Hi everyone,
Just a quick update to let you all know that all of our recipes have been updated to include the amino acid glycine, yay! :D That includes Milk Fuel and Super Protein, by the way. :d
You can read more in the last couple email updates from February, archived on the blog. But long story short, glycine is one of those “nonessential” amino acids that arguably people don’t get enough of, these days.
In order to target a 4:1 ratio of glycine to methionine, we have started adding 2g of vegan-friendly, sweet-tasting glycine powder to every Super Body Fuel meal in order to balance out the high methionine content of rice protein (and dairy protein, for that matter).
Nothing weird about this – it’s analogous to how we’ve been adding lysine since rice protein is low in that. With sufficient glycine, your body (and mind) will thank you, with reduced inflammation and a more relaxed mood, among other benefits – according to the studies. :)
Personally, I’ve been adding glycine to my Super Fuel and Keto Fuel for months – and now, I won’t have to! :D Awesome!
All the old inventory has turned over, so with the exception of a few samples (that will be gone soon) anything you order will have the new glycine-enhanced formula.
If you’ve already got the new glycine version (check the Ingredients list!) let us know what you think of the taste! :) Glycine adds a subtle sweetness that has allowed us to very slightly dial back the monkfruit sweetener, so the overall effect may be a bit different. My impression is that the overall sweetness is down about half a perceptible notch – which may be a good thing, as we sometimes get feedback from longtime customers that it would be better if the sweetness were slightly toned down. But what do you think? Please, please let us know! :D We want to get it just right.
At the same time, based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback on our beetroot survey in the last email, we’ve added 1g of beetroot powder to every meal of our strawberry flavor, for an enhanced taste, color, and nutritional profile (betaine and nitric oxide and such). And before you ask, net carbs for the keto version remain the same. ;)
Again, please let us know what you think of the updated flavor! We hope you like it better, but do let us know. :o All the strawberry samples have switched over to the new version, with both glycine and beetroot added.
Initially, I’d hoped that the glycine powder would “pay for itself” in effect by reducing the amount of expensive monkfruit sweetener we’d need to add. But it turns out that we’re only able to reduce the monkfruit very slightly, if at all (you tell us!) and now, the price of glycine has gone up significantly! :o Bad timing, I know.
Still, we are committed to keeping our prices low and affordable, and I believe in the value of this glycine addition in making our formula the best that it can be, so we’re holding steady for now. Please let us know if you think it’s been worth it – your feedback is the main thing that steers this ship. :)
I will say that this year is when world events are finally catching up with us at Super Body Fuel. :/ Our costs for ingredients and shipping have gone up significantly in the past several months, on top of the cost-of-living adjustments we’ve already had to make for the whole team to keep up with inflation in the beginning of this year. At the same time, the number of orders we are getting each month has been declining to a level that is lower than it’s been for years.
The bottom line is, this year is the first time that the business has been losing money month over month since we started operations. Don’t panic! ;p This is not an emergency, or a cry for help, as we have savings to weather this downturn – for the year, at least. And we (still) have the rebrand coming up, hopefully very soon. But this is a new thing for us. And I want to be transparent about that.
I have no intention of raising prices, as I know we could pull out of this just as easily by increasing monthly orders beyond a certain threshold, and I’m stubborn. But if you appreciate us holding prices steady when everyone else seems to be raising them, maybe let us know that – with your words or with your dollars. ;)
Thanks everyone. Let’s all hang in there. <3
Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)
Will you be updating the super protein with added glycine? I add almost an entire scoop of super protein to every shake, so it seems like my balance may still be off.
Also, with my shakes, I do one scoop of the plain and one scoop of a flavor in all of my shakes because the sweetness is so overwhelming. If monk fruit sweetener is so expensive I think you could easily get away with reducing the sweetness by 25% without harming anyone’s taste buds. It would ruin my current formula, but I may just switch to doing two flavored scoops, even if it is still a little too sweet.
Yes, Super Protein has already been updated to include the new glycine formula. B)
“That includes Milk Fuel and Super Protein, by the way.”
Thanks for the feedback about the sweetness. I wouldn’t lower it any further than we just did, but I’m glad that you’ve found a good solution with the plain flavors. :)