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Sulfites in my Digestive enzymes!!


Heather Robertson

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Honestly, I'm really surprised by this, and it's really weird that neither iherb nor amazon lists sulfites or lactose in the ingredients online.

You haven't ruined your W30!

I'd carry on taking them until you run out, but I'm going to have a Mod pow-wow to make sure we figure it out before we all keep on recommending them. I'll come back and let y'all know what we find out.

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Thanks for the feed back! I'm looking forward to hearing what the mod pow-wow determines...I have since found another brand at the shop I buy my suppliments and they gave me bunches of samples. I will probably finish out the samples and then the NOW brand and then switch for good since sulfites and possible lactose are a no-no.

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So this is interesting:

http://www.nowfoods.com/Supplements/Products-by-Category/Digestive-Support/Enzymes/M011536.htm

http://www.nowfoods.com/Supplements/Products-by-Category/Digestive-Support/Enzymes/M003112.htm

From the NOW foods website, the capsules don't have lactose, but the tablets may. Neither of them mention sulfites.

Mistie, did you get the tablets?

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There are plenty of naturally occurring sulfites in real food, and I'm guessing the label is just a "cover your butt" kind of thing to warn folks with extreme sulfite sensitivity or allergy. I am positive they do not add sulfites to their capsules, but I will write to the company to find out nonetheless. As for the lactose, again, I assume this is just a precaution, as none of the ingredients as I read them indicate there are any milk proteins or sugars in them. I'll clarify, but for now, rest easy - this won't have any effect on your Whole30. (But good on you for doing your homework!) I'll report back when I can.

Best,

Melissa

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I also have the same label on capsules I just bought on the UK amazon site. I wrote to Now Foods asking about the sulfites and lactose, and this was their reply:

"It is a tiny amount of lactose used as a processing aid for the Pancreatin and the sulfites come natural as part of the Pineapple.

Both are small and well tolerated by most but your concerns would indicate that a milk and sulfite free formula such as the following would be a better choice:

I checked out the label information on the Digest Platinum vegan capsules they recommended for me instead (since I am lactose intolerant and really don't want to start adding even small amounts of lactose back into my diet when I've finally gone completely dairy- free) These do not contain Betaine HCl or pepsin, but they have added lactase and some other enzymes supposedly good for digesting grains, legumes etc - i.e it would work best for vegetarian/vegans, not paleo-folks. I mentioned this to them and they recommended this one instead:

http://www.nowfoods....mes/M003463.htm - only contains Betaine HCl and pepsin though. Has anyone tried this one? I was hoping it would have similar effects as the Super Enymes as I think I would benefit from added digestive enzymes. Does anyone have any other brands to recommend?

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Due to digestive issues, I've taken digestive enzymes for years. Purely personally speaking I like Viridian high potency Digestive Aid. It is a vegan formula but it just seems to work better for me than others I've tried. I've never tried the Now enzymes, i haven't found the here. Viridians ingredients are

One vegetarian capsule provides: Ingredient Weight Betaine hydrochloride 100mg Ginger root powder 75mg Peppermint leaf powder 75mg Lipase (10,000ug) 50mg Amylase (100,000 SKBU/g) 40mg Protease (3,350 K tyrosine units USP) 15mg Amyloglucosidase (240 U/g) 10mg in a base of alfalfa, spirulina and bilberry

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Thank you for the tip! I might try those out. I have been searching around and I am now considering a combination of the Now Foods Betaine HCl + pepsin: http://www.nowfoods.com/Supplements/Products-by-Category/Digestive-Support/Enzymes/M003463.htm, and these from Doctor's Best: http://www.iherb.com/Doctor-s-Best-Best-Digestive-Enzymes-All-Vegetarian-90-Veggie-Caps/12?at=0

The Viridian ones do not contain pepsin, but I'm not sure how important that is when there are proteases in the blend? I am also wondering if the Betaine HCl from Now Foods might be of a too high dosage ?

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I feel like pepsin is a pretty important enzyme for digestion. I haven't taken an A&P/Bio class in a LONG time, but iirc pepsin is the primary protein degrading enzyme in our digestive system. It's possible that there's pepsin in their "special blend," but who knows?

I don't think that Now Foods' is too high of a dosage, either...but it depends on the condition of YOUR digestive system. Some folks need to take 8 of these guys per meal for a while before their stuff resolves.

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I might just try the Betaine HCL + pepsin capsules and see how that goes. It doesn't seem like I'm digesting my food properly (even after 4 months on strict paleo) and I always feel stuffed and bloated for a long time after each meal. It's too bad the Super Enzymes have milk in them.. Seeing as I am on the autoimmune protocol I don't want to risk getting that in my system, especially since I might end up taking anything from 6 to say 15 capsules per day. If it was only 1 capsule/day then it probably wouldn't be much of a problem.

It would be interesting to find out if others who are very sensitive to dairy have been using them and what their results have been (seeing as they only changed the label a few days ago)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was on the Now Betaine HCL that you linked above but for some reason they made me constipated. I wasn't taking it with any other digestive enzyme, though, so that might have something to do with it.

I'm now on Enzymedica's Digest Gold (http://www.enzymedica.com/store/Digest-Gold) and a betaine HCL that my doctor gave me (the brand is escaping me) and I seem to be doing a lot better. I'm finally regular again and the bloat is waaaaay down. Energy is up, too! The Enzymedica folks don't use any fillers and are free of all sorts of allergens. Once I run out of the HCL from my doc, I'm going to try the Now brands version with the digestive enzyme and see if it still causes constipation.

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  • 11 months later...

Did we get an answer on this?

 

I ordered the 180 Capsules of NOW Super Enzymes and just received them from Amazon and was also shocked to see the "Contains sulfites" and "may contain lactose (milk) as a processing aid" on the label since neither are indicated in the product information prior to ordering it.

 

What's the story? Did Melissa get a response from the company?

 

Thanks in advance for the information!! =)

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

NOW Super Enzymes are no longer compliant.  Serious bummer for me because I ordered two big bottles a while back and started using them, then found out here that they now have sulfites.  I was pretty upset.  I still use them occasionally, but not while doing a Whole30.  And, frankly, I find them less effective than their old formulation was.  I should probably toss the rest.  I mean, really, sulfites are a major gut disruptor, so you put them into something that's supposed to help people DIGEST?  Sheesh.

 

Anyway, no, and I feel your pain.

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