Here’s a description that matches the style of your other category introductions while making it clear what belongs in this section:
Not every important nutrient falls into the categories of vitamins, minerals, or amino acids. Many naturally occurring compounds also play valuable roles in supporting your body’s normal functions, overall wellness, and long term health.
In this category, you’ll find evidence based guides covering a wide range of essential and beneficial nutrients that do not fit into the traditional nutrient groups. Our articles explore other naturally occurring compounds and their functions, food sources, recommended intake when available, potential health benefits, safety considerations, and the latest scientific research.
Whether you’re expanding your nutrition knowledge or looking for reliable information about a specific nutrient, this collection will help you better understand the many substances that contribute to a healthy diet.
The Fat Molecule Bodybuilders Forgot to Ask About Walk into any supplement shop and you’ll be buried under creatine tubs, branched-chain amino acid blends, and protein powders promising miracles. Ask the guy behind the counter about phosphatidic acid, though, and you’ll probably get a blank stare. That’s strange, because this unassuming little phospholipid might be … Read more
The Fat Your Skin Can’t Live Without I want to start with a confession. For years, when friends asked me what actually keeps skin looking plump and feeling comfortable, I’d talk about hydration, about sunscreen, about not sleeping in your makeup. All true. All useful. But I was skipping over the one ingredient doing more … Read more
When Gut Bacteria Get a Little Help From Their Friends If probiotics are the seeds and prebiotics are the fertilizer, why not plant them together? This question, in a roundabout way, is exactly what led scientists to coin the term synbiotics almost three decades ago. Here’s the thing about the gut microbiome that took me … Read more
The Butter Compound Your Gut Has Been Missing Many people ask themselves if they should start eating more butter for their gut health. It isn’t as silly a question as it sounded. Buried inside butterfat is a small, unassuming molecule called tributyrin, and it turns out to be one of the more elegant solutions nature … Read more
The Sugar Your Mitochondria Have Been Waiting For Most people hear the word “sugar” and immediately think of the enemy. Cookies, soda, that second helping of dessert you promised yourself you wouldn’t have. So it throws people off, understandably, when they learn that one particular sugar is quietly essential to whether their cells can even … Read more