Due to cis-isomer functional groups being on the same side of the carbon chain, this causes the molecule to bend in on itself slightly, while the trans-isomer does not. This causes the trans-isomer chain to be longer overall, and the cis-isomer chain to be shorter.

The shorter length of the cis-chain allows the molecule to pack more tightly into target cells than the trans-isomer, which is why the cis-isomer of molecules like beta carotene is more bioavailable than the trans-isomer.

The change we are making to our beta carotene source is a consequence of this: the synthetic form we used previously had a 50% cis - 50% trans ratio. The new natural fermented form we are using has the highest cis to trans ratio we have been able to find anywhere, with 90% of the beta carotene being in the form of the cis-isomer. This should lead to an overall greater bioavailability of the beta carotene in our product.

We are changing our retinyl palmitate to retinol acetate. This change has a far simpler explanation than that of beta carotene above. Retinyl palmitate (our previous source of retinol) utilises palm oil in its production. While we have been assured that this palm oil source is responsible, we wanted to take out all risk of accidentally supporting unsustainable palm oil practices, and as such have decided to switch our source to retinol acetate instead.

We are changing our carbonyl iron to ferrous citrate. When we were making changes in previous iterations, we changed our source of iron - ferrous bisglycinate at the time - to carbonyl iron, as we found that the bisglycinate form was contributing to an unpleasant odour detected by a small number of our customers. At the time, carbonyl iron was the source that we found to contribute least to this smell, so we utilised it in recent versions. However, carbonyl iron is an inorganic form of iron, and as such, it has a lower bioavailability than some other forms, and doesn’t follow our general ethos of using the most absorbable forms of all vitamins and minerals. As a result, we’ve been working together with the customers previously affected by the odour to test various different organic forms of iron, in order to find the one that works best for them. After a lot of testing, we’ve found that ferrous citrate is the best option. Citric acid also has some beneficial properties, such as being an anti-inflammatory and possessing anti-microbial effects. Though the amount of citric acid contained in the amount of ferrous citrate in our recipe is fairly low, these benefits still go above and beyond those provided by the inorganic carbonyl iron, whilst still raising the bioavailability of the iron itself. We also consider the citrate an upgrade to the previous bisglycinate, because even aside from the odour issues the bisglycinate form caused, our recipe contains plenty of bisglycinate molecules from the electrolyte sources, whereas this is the first occurrence of citrate in our product.

Changes to our sources of copper, manganese and zinc to their gluconate forms. Similar to with iron, we are switching the bisglycinate forms of our copper, manganese and zinc to different amino acid chelate forms. These were all contributing slightly to the odour, but the primary reason is to bring the extra benefits that other chelates can bring. As mentioned above, we have plenty of bisglycinate from the electrolyte sources to achieve the known benefits, such as lowering stress and aiding sleep, so we wanted to utilise other amino acid chelates for the benefits they can bring. For these minerals, we opted for the gluconate forms, which are bound to gluconic acid. Gluconic acid is a particularly potent chelating agent, and due to the nutrient absorption interactions between copper and zinc, as well as manganese and iron, we wanted these all to have equally high bioavailabilities.

Changes to vitamin B12 sources. We have removed the adenosylcobalamin from our formula and replaced it with more methylcobalamin. Unfortunately, our supplier is no longer able to source a stable form of adenosylcobalamin, and as it is generally very unstable unless in liquid form, we have opted to remove it. We would rather be upfront about this change than continue to include it in a likely unstable form just to have it listed on our ingredients list. We will continue to look for a stable form of adenosylcobalamin, but in the meantime we have increased our methylcobalamin dosage up to 25mcg per day (from 20mcg) which is 1000% of the RDA. We include a large amount because vitamin B12 absorption is quite poor in the body, but not as much as is included in one-per-day supplements because consuming B12 multiple times per day, as is possible with our shakes, drastically increases the absorption.

Riboflavin 5-phosphate and pyridoxal 5-phosphate have been replaced by riboflavin and pyridoxine hydrochloride. We changed from the basic forms of riboflavin and B6 in a previous iteration, but are now pulling back this change due to lack of evidence of benefits for the 5-phosphate forms. The 5-phosphate forms are the activated forms of riboflavin and B6 found in the body, and as a result of this, many assume that they will be utilised or absorbed better when consumed than the non-activated forms. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown this not to be the case. While there may be some benefits of the 5-phosphate form of B6 for epileptic seizures, in terms of actual absorption there is no benefit. In order for the 5-phosphate forms to be absorbed into the body, they must first be dephosphorylated (have that phosphate group cleaved off) in order to be absorbed, before a phosphate group is re-added at a later point. As a result, there is no benefit for the vast majority of people to using pyridoxal 5-phosphate or riboflavin 5-phosphate over pyridoxine hydrochloride and riboflavin, and all that keeping these forms present in our recipe would lead to is an increased cost. As such, we’ve rolled back this change and used the price difference to make some of the other changes detailed above which have added somewhat to the cost.

Gum arabic has been decreased by approximately 0.3 grams per day. In order to maintain the same overall mass (to allow for even 50 gram meals), we’ve lowered the gum arabic slightly to account for the increased weight of some of the micronutrient forms we have changed. This will simply lead to around 0.1 grams less of fibre per meal, and is pretty much negligible.

New flavour

As some of you may be aware, we recently ran some beta tests to determine what flavour would replace banoffee (which was being phased out due to supplier issues). We received all the feedback by the beginning of this week, and have been compiling it over the past few days.

The overall winner, and the flavour that we will be introducing as a permanent addition to our premium line for both KetoGenesis and GlycoGenesis is Butterscotch. Over half of respondents listed butterscotch as their favourite flavour of the ones they tested, and it was overall the clear favourite. In second place was chocolate peanut - for those who are disappointed to not see this one topping the rankings, please be aware we do actually offer chocolate peanut cookie flavour in our vegan range. The texture is different to the shakes based on whey as soy mixes up thicker, but it’s one of our top vegan flavours so we really recommend you give it (and our other vegan exclusive flavour: millionaire’s shortbread) a go.

All of the flavours were actually very popular (with the exception of pineapple which people seemed to hate!), so we may introduce some of these as temporary limited edition flavours in the future. But for now, we’ll be getting in a larger batch of butterscotch protein and this will be going on sale as v1.3.3 from some time next week!

What’s next?

We already have in mind some of the changes we’d like to implement for the next version (which will be v1.4). The main change we are hoping to implement is the addition of some phytonutrients and antioxidants. This is something we’ve been wanting to include for a long time, ever since we sadly had to discontinue PhytoGenesis, so hopefully some of you will be looking forward to that. We can’t guarantee everything we want to include will work with the taste and texture profile of our shakes, so we won’t reveal specifics just yet, but we’re hopeful!

MicroGenesis will not be back in stock until we get a batch of v1.4 in, but that shouldn’t be much longer than a couple of months. The reason there’s no MicroGenesis upgrade to v1.3.3 is simply because we were hoping to have the phytonutrients included in this version, but had an unexpected increase in number of orders. As such, we’ve only bought in a small batch of this current recipe, and there won’t be enough for MicroGenesis - but it will be back!

Finally, keep an eye out for our future blog posts and if do have some suggestions for future content you’d like to see, let us know!