Organic Processing Vo1.8 #3

mained stable in a ready-to-drink beverage that was stored unrefrigerated. Plus, the omega-3s added to many foods use a hexane extraction process, which in addition to environmental and health implications, also negatively affects the taste of the product. In order to get the amount of omegas found in the recommended 2- to 3-gram daily dose of fish oil, it would take 60 times the amount of omegas that they found they could put in the drink without adversely affecting the flavor.

For his complex carbohydrates blend, Orgain includes organic brown rice solids and organic brown rice syrup. Orgain’s sugar content, however, is a fraction of what is found in other nutritional shakes. Orgain has 13 grams of sugar,

“Keep in mind that most medical students only receive about two weeks of training on

while Ensure has 22 grams and Slim-Fast has 34 grams! Others such as Muscle Milk use artificial sweeteners.

And what would a meal be without healthy fruits and vegetables? Orgain’s
organic freeze-dried powdered fruit and veggie combo combined with added
antioxidants like green tea gives the drink an ORAC value of 16,000—the
equivalent of 10 fruits and vegetables. Additionally, a key part of the formula-
tion was the vitamin and mineral mix. “I didn’t want to leave anything out,”
Abraham says. “For some people, this will be their only source of nutrients—so
it had to be as complete as possible.”
Last but not least was the flavor. Abraham had tried several “natural” flavors
and ended up choosing a certified organic vanilla.

“All of the others didn’t taste right to me, probably because certain chemicals were used to extract natural flavors. With some of the other drinks on the market, you practically have to plug your nose to get it down. I am sure it is because they buy the cheapest ingredients—and that includes cheap flavors. Organic flavors are not cheap, but they are definitely worth it when it comes to taste.” ”nutrition.”

began with a series of slides highlighting ingredients like HFCS, soy protein and different carcinogenic preservatives, and at the end he asked, “Does anyone know what this might be?” The doctors were shocked to find out that those ingredients made up the same product that they had been recommending to patients. Abraham has done many more presentations since and says the feedback has been great.

He points out that while doctors are
great at treating disease, they are not so
great at preventing it. “Keep in mind
that most medical students only receive
about two weeks of training on nutri-
tion. Most of what I know on preventa-
tive health I have learned through
years of self-study.”
Abraham also reached out to nutri-
tionists to give the same enlightening
presentation and will be exibiting at
the American Dietetic Conference,
which is geared towards over 9,000 pre-
ventive health professionals. Recently,
Orgain was launched into two major
health club chains—Lifetime Fitness
and 24 Hour Fitness.

“When you work out, the body releases a lot of oxidants, which is why you can sometimes get sick from overdoing it at the gym—the antioxidants in Orgain can help fight these free rad-

Educating the Influencers

In order to get Orgain out in the marketplace, one of Abraham’s strategies was to go to the people most trust to know all there is to know about health—doctors.

Like Abraham in the beginning, most people, even doctors, assume these RTD nutritional shakes are somewhat healthy—until they really look at the label.