The Hunting of Ingredients
for Shakeology! By Darin Olien
From Team Beachbody - Click here for resources, tools and
information to help you to reach your health, fitness and positive lifestyle
goals!
OK, how did the more than 70 ingredients end
up in this fantastic blend of potent nutrition and yumminess? Like I mentioned
in the previous article, I started with some questions. I asked myself, "What
do most bodies require in this day and age?" "What is not being delivered in
food today (and even good, organic food)?" "What are the gaps in nutrition that
need to be filled for the majority of people?"
But the first question was, "Why do we even
need a shake with that much nutrition anyway? What's wrong with the food we eat
anyway?"
The fact is, these days, our food is lacking
nutrients. The nutrient density of our food has continued to plummet as the
value of money has trumped the value of quality. It is insane, but true!
The facts are well documented. Pushing farm
production has depleted soils. Crops of non-nutritive foods have replaced
nutrition-dense foods. And pesticides and genetic modification are wreaking
havoc with the chemical and genetic markers that have evolved over the
centuries. That means we're putting more food into the pipeline that has less
of what we need and more of what we don't need. On a biological level, our
bodies hardly recognize the food we are swallowing.
Ask yourself . . . how do you expect your
body to live tirelessly, vibrantly, with the power to defend itself from
disease if what is being fed into it is like putting dirty gas in the tank of a
Ferrari? What a waste of a beautiful sports car!
If we want our health to improve, we need to
be aware so we can choose differently, and in this case, we chose to create
something to fulfill the deep desire of EVERYbody's need to be fed more
nutrition. So we started by filling in those gaps, giving the body what it
really wants and requires!
The result is 70-plus ingredients, feeding
the body the equivalent of a supercharged multivitamin and protein-rich health
smoothie. As important as the ingredients are, what drove their inclusion was
the body's need for these vital ingredients, the cornerstones of Shakeology's
creation:
 Whole foods.
So many supplements on the market
are just fragmentations of the complete matrix of real food. Think of it like
taking the most popular scene from a 2-hour movie and calling THAT the movie.
It's incomplete without the character development, plot, and nuance that make
it a holistic experience. The same goes with food. On a biological level, your
body needs the whole "movie" to get the complete benefit of the vitamin or
mineral that is the star. You just cannot replace or reengineer the incredible
balance and creation of whole foods. So we selected high-quality, potent foods,
herbs, grasses, and ingredients, and then processed them minimally to preserve
the integrity, phytochemicals, natural vitamins, minerals, alkaloids,
phytosterols, etc. This was a huge aspect of Shakeology getting the whole,
deliverable nutrition in bioavailable ways. - Vitamins and
minerals.
We included quality nutrition from
potent and varying whole food sources ("nutrition, right off the vine" as I
like to call it). And then we backed that up by adding in a well-balanced
vitamin and mineral profile since whole foods fluctuate from crop to
crop.
- Enzymes.
Enzymes are critical for optimal
health. But since enzymes flood the food only in the last days of ripening
before harvest, enzyme supplementation is critical for the majority of people.
Even if you eat all raw foods, the enzymes are still low. And cooked food has
ZERO active enzymes.
A very quick note . . . why
enzymes? They have been called "The Fountain of Life!" They are behind
EVERY single process in the body! Yes, EVERYTHING requires enzymes! The labor
force of the body that digests, absorbs, allows for signals to be sent, creates
new blood cells, etc., is all governed by enzymes. You would be shocked at how
starved your body has been for enzyme support. That's why the addition of these
vital forces to Shakeology was so critical!
 Prebiotics and Probiotics.
We've all heard about foods with
additive probiotics, like yogurts for instance. Did you know that your body can
actually manifest its own probiotics if you feed it prebiotics? With the way
people eat today they have created a thriving environment for UNHEALTHY
BACTERIA in the body. That has created all sorts of debilitating breakdowns of
the body: candida, fibromyalgia, even the foundation for mental and emotional
fatigue . . . and on and on. The prebiotics of the amazing yacon root (which I
will get into in future posts) is food for the "healthy" bacteria, and in turn
creates an environment for healthy probiotics to flourish. By getting our
internal "ecosystem" in balance, you have the potential for a vibrant, thriving
body and life! It's complex, and even difficult to fathom an ecosystem inside
your own body, but it cannot be underestimated. You need prebiotics to help you
foster probiotics! - MSM
(Methylsulfonylmethane).
MSM is a naturally occurring
sulfur compound found in FRESH, RAW fruits and vegetables, milk, fish, and
grains. But within hours of harvest, MSM changes and is virtually gone. That's
why it is very difficult to get MSM naturally, because where ancient man ate
what he picked almost instantly, today it is picked, processed, packaged, and
palleted for months before it hits the table. MSM is long gone. But why is it
important? MSM is critical to the connective tissue and the fluidity (or space)
between cells! MSM gives them "room to breathe." When the body becomes very
rigid, tight, painful, and stiff, oftentimes MSM is at very low quantities in
the body. Since we are not eating our own foods immediately after harvesting,
we MUST supplement this vital component, or the body has a hard time staying
healthy and flexible on a cellular level, which translates throughout the body
on a biomechanical level as well.
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