Gundry Vital Reds
Pros
- Made by respectable company
- Contains lots of good ingredients
- Customer feedback is good
Cons
- Can be expensive
- Not beneficial to take after a workout
- Little to gain if you have a good plant based diet
Gundry MD Vital Reds
Each jar of Gundry MD Vital Reds contains a massive formula of “34 polyphenol-rich superfruits with natural fat-burning ingredients and probiotics”.
Gundry MD call it revolutionary.
It’s actually a powdered drink mix that comes with a scoop. Each scoop provides 3.5g of ingredients and there are 30 servings per container – enough for 1 a day each month.
What Does Gundry MD Viral Reds Do?
Each scoop contains 3 separate proprietary blends of ingredients as well as a large suite of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients that is sort of like a multi-vitamin blend.
The three proprietary blends have specific purposes:
- Polyphenol Blend – this is the principal element of the Vital Reds formula, and the blend that contains the 34 polyphenol-rich superfruit extracts. It’s purpose is to provide antioxidant support for the body.
- Metabolic Boosting Blend – these are those natural fat burning ingredients mentioned in the introduction. Gundry MD have gone the non-stimulant route with their fat burners here.
- Digestive Support Blend – this contains the aforementioned probiotics
The company says these blends provide the following advantages:
- Long lasting energy charge
- Helps prevent fat accumulation around belly, thighs and waist
- Improves digestion, reduces gas, bloating and discomfort
Vital Reds are manufactured in the US, in a GMP inspected facility.
Ingredients – What’s in the Formula?
Lots of stuff.
The polyphenol blend is extensive and includes extracts of most antioxidant containing fruits you could think of, including:
- Organic carrot, apple peel, grape seed, black currant, beet root, cranberry, papaya and many more.
I’m not about to break each one down and talk about the merits of adding it them to the product. Let’s just assume for the time being that this is a fairly comprehensive polyphenol inclusion.
Metabolic Boosting Blend [365mg]
The ingredients in the fat burning blend are as follows:
- Cinnamon bark 5:1 extract
- Ginger root
- Green tea leaf extract
- White tea leaf extract
- Turmeric rhizome extract
- Bitter melon fruit extract
- Black pepper fruit
Those are more antioxidants, which can interact positively with fat metabolism. For example, green tea extract inhibits the enzyme (COMT) that breaks down catecholamines like noradrenaline, which themselves help metabolize more fat.
Ginger can increase the thermic effect of food – i.e. i.e. increase the energy used to digest and store the nutrients. Studies suggest around 2000mg is necessary for a notable effect.
In fact, most of the ingredients in the Metabolic Boosting Blend would need to be in higher dosages than is implied by the 365mg total in order to have a significant effect on fat reduction. One can only hope there is some additive effect due to there being several combined ingredients.
Digestive Support Blend
This blend contains the bacteria that is supposed to aid digestion and improve your gut health:
- Bacillus coagulans
- Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Bifidobacterium lactis
- L. reuteri
…and then there is
- Fructooligosaccharides – aside from being a natural sweetener, it acts as a substrate for the gut flora. As it ferments it can provide energy to the body.
Probiotics are as much a trend as they are functional health aids. Gut flora and gut health are buzz words in today’s society but there is a lot of evidence emerging in support of their use – for various reasons.
The living cultures in your intestines have a lot more to do with our overall health and well-being than you might think. They can even affect your mind, to the point where some scientists are dubbing this microbiome your “second brain”.
Whatever your opinion of pro- and prebiotic products is, it might be a case of trying them and seeing how you feel after a day, a week and a month.
Generally speaking, if you experience gastrointestinal discomfort, diet-induced lethargy or are often sick with common ailments, you will notice whether these ingredients work quite quickly.
Side Effects and Precautions
There shouldn’t be any side effects with this product, but there is one piece of cautionary advice that I want to impart.
Please do not take this product after working out. While antioxidants have been shown to be beneficial in a many capacities, they can interrupt an extremely important process if they are taken post-workout.
One of the beneficial results of exercise is the resultant endogenous production of a host of antioxidant enzymes within the body.
This is in part a defence mechanism to purge the body of the free radicals that have accumulated due to the additional oxidative stress that exercise exerts.
If you cut into that process with a drink rich in antioxidants, the body’s own response may be dulled.
What’s the Verdict – Does Gundry MD Vital Reds Work?
It really is an individualistic response when it comes to products like this one. If your diet is poor and you don’t exercise, both your immune system and digestive system are compromised to a degree that might benefit from such a product.
Personally, I gain little from taking Gundry MD Vital Reds because my diet is necessarily clean and full of whole foods high in natural antioxidant content (aren’t I just the best!)
My advice is to get your diet in order first, and include lots of whole fruits and veg, then add some exercise if you are not already doing it.
Only then should you look to supplemental products like Gundry MD Vital Reds for an additional boost. Ironically, it is then that you are likely not to need them.
Recommended Alternative
PhenQ is a highly recommended weight loss product for both men and women. It has multiple benefits and there is no gimmick or hollow promises. It is made from natural ingredients and completely safe to use.
- It can burn your excess and existing body fat
- It can block or stop additional fat from your consumed food
- It can help to reduce you appetite and stop hunger pangs