What is the best protein powder menopause?
Many protein powders are made with a cocktail of added ingredients that can cause painful side effects and long-term gut health problems. Specifically, food additives can alter the composition of your gut microbiome – the collection of microorganisms living in your gut. This is worrisome because menopause is already associated with decreased gut microbiome diversity, which in turn is associated with weight gain, slower metabolism, and insulin resistance.
Although a deeper understanding of the gut microbiome’s relationship to menopause-induced changes in body composition and metabolism is still needed, it is safe to say that prioritizing your gut health during menopause is important. This is why I recommend that you choose a protein powder made with a short list of simple, gut-friendly ingredients. Keep reading to learn more.
One of the reasons why we make the best protein powder for menopause is that we do not use food additives. Most additives cause inflammation and unpleasant side effects, especially if you have a sensitive stomach.
Firstly, additives, because they do not look like real food, are hard to break down. This means they spend extra time in your gut, feeding your hungry gut bacteria. Gut bacteria release gas as they eat, so more time to eat means more gas. As you can imagine, excess intestinal gas causes bloating, flatulence, and stomach pain. It can also slow the movement of food through the colon, resulting in constipation. In some cases, partially digested food additives have the opposite effect, causing your colon to absorb extra water. This is called osmotic diarrhea.
Here is a list of the most common food additives in protein powders:
acacia gum, acesulfame potassium, artificial flavors, aspartame, carrageenan, cellulose gum, dextrin, dextrose, erythritol, gellan gum, guar gum, gum arabic, inulin, locust bean gum, “natural” flavors, maltodextrin, rice syrup solids, soy lecithin, silica, sucralose, sunflower lecithin, xanthan gum, xylitol
In the long term, eating food additives every day can disturb regulatory pathways in your intestines, causing widespread inflammation and even the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Regularly eating food additives, especially artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols, can also disrupt the balance of your gut microbiome – the community of microorganisms living in your gut. An imbalanced gut microbiome is another leading driver of inflammation.
Increasing and compelling evidence shows that estrogen decline drives a systemic inflammatory state. Foods that cause inflammation are therefore the last thing you want in your body during menopause.
