The method
How We Build
Every ingredient has to earn its place. Here's the test it has to pass.
The Five-Gate Test
- 1Mechanism
Is there a plausible reason in the body for it to work?
- 2Human evidence
Has it been studied in people, not only in mice and lab dishes?
- 3Clinical dose
Is it in at the amount the studies used? A sprinkle for the label doesn't count.
- 4No repeats
Does another rung already do this job? If it does, one of them loses it.
- 5The Chief Lab Rat
Dr. Heath takes it himself, at his own bench, before it goes any further.
An ingredient that fails a gate comes out, no matter how good it looks on a label.
Flavor
Real food flavor
Flavor comes from real food. No ethyl maltol, the cotton-candy flavoring behind a lot of protein powders.
Safety
Big servings come with a notice
Any product with 25 grams of protein or more carries a cardiovascular notice on its label.
Off the shelf for good
Five ingredients we won't use
Some popular ingredients get in the way of the enzymes the body uses to process other compounds, including many of the prescriptions men our age take. Five of them are off our shelf for good:
- Piperine (black pepper extract)
- Berberine
- Rhodiola
- Ashwagandha
- EGCG (green tea extract)