Baobab Superfood Powder – 300g

Baobab Superfood Powder Supplements during pregnancy

Baobab Superfood Powder – A balanced intake of vitamins, nutrients and minerals is important at every stage of life. But when your body has two lives to support, getting that balance right is essential. To help make sure the mother remains healthy and the baby is able to develop properly, doctors recommend combining a healthy and balanced diet with prenatal vitamin supplements. Seeking advice from a doctor during the early stages of pregnancy is important, since they’ll be able to advise you on any specific deficiencies you may have, and recommend supplements to improve them.

Vitamin C and collagen

Baobab is packed with ascorbic acid – otherwise known as Vitamin C, an essential vitamin for healthy pregnancy. As Baobab contains over six times more Vitamin C than oranges, you can get your daily recommended requirement much quicker than if you’d stuck to fruit. A couple of tablespoons can provide 33 per cent of your daily Vitamin C.

Vitamin C helps your body produce collagen, which is really important for keeping your skin, tendons, bones and cartilage healthy. On top of that, it promotes the growth of bones and the repair of skin tissue, helping to ensure the healthy development of your baby.

Combat morning sickness

As one of the most common health complaints during pregnancy, morning sickness affects a huge number of women. But luckily, the Vitamin C in Baobab may be able to offer some relief. Natural remedies for morning sickness often include high levels of Vitamin C and studies have shown that it can have a positive impact on morning sickness symptoms within as little as three days. Packed with Vitamin C, Baobab is an easy way to up your intake and potentially reduce the intensity of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

The top health & beauty benefits of Baobab Superfood Powder

1. Immune System

The human body cannot make or store its own vitamin C (unlike other animals), so we need to make sure we get a good supply from the foods we eat every day.

A single serving of Baobab Powder (10g or 2-3 teaspoons) provides:

• 33% of your daily vitamin C requirement (NRV)

One of the key benefits of vitamin C is that it helps to keep our immune system strong, supporting our body’s defence against viruses, infections, diseases and other illnesses. Try shaking baobab powder into your orange juice or water bottle for an extra dose of vitamin C on-the-go!

2. Slow Energy Release

We know what you’re thinking… ‘slow? I need energy fast!’. Vitamin C contributes to normal energy release – this slow, and steady release sustains us for a longer period of time and prevents us from feeling tired all of a sudden. Therefore, it helps the reduction of tiredness and fatigue as well as supporting a normal energy-yielding metabolism which is “needed for all functions and activities of the body, including physical activity and exercise” (EFSA, 2012).

Sub your morning coffee for a sprinkle of baobab powder on your breakfast to keep you energised and awake throughout the day. We like ours blended into our morning smoothies or with some yoghurt.

3. Blood Sugar

Anchor Health Baobab Powder contains 34% soluble fibre, this helps to slow down the release of sugars into the blood stream, reducing energy spikes. Soluble fibre can also help to control blood glucose levels, improve blood cholesterol and reduce visceral fat (body fat that is stored around the organs in your abdominal).

The Functional Food Centre of Oxford Brookes University conducted a trial using Baobab Powder and found that human participants who consumed a milk containing baobab had a lower blood glucose response than those who had a control drink with no baobab.

A later study by Oxford Brookes University also showed that baobab significantly reduced the rate at which sugar was released into the blood after digestion. As such, baobab is considered ideal for those following a low GI diet. It could also be beneficial for people with Type 2 Diabetes.

Add Anchor Health Baobab Powder into your juices to help slow down the release of fruit sugars into your blood stream.

4. Absorption of Iron

Over 30% of the world’s population are deficient in iron – making it the most common nutritional disorder (World Health Organisation, 2017). Many turn to various iron supplements to increase their intake (we like to use Moringa Powder as a natural alternative). A less known fact is that vitamin C is needed to help the body absorb iron so pairing iron with vitamin C actually increases absorption.

Our bodies can obtain iron from two sources; heme iron (found in fish, poultry and red meat) and nonheme iron (present in plant foods, eggs, milk and meat). Compared to the former, nonheme iron is not easily absorbed by the body.

As baobab is a rich natural source of vitamin C, it is easily accessible to the body and is better absorbed than artificial supplements. Sprinkle some baobab onto your iron-rich foods for a lemony zing or shake it into your water when taking your iron supplements.

5. Digestive health

Approximately 40% of people have at least one digestive symptom at any one time (NHS, 2016).

Anchor Health Baobab Powder is almost 50% fibre. There are two types of fibre that our body needs: soluble and insoluble – and baobab contains both. Soluble fibre dissolves in the water found in your digestive system and can help to reduce the level of cholesterol in your blood.

Insoluble fibre doesn’t dissolve, it passes through your gut and enables other foods to move through your digestive system easily. It also helps to keep your bowels healthy and prevents digestive problems.

Try adding Anchor Health Baobab into your daily meals to get your fibre fix.

6. Prebiotic / Gut Health

Most people are familiar with probiotics – good bacteria found in foods such as yoghurt, kefir and kimchi which have beneficial effects to your health, particularly your digestive system. However, very few are familiar with prebiotics which play an equally important role in gut health. Prebiotics are indigestible dietary fibres, also known as soluble fibres, made up of non-living organic matter.

The soluble fibers of baobab fruit pulp are prebiotics: non-digestible food components that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and activity of beneficial microflora (Journal of Food Research, 2016).

The benefits of including prebiotics in your diet don’t stop there, a study by the University of Colorado Boulder suggested that prebiotics can improve sleep after a stressful event, suggesting that adding baobab into your diet can also help support a good night’s sleep.

For best results, it is recommended you take prebiotics with probiotics – we like to mix our baobab with yoghurt to keep our gut health in check, or stir it into a traditional milky beverage.

7. Radiant skin

According to The Journal of Nutrition, Baobab has the highest antioxidant content of any fruit. Baobab powder has twice the antioxidants gram per gram of goji berries and more than blueberries and pomegranates combined. Learn more about why we need antioxidants here.

Baobab is packed with antioxidants and vitamin C which supports collagen formation – helping to give you radiant, glowing skin as well as preventing wrinkles.

8. Pregnancy

It is generally advised that pregnant women should consume 85mg of vitamin C per day (a 10g serving of  Anchor Health Baobab Powder contains 26mg) as it helps the body produce collagen. Collagen is a structural protein that is needed for your baby’s normal growth during pregnancy. It plays a vital role in structuring a baby’s body and supporting their developing organs.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, helps your body fight infections and protects cells from damage – helping to keep you healthy. Another key role that vitamin C plays during pregnancy is its ability to increase the absorption of iron – a vitamin that most pregnant women are deficient in. Iron is needed to help our bodies produce red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body and to the baby.

If that wasn’t enough to convince you of baobab’s super-powers, it is also a good source of fibre. Nutritional Therapist, Eve Kalinik explains how this helps to “support bowel movements and a great addition for new mums to help fight fatigue that comes with having a newborn”.

9. Alkaline

Baobab is considered to be one if the highest alkaline foods available as it has a PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) rating of -52. Eating highly alkaline foods helps to balance our body’s pH levels.

The Journal of Environmental Health (2012) found that alkaline foods can also help defend our bodies from chronic diseases and ailments (such as hypertension, arthritis and deficiency in vitamin D). Have you tried adding  Baobab to your green juices?

10. Pre/post work out

Physical exercise increases oxidative damage to cells and muscle tissues so it’s important to increase your intake of vitamin C to reduce its negative effects. This is supported by a study conducted by the University of North Carolina (2006) who found that participants taking doses of vitamin C before exercise and for 4 days after reported less muscle soreness compared to the group who took a placebo.

Final Thoughts

• Baobab is a genus (Adansonia) of nine species of deciduous trees that belong to the hibiscus or mallow family (Malvaceae). The baobab tree is also warmly referred to as the “tree of life.”
• What is the fruit of the baobab? It’s a highly unique source of vitamin C, iron, potassium and a wealth of other nutrients.
• The fruit is turned into a powder that can be used in smoothies, salad dressings, soups and all kinds of recipes.
• Is baobab healthy? It sure is, which is why it’s has been used extensively since ancient times in traditional medicine for all kinds of health concerns including malaria, tuberculosis, fever, microbial infections, diarrhea, anemia, toothache and dysentery.
• Baobab benefits include:
  • Improves immune system function and fights off diseases
  • Boosts iron absorption booster
  • Enhances skin health when used both internally and externally
  • Better digestion and blood sugar control
  • Possible weight maintenance helper

If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, being treated for a medical condition or taking medication, check with your doctor before incorporating baobab powder into your diet.

Sources:

• Health Claims: EU Register on Nutrition and Health Claims
  Vitamin C & Muscle Function: Effect of antioxidant vitamin supplementation on muscle function after eccentric exercise, Jakemanl, P. and Maxwell, S., 1993, European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology
• Nutritional Quality and Functional Properties of Baobab (Adansonia digitata) Pulp From Tanzania. Journal of Food Research; Vol. 5, No. 5; 2016.
• Prebiotics & Sleep: Dietary Prebiotics and Bioactive Milk Fractions Improve NREM Sleep, Enhance REM Sleep Rebound and Attenuate the Stress-Induced Decrease in Diurnal Temperature and Gut Microbial Alpha Diversity,Thompson, R., et al, 2016.