What is the best protein powder for Crohn’s disease?
If you are looking for the best protein powder for Crohn’s disease, you have come to the right place. In this article, you will learn how to find an Crohn’s disease-friendly protein powder so you can easily increase your protein intake without upsetting your stomach. This article was written by Jack Schrupp.
Protein powder and Crohn’s disease
What is Crohn’s disease?
Crohn’s disease (Crohn’s) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in your digestive tract, leading to inflammation.
Living with Crohn’s disease is stressful. Certain foods trigger symptoms (called flares), including bloating, diarrhea, and stomach pain. Over time, flares can lead to weight loss and malnutrition.
The exact cause of Crohn’s disease is not known, but it is believed to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors. It follows that there is currently no cure for Crohn’s disease, but various treatment options are available to manage the symptoms and reduce inflammation.
Although IBD is not caused by what you eat, doctors and dietitians agree that food plays an important role in managing symptoms, especially during flares and periods of remission. Certain foods can aggravate symptoms, while others can mitigate them and promote healing. Paying attention to what you eat and how your body responds to different foods is therefore an essential part of living with IBD.
One of the most popular approaches to managing Crohn’s disease is making dietary modifications. By avoiding certain foods or types of food, you reduce gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and promote intestinal healing.
Is protein powder good for Crohn’s disease?
Curating a diet specific to your condition, whether it is Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, is complicated. There is no one IBD diet, and the foods that trigger your symptoms may be different from the foods that trigger symptoms for someone else.
Moreover, specialized Crohn’s disease diets are controversial because they do not work in every case and are restrictive. The best diet for Crohn’s disease is thus one that meets your individual nutritional needs and helps you manage your symptoms. That said, there are several key ingredients to every Crohn’s diet, and one of them is protein.
Eating enough protein is important for someone with Crohn’s disease for several reasons. For starters, the inflammation caused by Crohn’s disease increases your protein needs, sometimes by as much as 25%. It is thus recommended Crohn’s patients eat 1-1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which is a lot more than the 0.8 g/kg/day recommended for healthy adults.
Chronic inflammation can also impair your ability to absorb nutrients from food, which can lead to serious problems like weight loss and malnutrition. It is therefore essential to make eating protein a priority between flares. Adequate dietary protein intake will help prevent weight loss, muscle atrophy, and other complications.
Dietary protein may also help repair your mucosal intestinal barrier. Although the protein needs for mucosal healing after a flare, there is evidence that amino acids derived from dietary proteins play an important role in process, serving as building blocks for macromolecule synthesis in the wounded mucosal area.
It is important to note that protein powder should not replace other forms of dietary protein; you should try to get as much of your dietary protein intake as possible from sources like eggs, fish, legumes, meat, nuts, and seeds. Eating enough protein this way can be challenging for some people, however, which is where protein powder can help. Adding a protein powder to your diet is an easy way to increase your protein intake and fill in nutritional gaps. That said, not all protein powders are created equal.
Which protein powder is best for Crohn’s disease?
Many protein powders are made with ingredients that can cause painful side effects and long term health problems for someone with Crohn’s disease. Among these ingredients are food additives, dairy-based proteins, and protein concentrates and isolates.
Avoid food additives
Regularly eating emulsifiers, thickeners, sugar substitutes, and other additives can not only upset your stomach, but also alter the composition of your gut microbiome – the collection of microorganisms living in your gut. This can lead to gut dysbiosis, which is linked to the development of Crohn’s disease.
Research shows that a healthy gut microbiome modulates the production and secretion of mucins and stratification of the mucus layers that make up the intestinal mucosal barrier. An unhealthy, or dysbiotic, gut microbiome results in the weakening of this barrier, thereby causing inflammatory damage. In case you were wondering, the intestinal mucosal barrier is a semipermeable membrane that allows you to absorb essential nutrients from food and prevents bacteria and other pathogens from entering your bloodstream.
Researchers have also found that a healthy gut microbiome contributes to inducing the expansion of regulatory T cells that reduce intestinal inflammation by mediating repair of the intestinal mucosal barrier. A dysbiotic gut microbiome thus makes you both more susceptible to inflammation, and less able to fight it.
Avoid dairy-based proteins
Dairy-based proteins like whey and casein, although not an issue for everyone, can cause side effects like bloating and diarrhea. This is in part because they contain lactose, a sugar most adults cannot fully digest.
Avoid protein concentrates and isolates
Most protein powders are made from protein concentrates and isolates, which have been mechanically and or chemically stripped of everything but the protein, including the enzymes, fiber, and other natural digestive aids that help you break them down. As a result, they can cause digestive issues and possibly even disruptions to the gut microbiome.
Finding a protein powder free from food additives, dairy-based proteins, and protein concentrates and isolates is hard. In fact, 99% of protein supplements contain one or more of these problematic ingredients. This is why we created drink wholesome. Keep reading to learn more about why we make the best protein powder for Crohn’s disease.
drink wholesome is the best protein powder for Crohn’s disease
We make the best protein powder for Crohn’s disease because we use a short list of simple ingredients free from food additives, dairy-based proteins, and protein concentrates and isolates.
egg whites, coconut, vanilla, monk fruit
the alternative:
Protein Matrix Comprised of (Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Isolate, Calcium Caseinate, Micellar Casein, Milk Protein Isolate, Egg Albumen, Glutamine Peptides), Polydextrose, Sunflower Creamer (Sunflower Oil, Corn Syrup Solids, Sodium Caseinate, Mono- and Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Soy Lecithin, Tocopherols), Natural and Artificial Flavor, MCT Powder (Medium Chain Triglycerides, Nonfat Dry Milk, Disodium Phosphate, Silicon Dioxide), Lecithin, Cellulose Gum, Salt, Yellow 5, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium, Papain, Bromelain
Note that instead of using protein concentrates or isolates, we use whole food protein sources like collagen, egg whites, and almonds. Simple protein sources like these are easy to digest and absorb. They also each bring a unique set of digestive benefits to the table.
Collagen has been shown to reduce bloating and improve digestive symptoms. Almonds are rich in prebiotic fiber and improve the composition of your gut microbiome. Egg whites are alkaline, meaning they balance the pH levels in your gut, and promote the growth of good gut bacteria.
Our customers thus experience fewer digestive issues with our Crohn’s disease protein powder than with any other type of protein supplement. Order samples to see for yourself.
This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. drink wholesome is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
