Hi,
Quick question: If I mix Superfoods with hot water (as in hot enough for tea), will this cause the ingredients to denature and, as such, become useless?
Thanks,
OMP
If you were to boil a fruit would it become nutritionally useless?
(I can’t give you a definite answer, but my guess is no.)
[quote]AlteredState wrote:
RSGZ wrote:
If you were to boil a fruit would it become nutritionally useless?
(I can’t give you a definite answer, but my guess is no.)
‘Nutritionally useless’? No. Nutritionally compromised? Yes.
Heat speeds up the chemical reactions involved in degredation of sensitive vitamins. The mineral are OK since they are more robust.
Part of the problem with boiling vegetables is that the goodness leaches out into the water. However, if you drink the water (as in tea) there’s no problem.
OP: I would suggest you make the tea and allow it to cool a bit before adding the Superfood.
You know, green tea with Superfood does sound quite appealing. I may give it a shot tomorrow morning.[/quote]
Yes, it does sound appealing, but trust me… it is most certainly NOT appealing. At least I didn’t think so.
I added it to my green tea thinking the hot liquid would aid in breaking up the clumps and disolving the powder. Not only did it clump up even MORE than when I throw it in my shaker bottle, but it was the most bitter tasting thing I ever drank. I forced it down for the nutrition, but I was not happy about it.
While I wasn’t involved with the product’s development, from one of the articles about it those who were state that for example being cooked into muffins will not harm the Superfood. So, from that I would not expect hot water to do so.
From the chemistry perspective, the actives, such as anthocyanins, are not unstable to that sort of exposure. It’s not the same situation as with for example an enzyme, which typically is fragile.
On the taste, it must vary according to the individual. Some find it fine; but like RichSpidizzy, I don’t like it. Rather than add it to a shake I have it separately first, or if taking other bad-tasting things like BCAA powder, mix it in with those before having something tastier to drink.
That said, Power Drive (which tastes good to me) does a lot, for some reason, to overcome the bad taste of some things, so if taking Power Drive that day (I usually do) adding the Superfood to the Power Drive, along with anything else taken that may be not-so-good tasting such as say spirulina and nutritional yeast, does worlds to the palatability. That would then be followed by a shake or Spike Shooter, totally eliminating aftertaste issues.
If you think Superfood tastes bad, try Swanson’s greens powder for awhile, then switch to Superfood. It’ll seem delicious by comparison. 
Thanks for the responses, particularly from Bill - I was looking for confirmation that there are no enzymes in there that would be denatured by the boiling water.
Tried it this morning, just superfood in water that was just short of boiling - I quite liked it - guess it’s a personal taste thing. It just tastes like blackberry tea, although it didn’t unclag the lumps as much as I hoped, so had to down the last bits to get the small lumps at the bottom into the system.
I disliked it’s taste, but found that it really works well in orange flavored drinks. I use Crystal Light Sunrise, and it tastes fine.
[quote]The Mage wrote:
I disliked it’s taste, but found that it really works well in orange flavored drinks. I use Crystal Light Sunrise, and it tastes fine.[/quote]
I drink it in green tea and several crystal light flavors and I think it taste great. It sure taste like all the vitamins are intact.