What are the best protein supplements for ICU patients?
There are two types of protein supplements: ready-to-drink (store-bought) protein shakes, and protein shakes made with protein powder. In order to make a protein shake with protein powder, you have to mix the powder with milk or water. This requires a blender or a shaker bottle, and a little extra time and effort. Some people, prioritizing convenience, prefer to buy ready-to-drink protein shakes, but if they knew what they were drinking, they would stop dead in their tracks.
Ready-to-drink protein shakes like Boost and Ensure are full of emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, sweeteners, and flavors. Ingredients like these improve characteristics like taste, texture, and shelf stability, but can cause uncomfortable side effects and long-term gut damage. This is worrisome because the gut microbiome (the collection of microorganisms that help you digest food) of ICU patients is often already impaired.
In the intensive care setting, the gut microbiota of patients is subjected to antibiotic exposure, modification of gastro-intestinal transit, and artificial nutrition or sepsis, all of which can cause dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut bacteria). It follows that the gut microbiome in critically ill patients is different from that of healthy subjects, demonstrating markedly lower richness and diversity. This, in turn, can lead to slower recovery and worse outcomes.
I therefore recommend that you make your own protein shakes with protein powder. It is a bit more work, but it is so worth it. That said, not all protein powders are created equal either, and many contain the same additives found in ready-to-drink protein shakes!
One of the reasons why we make the best protein supplements for ICU patients is that we do not use food additives. Most protein powders, on the other hand, are full of food additives.
Food additives may improve characteristics like taste, texture, and shelf stability, but they can also cause uncomfortable side effects and long-term gut damage. Basically, because they look nothing like real food, food additives are hard to digest. They therefore sit in your gut for longer than food should, which gives your gut bacteria more time to eat. As they eat, these bacteria produce gas, causing bloating and stomach pain. Gas also slows colonic transit (the amount of time it takes food to travel through the colon), which can lead to constipation. Over time, food additives can add up (especially if you drink a protein shake every day), and disrupt regulatory pathways in the intestine. Eventually, this can lead to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and systemic inflammatory disorders.