the gummy and the way in which they are consumed. The study suggested that gummies are chewed and their dissolution begins in the mouth when combined with saliva, and then continues throughout the body; which gives them greater bio-availability than pills which are swallowed whole.
Something we plan to do at Nourished is continue research in this field as we grow, to test more vitamins and run more trials to observer the absorption and release within our gummy form. We believe strongly we will see the benefits and we will be able to tailor our product further to give consumers even great benefits through this research.
Not all gummies are equal
The quality of the gummy also needs to be considered. Many gummies contain high levels of sugar which can have a detrimental impact on teeth, mood, skin and weight when consuming every day. At Nourished we use maltitol syrup and erythritol as a natural sweetener but keep our stacks completely sugar free. Many gummy nutrients also use gelatin as a gelling agent, whereas at Nourished we use pectin to ensure our entire range is vegan.
* Patents Published and pending.
[1] https://www.intechopen.com/books/probiotics/encapsulation-technology-to-protect-probiotic-bacteria
