The Problem With Poor Nutrient Absorption and How Super Ingredient Astragin Can Help
When it comes to eating healthy, you aren’t what you eat as much as you are what you absorb, and much of the goodness from food and supplementation can be lost through poor nutrient absorption.
There are several steps in a nutrients journey from mouth to doing its job, you see, and many things need to go right for this to happen. Digestive enzymes are needed to help break down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates for example, and bile salts help with making fats soluble.
A weak gut lining, food allergies, microbiome imbalances, and autoimmune responses are just a few reasons why your body might not be absorbing to the best of its ability. And if your body is taking in nutrients but not absorbing enough of them, you may end up with deficiencies.
Luckily, there’s lots of little ways you can improve absorption. Food pairings are a good example, such as consuming a plant-based non-heme iron like spinach with a source of vitamin C, like a drizzle of lemon, or adding a pinch of black pepper to increase your meal’s bio-availability (black pepper is especially potent when mixed in with the antioxidant-rich spice turmeric).
In fact, the black pepper hack is such a useful one we include the ingredient as an extract in all of our nootropics, daily supplements and vegan protein powders.
What Is AstraGin?
Another ingredient Form uses is AstraGin®, a plant derived compound extracted from Panax notoginseng and Astragalus membranaceus. Panax notoginseng is a species of the genus Panax, and is commonly referred to in English as Chinese ginseng. It’s been used in Chinese medicine for centuries, mainly in pain relief and to reduce swelling. The flowering plant Astragalus is also a Chinese medicine favourite, and is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in the traditional practice.
Together as AstraGin, they can have a profound effect on your ability to absorb beneficial amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and phytonutrients, as well as repairing ulcerated and damaged intestinal walls, and helping to support a healthy microbiota population. It’s a 360 defence system, one that works to help absorption levels on every step of the journey.
What Does The Science Say?
While all of this is going on in our guts it’s hard to really tell whether everything is going swell. The proof is in the pudding then, and AstraGin’s dessert tray is well stocked.
Studies into AstraGin and it’s absorption rates have shown it to substantially increase absorption levels in a number of beneficial nutrients and superfoods.
These include the branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) leucine, one of the most important nutrients in muscle protein synthesis, the disease-fighting flaxseed and trytophan, an amino-acid which acts as a precursor to 5-HTP which goes on to create the neurotransmitter serotonin, which can also be converted into a hormone that plays an important role in regulating sleep: melatonin.
Credit: Nulivscience
All that restorative sleep and increased protein synthesis could be especially beneficial for those looking to build muscle and boost athletic performance. The benefits may also be especially beneficial for older weight lifters as age can affect the efficiency with which the body absorbs some nutrients.
Now obviously taking anything to boost your nutrient absorption is meaningless without nourishing your body to begin with. But if you’re looking at ways you can enhance your body’s ability to perform, and all while keeping your gut in tip-top condition, then AstraGin might be a worthwhile option.
Astragin is one of the ingredients in our daily multivitamin, or Multi as we like to call it. Multi covers your daily vitamin and mineral requirements and more, with vegan DHA and Choline for brain health, and Vitamin D3 from Vita-algae D® for immunity, Multi is more than a multivitamin; it’s your daily nutrient peace of mind.
