You follow a well-rounded diet, chug green juices daily and take your supplements every morning. So why don’t you look like a supermodel and feel like a superhero yet? Surely six-pack abs and glowing skin are just around the corner, right? Maybe, but not if you’re not absorbing your nutrients properly!
You see, you can eat all the superfoods in the world, but they won’t do you any good if they’re just passing directly from your mouth to the toilet bowl. Don’t get us wrong, you’re still taking in the kilojoules (damn), but your body is missing out on the good stuff like protein for muscle growth and vitamins and minerals for optimal health. When your body is giving nutrients the cold shoulder, it can lead to all sorts of health problems like anaemia, chronic fatigue, and a poor immune system.
How do I know whether I’m absorbing food properly?
Symptoms of malabsorption include:
- Light colored, foul-smelling stools that are soft and bulky
- Dry hair or hair loss
- Fluid retention
- Low blood pressure
- Difficulty gaining muscle, even with strength training and adequate protein levels
But why isn’t my body absorbing nutrients?
There are many different things that can lead to malabsorption, including:
- Chronic stress
- Digestive and gut issues like IBS, Celiac Disease, Crohn’s Disease or bacterial infections like H Pylori.
- Chronic inflammation
- Damage to the intestine
Fulvic acid to the rescue!
Obviously, if you’re experiencing the symptoms of malabsorption you should get to the bottom of whats causing it. But in the meantime, we’d like to introduce you to your new favourite supplement, fulvic acid.
Technically, there’s nothing new about this all-star ingredient. In fact, you could say it’s actually as old as the earth itself! It’s an organic compound found naturally in soil, containing nano-sized molecules made up of highly active carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
As it’s smaller than other nurtrients, fulvic acid passes more easily through cell membranes, increasing the absorption of other nutrients and vitamins. Studies show that it can help with gut function, lower free radical damage and inflammation, and improve energy levels.
-Nutritionist and Amodrn LA Editor Michelle Pelizzon
Sounds great, right? But you can put the shovel away: there’s no need to go for a dig in the garden. Technically, we should be getting our daily dose of fulvic acid from the soil our food is grown in. But often, that soil is full of pesticides and other chemicals, cancelling out the goodness of the fulvic acid. So what’s a girl to do? Luckily, a few clever wellness brands have (finally) cottoned on to the magical powers of fulvic acid.
Where to get your fulvic fix
Moon juice
Image: moonjuiceshop.com.au
At Moon Juice’s Los Angeles stores, you can chug a shot of fulvic acid: ask for the Zeus Juice. Just make sure you pick up one of their other delicious juices to wash it down because it doesn’t taste particularly pleasant!
Juice Served Here
If you’d prefer your fulvic acid already mixed with some tastier ingredients, you can pick up the Skin Renewer Shot from a Juice Served Here store in Los Angeles. Bonus points for the beauty-boosting ingredients, Rose Oil and Colloidal Gold.
Torii Labs
Newly launched US brand Torii Labs have created a caffeine-free pick-me-up around the powerful ingredient! Their Awake Tonic combines an energizing mix of adaptogenic herbs and superfoods like ginger and goji berries with the fulvic acid to get the most out of each ingredient.
blk water
Here in Australia, you can grab a blk water for your daily dose of fulvic acids. Don’t let the idea of chugging black water put you off: the fulvic acid gives the beverage its dark colour but it tastes just like normal h2o!
