Episode 119: Supporting Your Body with the doTERRA Nutrition Line

doTERRA: Did you know that nearly one third of the US population is at risk for at least one vitamin deficiency or iron deficiency? That can have a big effect on your health. But what can you do? Today, we'll discuss the doTERRA Nutrition line and how it can help.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today, we're excited to talk to Dr. Brannick Riggs, vice president of healthcare initiatives for doTERRA, and Alex DaBell, director of nutraceutical development and innovation, about the new doTERRA Nutrition line. Alex, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Alex DaBell: You bet! I'm happy to join with you.

doTERRA: My first question for you is a big one, because this is a new product launch. So what is the doTERRA Nutrition line?

Alex: The doTERRA Nutrition line is a collection of powdered products. It's foundational to our nutritional product offering. And as you mentioned, it's a new product offering that we're really excited about, we've been working on for a while now. And these are some core products that really serve as a foundation for people's overall health and wellness. In this product line, we've got a new Fiber, a new Greens, and three new Protein offerings.

doTERRA: All right, the first one I want to talk about is the Fiber. What makes the doTERRA Nutrition Fiber different?

Alex: Yeah, that's a great question, because you see a lot of fiber products on the market. But one of the things we were very deliberate about doing with this fiber product is including both soluble and insoluble fibers. So they have different benefits.

And you'll also recognize that the sources of these fibers are things that you'll recognize: apple and tapioca and flax seed. These are where the fibers are coming from, which is great.

So we are also including Lemon essential oil in the fiber blend. And when we've combined the Lemon oil with the apple flavor from the apple fiber, it really makes that flavor pop. And so it tastes amazing!

And then one of the other key differentiators for this fiber is the addition of the prebiotic blend. Prebiotics are food for your microbiome, and the microbiome in your gut plays a really critical role in maintaining your overall health. So that was something that we really wanted to support in this fiber product.

doTERRA: That sounds amazing! Can you tell us a little bit about the research that went into creating this fiber supplement?

Dietary Fibers

Alex: Yeah, we took a lot of time reviewing how do we support digestive health with dietary fibers? People know that dietary fibers, when you consume these soluble and insoluble fibers, they go around not just to supporting your digestive and your gut health, but some other areas beyond digestive health, like cardiovascular health, also supporting metabolic health. And then another benefit is the support of a more mindful eating lifestyle since fiber helps with satiety.

So when we looked at the dietary fibers, we know that dietary fibers are fermented in the gut, and they're broken down into these bioactive metabolites. So you think of short chain fatty acids like propionate, acetate, and butyrate, and they each have their own benefits. But then we spent some time researching the benefits of this prebiotic blend that we've added to the fibers. We're focused on supporting the microbiome there.

Oligosaccarides

And the human microbiome is actually composed of slightly more microbes than the cell count of the entire human body. So it's really amazing to think of that. But these microbes in the microbiome, they're able to digest these prebiotics. So we've included oligosaccharides as prebiotics, Xylooligosaccharide, Fructooligosaccharide, and Isomaltooligosaccharide. And then we've also included inulin from Jerusalem artichoke and chicory root.

Again, these microbes of the microbiome, they're involved in stimulating the immune system and synthesizing vitamins, stimulating gluconeogenesis and signaling satiety and helping with appetite controls. We wanted to provide a wide variety of prebiotics to support a broad spectrum of microbe types in your microbiome.

Gut-Brain Axis

The last thing I want to point out, when people think of the microbiome, they may be familiar with this term called the “second brain.” The microbiome is sometimes referred to as the second brain. And you have the gut-brain axis, where the microbiome through research has been demonstrated to stimulate the brain in three separate ways.

So there's the production of serotonin in the gut, which will directly stimulate the vagus nerve. And then you have indirect stimulation of immune cells, which stimulate the brain. So think of like cytokines. And then there's also metabolites that will travel from the gut to the brain through blood vessels and things like that, or they may stimulate the vagus nerve. So those are things like the butyrates that are produced. So it's a really fascinating area of new research all around the microbiome and the reason that we included the prebiotic blend in there.

doTERRA: Wow, just the sheer amount of research that goes into these products is so incredible. Okay, so that's the Fiber. Next, I want to talk about the Greens. Why are the doTERRA Nutrition Greens so important?

Alex: You know, you think of greens, I think of back to the days when I was a kid. Everybody knows the importance of eating your fruits and vegetables, right? We hear about it as kids. We know about it as adults. And it's incorporated into food pyramids and things like that. Plants provide many valuable phytonutrients. These are compounds that are really beneficial as antioxidants and they support healthy inflammatory response; they boost your immune system; and they support gut health. And there's a lot of other benefits that are included in these fruits and vegetables and Greens product.

doTERRA: Now, Alex, there are a lot of different products on the market that maybe market themselves similarly to these Greens. What makes the doTERRA Greens unique?

Alex: I think there are probably two main differentiators there. One is the composition of this Greens mix, and the second one is just the flavor. People who are familiar with Greens products know that the flavor sometimes is a little bit off. But the flavor of this Greens mix is really amazing. It tastes more like a smoothie than a traditional greens.

The other way that these are really different is with the composition. We've included three different blends, and across those three blends there are 22 ingredients. There's a green blend, think of kale, spinach, broccoli, alfalfa, those types of greens. And then there's a fruit blend. And so in the fruit blend, we've got fruits like pineapple, mango, acerola, and guava. And then we've also included a superfood blend. And so there's moringa, noni, acai, mangosteen, and goji. So these superfoods are really cool, and they deliver exceptional nutritional value in supporting your health. That was probably the key hero addition to this Greens mix.

doTERRA: Well, that definitely has some ingredients that sound much tastier than just kale in there.

Alex: For sure.

doTERRA: Finally, I want to talk about the Protein. Like a lot of the green supplements, there are a lot of protein supplements on the market, probably more than I could even comprehend. So why should people choose the doTERRA Nutrition Protein over those other proteins that are out there?

Alex: Great question, and something we definitely thought about, because, like you said, there are a lot of proteins on the market. These Proteins are really great. They taste really good, which we knew we had to have a great tasting product if we wanted people to use these. We made sure that they taste great. And they're also very easy to use. They're convenient.

Probably the main difference is that we focus on having clean protein products. So what I mean by that, if you look at a lot of protein products on the market, they’re including things like artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners and lower quality proteins and some of those things, but we wanted to make sure we had the highest quality proteins that we could find. So we're using this whey protein concentrate from pasture-fed, rBST-free cows. And it's a non-GMO, kosher, and halal source of protein. All the ingredients that we’re including in these proteins are clean or label friendly ingredients.

doTERRA: So you talked about the ingredients a little bit. We have the two options for the protein, the whey and the vegan option. How did you go about choosing the source of the protein for both of those options?

Alex: In pulling this formula together, we wanted to have a high-quality product. We wanted to have a beneficial product. So we looked at the amino acid composition and the source of those amino acids, kind of where we go to what proteins are we using, what amino acids are they providing, and the benefit that people will see from using these proteins.

When we got down to selecting a specific whey and vegan, or plant protein sources, we actually screened the individual ingredients. So we had more than two dozen protein sources that we were evaluating on an individual ingredient basis for flavor, mouthfeel, texture—those types of attributes. And then only after we found the suitable sources of proteins, then we combined these in a complete formula.

Again, we were going back to make sure we had a complete amino acid profile since that's really what we're delivering in the proteins, is amino acids. We wanted people to have a superb user experience. And so that comes to the flavor and the mouthfeel. We wanted to make sure that the level of sweetness and the level of flavor wasn't too strong. We needed to maintain the versatility of these. They're very mild, almost a neutral type of flavor and sweetness, that should appeal to everyone.

doTERRA: Well, Alex, you have definitely made me want to try every single one of these products. You've made them all sound incredible and tasty, which is a bonus. And we really, truly appreciate being able to talk to you today.

Alex: You bet! I'm happy to join with you, and I'm excited for everyone to have these products.

doTERRA: Dr. Riggs, thank you so much for sitting down with us today.

Dr. Brannick Riggs: Absolutely. Thank you for inviting me.

doTERRA: Nutrition is a huge topic. It's very broad. Can you tell us what are some of the biggest problems with nutrition in the United States today?

Dr. Riggs: Sure, absolutely. You know, what we tend to focus on specific macronutrients or look to elimination diets or different eating patterns. Nutrition really isn't that complex. The biggest problem in general aren't carbs or that you aren't eating keto or that you aren't eating six meals a day. It's that modern processed food does not promote health—bottom line.

The Western diet or the standard American diet has high intake of processed meat, fried foods, refined grain products, potato, corn, soy, vegetable oil, sweets, etc. It's just—it's high in calories, low in nutrient density, which means it's also low in fiber, high in saturated and trans fats, added sugars. We just simply eat too much. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, on their food balance sheets, the average American adult eats about 3,800 calories a day, which is significantly more than even a large, active man needs for daily energy balance.

We don't consume enough fiber. Research suggests that less than 10 percent of adults are meeting fiber recommendations.

doTERRA: Wow.

Dr. Riggs: And fiber is satiating; it helps us eat less. Fiber is satiating, so we eat less. It's important for overall digestive health, as it helps scrub build up in the intestines. On average, Americans consume about 57 pounds of sugar a year, or about 17 teaspoons a day. The huge majority of this is sugar added to processed foods, not natural sugars like you would find in fruit, which is generally accompanied by fiber.

Micronutrient deficiencies, due to lack of consumption of whole foods, is also a big issue. Only a small percentage of people meet the recommendations for vitamin D and E, and about half meet vitamin C recommendations, and a third are deficient in important minerals such as calcium and magnesium.

So you can see that there's a huge problem in our country and worldwide with nutrition. The biggest part of that doesn't come from eating in a specific way. It comes from processed foods. And if we can just cut down on that and eat more whole foods, we'd find that a lot of those problems go away.

doTERRA: How do we make sure that our body is getting the nutrition it needs?

Dr. Riggs: It's a great question. And I would say that public health has been trying to address that question for decades on a large scale with little success. As a medical professional, I combat this with education. At Prime Meridian Healthcare, we have the Health and Hope program, which is specifically designed to educate our patients about the lifestyle that promotes health and wellness. A large part of the program is nutrition education and helping the participants develop eating habits that promote health.

So we don't prescribe a diet. We don't recommend dos and don'ts, in other words, good foods and bad foods. We simply educate you so that you can make conscious choices about the foods that you're consuming, so that if you're going to Aunt Susie's 100-year birthday, you would want to go ahead and eat the cake and ice cream as celebration with your aunt. However, you wouldn't want to eat that every night as a nine o'clock snack before bed, knowing what that can lead to.

If you're concerned, come see us at Prime Meridian Healthcare, and we can evaluate the symptoms and order the proper testing and then help you develop a plan to make sure you're getting the nutrition that your body needs.

doTERRA: Now, Dr. Riggs, my final question for you is in the realm of this conversation, why is the release of the doTERRA Nutrition line significant?

Dr. Riggs: You know, this kind of goes back to what I said before about we are eating a calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient diet. That is a significant problem.

And I love to travel. As I travel the world, one of my favorite things to do is eat foods of different cultures. But sadly, more and more, I'm able to eat the same foods internationally that I can eat here at home because fast food is becoming more and more prominent. Most of the fast-food places I can find here in my home state, I can find in most other countries that I travel to. And as we begin to make that diet more popular internationally, the problems that we're seeing here are going to become problems elsewhere.

The challenge is helping to set a whole foods diet and then add to that these doTERRA Nutrition products. Looking at the fiber supplements, looking at the greens, the protein shakes, the daily vitality pack—all of these things can help us make up for the deficit that sometimes we're not able to consume through our typical standard Western diet. It is very timely for us to come out with these things and to be using them daily. The beauty of these is this is not as-needed sort of products. These products are something that we should be having in our diet every day.

So for us, in our home, we have a huge garden and then an orchard, and we'll eat fresh fruits and vegetables all summer long. We’ll can many of those things so that during the winter months we can consume them as well, but then, of course, we’ll eventually run out of those things that we've bottled, those things that we've set aside for ourselves. We will definitely need products such as this to help make up for that deficit that we could no longer eat through the whole foods that we're growing ourselves. These products are fantastic. We're really excited about them.

doTERRA: Well, Dr. Riggs, it has been a pleasure to talk with you today and to learn a little bit more about how we can improve our nutrition and improve our overall health by doing so.

Dr. Riggs: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate that. And just want to send a message out to everyone. Of course, we—right now, in the world today—we have to do a lot of these things virtually. We hope soon to be able to be with each other in person, to be able to talk to each other face to face, and enjoy each other's company. Until that time comes, please stay safe and take care of you and your family. Thank you.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.