Digestion & Absorption Rate of Enteral or Elemental FormulasI formulated Absorb Plus for Imix Nutrition, back in 1998, after devising my own elemental shake formula that I used to heal myself from a severe flare of colonic hemorrhaging, brought on by mercury poisoning. My hemoglobin was 2/14, I weighed 99 lbs (I’m 5’7″) but within 6 weeks of ingesting only my elemental shake, bone broths, and supplements, I weighed 136 lbs and was cycling to the gym to work out 3x/week. Six weeks later I was pregnant. The healing was nothing short of miraculous! My regimen is detailed in my book, The IBD Remission Diet.

At the time, both the head of Gastroenterology at Vancouver General Hospital, and a friend who is a Medical Geneticist (also diagnosed with Crohn’s) told me that elemental or polymeric shakes were absorbed into the bloodstream within 20 minutes. Hence they were not recommended for diabetics, as the uptake was too fast. I didn’t question their claim.

But recently a reader emailed in asking how that absorption rate was determined. So I went searching, and I have been unable to find a clear parameter in the scientific literature. Indeed digestion and absorption seem to be very complicated… as you can see from this first article, “absorption” is assessed using numerous parameters:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/089990079500016X?via%3Dihub

Fat ingestion also affects digestion/absorption time, but as Absorb Plus does not contain any added fat (you add your own according to tolerance level), this is not accounted for when Imix says “within 20 minutes”.

Also, as with Vitamin C, the slower you drink it, the better the absorption is – hence why Imix recommends people drink the shakes slowly. I formulated Absorb Plus to have roughly 27 grams of protein per serving, and I based that calculation on bodybuilders’ protein intake. Because if you ingest more protein than your body can utilize, it will excrete it via urine. Thus, it’s recommended not to ingest more than 1 shake per hour for efficient protein utilization.

In addition, Absorb Plus is available in both whey isolate and vegan versions (what are the digestion/absorption rates of whey isolate vs sprouted brown rice isolate?), and soon will be available in a free-from amino acid version – which will likely have the fastest absorption.

This first article gives you an idea of how absorption is assessed using osmolality – and then testing for tolerance and malabsorption:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3099002/

This second article details how osmolality is assessed:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9570264/

And this one is very in-depth in assessing “quality and composition of any enteral formula, since the basic components are responsible for tolerance and nutrition efficacy”:

https://aspenjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1177/0884533617724759

We used to think that Absorb Plus was not ideal for diabetics due to the rapid absorption rate – and some people experience rapid pulse following ingestion – but later data has shown whey-based elemental formulas are actually beneficial for diabetics.

Glucose Management in the ICU: The Evolving Role of Nutrition
Todd Rice MD, MSc

Hyperglycemia is prevalent in the ICU and is associated with poor outcomes. The traditional treatment is insulin, but its use increases risk of hypoglycemia. New evidence suggests using a high protein, hypocaloric enteral formula with nutrients that have insulinotropic properties may help with blood glucose management and reduce frequency of insulin administered.

and

Dietary Management of Blood Glucose in Medical Critically Ill Overweight and Obese Patients: An Open‑Label Randomized Trial
Rice T, Clark Files D, Morris PE, Bernard A, Ziegler T, Drover JU, Kress J, Hamm K, Grathwohl D, Huhmann M, Ochoa Gautier J. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. DOI:10.1002/jpen.1447.

Hyperglycemia is prevalent in the ICU and is associated with poor outcomes. Use of a very high protein (37%), enzymatically hydrolyzed 100% whey protein, low CHO (29%) enteral nutrition formula was related to decreased hyperglycemic events and insulin administration in critically ill overweight/obese ICU patients.

This was confirmed when my own father, 84 years old, smoker, diabetic, triple bypass heart disease, developed pancreatitis following the c-jab. The ONLY food he could consume was Absorb Plus and my MD brother credits it with saving his life. But interestingly, my dad said that his blood sugar went DOWN during his time on Absorb Plus (he was testing daily). We have heard similar stories from a number of my readers. Keep in mind, that nutritional data and clinical trials are uncovering new information all the time – but your body always knows the truth.

Oh, and I have one more story from you, from a person with end-stage AIDS. But they were not dying from immune malfunction directly, they were dying from malnutrition. Because no matter what they ate, they would vomit it up within an hour. Well, when they started using Absorb Plus, it didn’t matter that they vomited within the hour because the nutrients were already in their bloodstream. They began gaining weight and thus gaining in health. The vomiting stopped, and they were on their way to recovery.

I hope all this gives you a better understanding of the subject. If you manage to find a reference that gives us an actual absorption time for enteral/elemental formulas – please let me know!

And see my recent post on how to make your own elemental or easily-digested shakes.