Live Well, Age Well

Blood sugar is having a moment. Continuous glucose monitors have moved from hospitals to healthy people’s arms. Spike this, flatten that, eat your vegetables first. A lot of it is useful. Some of it is noise. But nearly all of it shares one assumption — that your blood sugar response is a function of what you put in your mouth. That is roughly half the story. The other half is already living inside you. What actually changes as our bodies change Start with the honest version of the aging part, because it is more nuanced than the headlines. Researchers comparing glucose handling in older and younger adults found two things moving at once. Insulin secretion declined — after accounting for insulin resistance, every measure of insulin output was lower in the older group, pointing to the pancreas working less efficiently. And insulin sensitivity declined too. But the second finding came with a caveat worth sitting with. When the researchers adjusted for body fat and visceral fat, the insulin sensitivity difference between the age groups largely disappeared. Body composition explained it better than age did. That is a more hopeful finding than it first sounds. Part of what we file under “getting older” is actually a description of what tends to happen to body composition over decades — and body composition is something you have some say over. The pancreatic side is harder to argue with. The sensitivity side is not fixed. Which raises the obvious question: what moves insulin sensitivity? Diet. Movement. Sleep. Body composition. All true, all well covered elsewhere. And something that rarely makes the list. Your gut bacteria are part of your metabolic system In Part 4 we worked through what fermentable fiber does in the colon — your gut bacteria break down what you cannot digest, and produce short-chain fatty acids as a byproduct. Butyrate is the one worth knowing by name. It fuels the cells lining your colon and helps hold the intestinal barrier together. That post treated it as a gut story. It turns out not to stop at the gut. Short-chain fatty acids do not stay in the colon. They enter circulation. And once they are circulating, they show up in places that have nothing obviously to do with digestion — influencing how fat tissue behaves, how the liver handles glucose, and how sensitive your tissues are to insulin. So the bacteria fermenting your fiber are not running a separate operation down there. They are participating in your metabolism. Which means the question stops being only “what did you eat” and becomes partly “what did you feed them, and what did they make out of it.” What a 2025 trial actually found This has been a plausible theory for a while. What changed recently is that someone tested it properly, with the specific fiber this is all about. Researchers ran a 12-week randomized, placebo-controlled trial in adults at elevated risk for type 2 diabetes. The intervention was an intrinsic chicory root fiber — fiber still inside the intact plant cells of the root, rather than an isolated extract. The results were published in Cell Reports Medicine in 2025. What they measured, and what they found: Outcome Result Whole-body insulin sensitivity Improved (p = 0.032) Peripheral insulin sensitivity Trended toward improvement (p = 0.085) Circulating triglycerides Decreased (p = 0.049) Liver fat content Trended toward a decrease (p = 0.063) Proportion of small fat cells Increased (p = 0.008) And the microbial half: the metabolic changes coincided with higher levels of fiber-degrading Bifidobacterium and butyrate-producing Anaerostipes, along with a functional shift in the gut toward butyrate production. The bacteria changed. The metabolism changed. In the same people, over the same twelve weeks, from one dietary change. How to read those numbers honestly Two of the five outcomes “trended” rather than reached significance. That is the paper’s own language and it matters — a trend is a reason for another trial, not a finding you can bank. This was also a specific population: adults at elevated metabolic risk. People who start with room to improve generally show larger changes than people who do not. Whether the same effect appears in metabolically healthy adults is an open question. What makes it compelling is not any single number. It is that the microbial shift and the metabolic shift moved together, in the direction the mechanism predicts. Why the form of the fiber mattered here One detail in that trial is easy to skim past and worth slowing down for. The fiber was intrinsic — still held inside the structure of the chicory root’s plant cells, rather than extracted and purified into a powder. That structure changes where fermentation happens. Fiber locked inside intact plant cells ferments more slowly, which means it survives further along the colon before the bacteria get to it. The researchers specifically noted a shift toward a distal butyrogenic chain — butyrate production happening deeper in the gut, where it may matter more. This is the same lesson as the antioxidant post, arriving from a different direction. Isolate a compound from its food structure and you often change what it does. The matrix is not packaging around the active ingredient. Frequently, the matrix is part of the mechanism. If that argument interests you, Part 5 makes it at length — including why concentrated antioxidant supplements failed in trials while the foods they came from did not. Fiber and protein are better together here too There is a more immediate mechanism alongside the bacterial one, and it works on a timescale of hours rather than weeks. Protein and viscous fiber both slow gastric emptying. Food leaves the stomach more gradually, glucose enters the bloodstream more gradually, and the curve that follows a meal is flatter and longer instead of sharp and short. That is the difference between an afternoon that holds and an afternoon that collapses at three o’clock. Not willpower. Gastric emptying. So the two mechanisms stack. In the short run, fiber and protein together shape the glucose curve of the meal you just ate. In the long run, fermentable fiber feeds the bacteria whose output appears to influence how sensitive you are to insulin in the first place. One works today. The other works over months. They are not alternatives. Where our bars sit in this, precisely Here is the careful version, and I want to be exact about the limits. The 8 to 9 grams of fiber on our panel is chicory root inulin — the same fiber that trial studied. That is not a coincidence of ingredient sourcing. It is on the FDA’s recognized dietary fiber list, which is why it can be counted on the panel at all. What our bars are not is that trial. The researchers used a specific intrinsic fiber preparation, at a controlled dose, for twelve weeks, in a population selected for metabolic risk. A bar is food. It is not a clinical intervention and I am not going to dress it up as one. What it is: a reliable way to get a meaningful amount of the fiber that research keeps pointing at, alongside twelve grams of protein, in a form you will actually eat on a Tuesday afternoon when the alternative is whatever is in the break room. That last part is not a small thing. The trial ran twelve weeks because that is how long this kind of change takes. Mechanisms that work over months require something you can repeat. What to actually do with this Four things, in order of how much they matter. Do this Why it works Eat fermentable fiber most days, not perfectly The bacterial shift took twelve weeks. Consistency beats intensity here. Pair fiber with protein in the same sitting Two different mechanisms, one meal — the immediate curve and the long-term adaptation Favor fiber still inside its food Beans, oats, whole fruit, intact plants. Structure appears to change where fermentation happens. Give it a week when you increase Coming from a low-fiber diet, your microbiome needs time to reorganize. That adjustment is normal. None of that requires a monitor on your arm. It requires beans, oats, vegetables, and the patience to let a twelve-week mechanism take twelve weeks. The part that surprised me I came to fiber the way most people do — as a digestion topic. Something you handle when something is wrong. A pharmacy-aisle nutrient. Four posts into writing this series, it keeps turning out to be the other thing. The barrier that holds. The bacteria that make the compounds. And now, apparently, a lever on how your body handles the food you eat for the rest of the day. We spent a lot of years treating the gut as a processing plant — input here, output there, no further involvement. That turns out to be badly incomplete. The population living down there is participating in decisions you thought were being made somewhere else entirely. You can feed them well or you can feed them poorly. They respond either way, and the research suggests they respond fairly quickly. That is a better deal than most things on offer for aging well. This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What’s Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label · Part 6: Your Blood Sugar Has a Gut Problem Here’s to aging well… Cheers! Joel J. MontesanoFounder, Five Plus Protein References Omary L, Canfora EE, Puhlmann ML, Gavriilidou A, Rijnaarts I, Holst JJ, Op den Kamp-Bruls YMH, de Vos WM, Blaak EE. Intrinsic chicory root fibers modulate colonic microbial butyrate-producing pathways and improve insulin sensitivity in individuals with obesity. Cell Reports Medicine. 2025;6(7):102237. Basu R, Dalla Man C, Campioni M, et al. Effects of age and sex on postprandial glucose metabolism. Diabetes. 2006;55(7):2001–2014. Basu R, Breda E, Oberg AL, et al. Mechanisms of the age-associated deterioration in glucose tolerance. Diabetes. 2003;52(7):1738–1748. Dried chicory root improves bowel function and increases faecal and circulating short chain fatty acids in subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes. Gut Microbiome. 2022. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidance, science review, and citizen petition responses on dietary fiber. June 14, 2018.

Walk down any aisle in any grocery store and count how many packages say the word antioxidant. Juice. Tea. Chocolate. Cereal. Trail mix. Bottled water, somehow. The word has been doing marketing work for about thirty years, and it has been doing it so successfully that a lot of us have stopped asking what it means. I want to ask. Because the honest answer turned out to be considerably more interesting than I expected — and considerably less flattering to the industry that put the word on everything. Here is the short version. Oxidative stress is real, it matters a great deal as our bodies change, and the foods people call antioxidant foods do appear to help. But a lot of what we were taught about why they help does not hold up, the scoring system brands used to prove it was retired by the USDA more than a decade ago, and the pill version of the idea failed badly enough in clinical trials that researchers started warning people off it. That is a lot to unpack. Let us go in order. What oxidative stress actually is Every cell in your body runs on a controlled burn. You take in oxygen and fuel, your mitochondria convert them into usable energy, and like any combustion process, that reaction throws off byproducts. Some of those byproducts are molecules with an unpaired electron. They are unstable, they are reactive, and they will take an electron from whatever is nearest — a cell membrane, a protein, a strand of DNA. Those are free radicals. The damage they do is called oxidative damage, and the state of having more of them than your body can comfortably manage is oxidative stress. Your body is not defenseless here. It produces its own antioxidant enzymes, and it repairs oxidative damage constantly, all day, without being asked. This is normal maintenance, not an emergency. What changes as we age is the balance. Mitochondrial function shifts. Repair capacity declines. The maintenance crew is still working, but it falls a little further behind each year. Oxidative stress is one of the mechanisms researchers point to when they describe why tissue ages the way it does. So the logic seems obvious. More antioxidants, less damage, better aging. That logic is where things went sideways. Free radicals are not only the enemy In the 1990s and 2000s, researchers ran the obvious experiment. Take the antioxidants found in healthy diets, concentrate them into pills, give them to a lot of people for a long time, and measure what happens. It did not go the way anyone expected. A 2007 meta-analysis in JAMA pooled 68 randomized trials covering 232,606 participants. Among the trials with the lowest risk of bias, beta-carotene supplementation was associated with a 7% increase in mortality. Vitamin A, 16%. Vitamin E, 4%. Taken together, antioxidant supplementation was associated with a 5% increase. Not no benefit. Worse than no benefit. The authors offered a theory for why, and it is the single most useful idea in this entire post: by eliminating free radicals wholesale, high-dose supplements may interfere with defensive mechanisms the body actually needs. Free radicals are not purely damage. They are also signals. Your body uses them to communicate that a cell is under stress, which is what triggers the repair and defense machinery to switch on in the first place. Exercise generates free radicals. That is part of how exercise makes you stronger. Flood the system with enough concentrated antioxidant to mop up the signal, and you may quiet the alarm without addressing the fire.   The distinction that matters A megadose of an isolated compound and a normal serving of a whole food are not the same intervention, even when the compound came from the food. This is the single most common error in nutrition marketing: find a beneficial compound in a food, concentrate it, sell it, and assume the benefit concentrates with it. The evidence says it frequently does not — and sometimes reverses. The scoreboard the USDA threw out If you have shopped for antioxidant anything, you have probably seen an ORAC score — Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. For years it was the number brands used to rank foods. Higher ORAC, more antioxidant, better for you. The USDA maintained a public database of ORAC values and the industry built a great deal of marketing on top of it. In 2012 the USDA withdrew that database entirely. Their stated reasoning is worth reading closely. The agency cited mounting evidence that antioxidant capacity values have no relevance to the effects of specific bioactive compounds, noted that results from a test tube cannot be extrapolated to effects in a human body, and said directly that ORAC values were being routinely misused by food and supplement manufacturers to promote their products. They went further than that. The USDA stated there is no evidence that the beneficial effects of polyphenol-rich foods can be attributed to the antioxidant properties of those foods. Read that twice. The agency was not saying these foods do not help. It was saying the antioxidant explanation for why they help does not hold up. That was fourteen years ago. ORAC scores are still printed on packaging and still cited in marketing copy today.   What to do with this in a store aisle An ORAC number on a package is not a lie, exactly. It is a real measurement of how a substance behaves in a test tube. It is simply not a measurement of what that substance does inside a person — which is the thing you were trying to find out. Treat it the way you would treat any number a brand chose to print because it flattered them. So why do these foods keep showing up in the outcomes? Here is the part that took researchers another decade to work out, and it reframes everything above. Polyphenols — the large family of plant compounds in cacao, coffee, tea, berries, turmeric, olive oil, red onion, and most deeply pigmented plants — turn out to be fairly mediocre direct antioxidants inside the body. They are poorly absorbed. Most of what you eat never reaches your bloodstream intact. On paper, they should not do much. And yet the population data keeps pointing the same direction. The current explanation is called hormesis, and it inverts the usual story. A 2025 review in Food Chemistry Advances describes polyphenols as compounds with relatively modest direct antioxidant activity that are nonetheless powerful inducers of hormetic responses — acting as mild stressors that stimulate the body’s own cellular defense systems rather than doing the defending themselves. In plain terms: a polyphenol is not a bucket of water thrown on the fire. It is a small, controlled poke at the system that prompts your own defenses to turn up. Which explains the supplement failures cleanly. If the benefit comes from a mild signal, a megadose is not a stronger signal — it is a different intervention entirely. The same review notes that at high enough concentrations, these compounds stop behaving protectively and start behaving the other way. Dose is not a detail here. Dose is the whole mechanism. What the best cacao study actually found The largest test of this idea deserves an honest accounting, including the part that did not work. COSMOS — the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study — followed more than 21,000 adults aged 60 and older for about five years. Half received a daily cocoa extract delivering 500 mg of cocoa flavanols, including 80 mg of epicatechin. Half received placebo. The primary endpoint was total cardiovascular events. The cocoa group saw roughly a 10% reduction. That result was not statistically significant. By the standard the trial set for itself before it began, the primary endpoint did not hit. A secondary endpoint did. Cardiovascular death fell 27% in the cocoa group, and that result was statistically significant. Among participants who actually took the capsules consistently, it was 39%. What should you do with that? Carefully, is the answer. A secondary endpoint that hits after a primary endpoint misses is a reason to run another trial, not a reason to declare the question settled. Any brand quoting you the 27% without mentioning the primary endpoint is telling you half of a story they know the other half of. It is still a real signal from a very large, very well-run study, and it points the same direction as decades of population data. It is just not proof, and I would rather hand you the whole thing than the flattering half. Where our bars actually sit in this Let me be precise, because this is exactly the kind of section where food brands get loose. Every LAST bar is built on cinnamon and turmeric plus one more botanical — cacao in PB Cacao and Café Mocha, ginger in Lemon Ginger. Those are not decorative. They are among the more polyphenol-dense ingredients in an ordinary kitchen, and they are in there at food amounts, in a food matrix, alongside protein and fiber. A bar is not a 500 mg flavanol capsule, and I am not going to suggest it is. COSMOS tested a concentrated extract at a specific dose. Our bars are food. What they offer is the thing the research actually keeps supporting — polyphenol-rich plants in normal amounts, eaten regularly, as part of a diet — rather than the thing it keeps failing to support, which is a concentrated dose of an isolated compound. And you will not find an ORAC score anywhere on our packaging. Now you know why.   The one nobody orders Café Mocha Latte with Cacao Nibs is our least-ordered flavor. By ingredient, it is also the most polyphenol-dense bar we make: cacao nibs, cocoa powder, coffee powder, coffee fruit extract, cinnamon, and turmeric, all in one wrapper. Cacao and coffee are two of the most-studied polyphenol sources in the human diet, and that bar is the only place we put both together. If you have been ordering around it, this is the post where I ask you to reconsider. How to actually eat for this No scoring system required. The practical version is almost boringly simple.   Instead of Do this Why Chasing a high ORAC number Eating deeply pigmented plants Color tracks polyphenol content better than any printed score A megadose antioxidant pill Food amounts, most days The mechanism depends on modest, repeated exposure One "superfood" Variety across many plants Different polyphenol families trigger different pathways Thinking of it as damage control Thinking of it as training You are prompting your own defenses, not substituting for them   Berries, dark chocolate, coffee, green tea, olive oil, red onion, herbs and spices, anything deep purple or deep red or deep green. That is the list. It has not changed in twenty years and it does not require a subscription. The same rule that governs the rest of this series applies here: read the ingredient list, not the front of the package. If you want the method for that, it is in Part 2 — and the fiber version of this same argument is in Part 4. What I changed my mind about I came into this believing roughly what the packaging told me. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, free radicals cause aging, therefore more antioxidants is better, therefore the number on the label means something. Three of those four turned out to be wrong or badly incomplete. Free radicals are not simply villains — they are part of how your body knows to defend itself. More is not better, and the trials that tested more found worse. The number on the label was retired by the agency that created it, for the specific reason that companies were using it the way I was reading it. What survived is the part that was never really about antioxidants at all. Eat a lot of different plants, including the darkly colored ones, in ordinary amounts, most days, for years. Your body does the rest, and it does it better when you give it something to respond to rather than something to replace it. That is a less exciting claim than the front of a juice bottle. It is also the one that holds up.   Cinnamon, turmeric, and cacao in every bite. Twelve grams of plant protein. No ORAC score, because it would not mean anything. Try Café Mocha Latte This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What's Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label   Here’s to aging well… Cheers!   Joel J. Montesano Founder, Five Plus Protein     References Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2007;297(8):842–857. 68 trials, 232,606 participants. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Withdrawal of the USDA ORAC Database for Selected Foods, 2012 — antioxidant capacity values have no demonstrated relevance to the effects of specific bioactive compounds and were being routinely misused in product promotion. Perrone P, D’Angelo S. Hormesis and health: molecular mechanisms and the key role of polyphenols. Food Chemistry Advances. 2025;7:101030. Sesso HD, Manson JE, et al. Effect of cocoa flavanol supplementation for the prevention of cardiovascular disease events: the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) randomized clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2022. n > 21,000 adults aged 60+, 500 mg cocoa flavanols daily. Baker LD, et al. Effects of cocoa extract and a multivitamin on cognitive function: a randomized clinical trial. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2023 — the COSMOS-Mind cognitive arm.

Protein has had a very good decade. It is on the front of every package, in every ad, at the center of every conversation about staying strong as we age. And it deserves the attention. I have spent three posts in this series making that case myself. Fiber has had a very different decade. Nobody is arguing about it. Nobody is marketing it. There is no fiber influencer. And that quiet is exactly the problem, because fiber is the nutrient with one of the widest gaps between what we need and what we actually eat. How wide? Researchers analyzing national nutrition survey data from more than 14,000 U.S. adults found that roughly 7% of adults meet the daily fiber recommendation — about 5% of men and 9% of women. The rest of us are somewhere below the line, most of us well below it. Average intake sits near 16 grams a day against targets of roughly 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. We are not slightly short. We are, as a country, eating about half the fiber we need. And the reason that matters has almost nothing to do with what most people think fiber is for. Fiber is not a digestion nutrient. It is an aging nutrient. Most of us learned about fiber in the narrowest possible terms. It keeps you regular. It is what you take when something is wrong. It lives in the pharmacy aisle next to things nobody wants to discuss. That framing is not wrong, exactly. It is just so small that it misses the actual story. Here is the bigger version. Your large intestine houses a population of bacteria that you cannot live well without. Those bacteria have a job, and the job is fermentation — breaking down the fibers you cannot digest yourself and producing compounds called short-chain fatty acids as a byproduct. Butyrate is the one worth knowing by name. It is the preferred fuel source for the cells lining your colon, and it is central to keeping the intestinal barrier intact. That barrier is the thing that matters as our bodies change. Reviews of the aging gut describe a consistent pattern: microbial diversity tends to decline with age, the bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids become less abundant, and the tight junctions that hold the intestinal barrier together lose some of their integrity. Researchers connect that combination to inflammaging — the persistent, low-grade inflammation that shows up as a hallmark of aging across nearly every system in the body. In other words: the gut does not just get less comfortable as we age. It gets less protective. And the primary thing you can feed the bacteria that hold that line is fiber. The number that made me pay attention Researchers following more than 1,600 adults aged 50 and older for a decade looked at which dietary factor best predicted what they called successful aging — reaching the end of the follow-up period free of disability, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, respiratory symptoms, and chronic disease. They tested total carbohydrate intake. Glycemic index. Glycemic load. Total sugar. Fiber was the strongest predictor of the group. Participants in the highest fiber intake group had close to an 80% greater likelihood of aging well over those ten years. One observational study is not proof of cause. But when the nutrient nobody markets outperforms every other carbohydrate variable in the analysis, that is worth more than a shrug. Some fiber feeds your gut. Some just passes through. Here is where the label gets interesting, and where a lot of well-intentioned shopping goes sideways. "Fiber" on a Nutrition Facts panel is a regulatory category, not a description of what something does in your body. It covers a wide range of compounds that share one trait — your small intestine cannot break them down — and almost nothing else. Some pass through largely inert, adding bulk and not much more. Some form a gel that slows digestion. And some are actively fermented by your gut bacteria, which is the category that produces the short-chain fatty acids we just talked about. That last group has a name: prebiotic fiber. A prebiotic is not a probiotic. You are not swallowing bacteria. You are sending food to the bacteria you already have, which is a considerably more reliable proposition than hoping a capsule of live cultures survives the trip. Inulin, the fiber found in chicory root, is one of the best-studied prebiotic fibers there is. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 55 adults, dried chicory root increased fecal acetate, propionate, and butyrate by about 26%, with matching increases in circulating levels. Bifidobacterium and Anaerostipes — two groups central to that fermentation chain — increased three- to fourfold. Stool softness and bowel frequency improved. The effects appeared quickly and reversed when the fiber was withdrawn, which is its own kind of evidence: the bacteria respond to what you actually feed them, this week, not to what you ate five years ago. That is the distinction worth carrying into a store. The question is not how many grams of fiber. The question is what kind, and whether it does anything once it arrives. The source matters more than the number This is the part of the label conversation that almost nobody has, and it is the reason we built our bars the way we did. When the FDA modernized the Nutrition Facts panel, it did something that sounds bureaucratic and turned out to be consequential: it decided that a compound can only be counted on the Dietary Fiber line if there is evidence it produces a beneficial physiological effect in humans. Not just that it resists digestion. That it does something. Then the agency published a list. Inulin and inulin-type fructans — chicory root fiber — made the list in June 2018. Isomaltooligosaccharide, almost always labeled as IMO, did not. Two separate manufacturer petitions asked the FDA to add it. In January 2020 the agency denied both, concluding that the strength of the evidence did not show a beneficial physiological effect in humans. Now put that next to a shelf of high-fiber bars. IMO syrup is one of the most widely used ingredients in the bar category. It is inexpensive, it binds beautifully, it tastes mildly sweet, and for years it was counted as fiber. After the FDA’s decision, it cannot be. Which means a bar built on IMO either has to reformulate, or watch its fiber number fall. What this means when you read a panel If a bar shows a large Dietary Fiber number today, that number is legally required to come from fibers the FDA recognizes. The grams on the line are real. What the line will not tell you is whether the rest of the bar's bulk comes from something the agency has specifically declined to count — that information is in the ingredient list, not the panel.   So let me be direct about our own label, because we use IMO syrup too, and I would rather you hear it from me than find it yourself. IMO syrup is fifth on our PB Cacao ingredient list. It is there for structure. Without it, we do not have a bar that holds together, travels, or tastes like something you want to eat twice. It has been generally recognized as safe since 2008, it is well tolerated at the amounts in a single bar, and I have no interest in pretending it is a villain. What it is not is our fiber. The 8 to 9 grams of Dietary Fiber on our panel come from chicory root fiber — the inulin that sits second on every one of our ingredient lists, ahead of the protein. We did not pad the number. We could not have, even if we wanted to. That is not marketing language. It is a consequence of how the panel is regulated, and it is verifiable by anyone willing to read two documents. Why 8 or 9 grams, and not 15 People ask this one more than I expected. If fiber is good and most of us are short, why not build a bar with twenty grams and close the whole gap in one bite? Because that is not how your gut works. Fermentable fiber is fermented. That is the entire point. But fermentation produces gas along with the short-chain fatty acids, and the amount your system handles comfortably at one sitting has a ceiling. Push past it and the experience stops being pleasant — bloating, pressure, the kind of afternoon that makes people swear off fiber entirely and go back to eating none. Eight to nine grams in a single serving sits near the practical upper end of what most people tolerate well in one sitting. It moves you roughly a third of the way to a daily target in one bar, which is meaningful, while leaving room for the fiber in your actual meals — where most of it should be coming from anyway. A bar is not supposed to replace vegetables. It is supposed to make the day you did not eat enough of them less of a loss. One honest heads-up If you are coming from a low-fiber diet — and statistically, most of us are — give your system a few days to adjust. Adding eight or nine grams at once to a gut that has not seen much fermentable fiber lately can feel like a lot at first. That is not a problem with the bar. It is your microbiome reorganizing around a new food supply. Start with one bar a day, drink water with it, and give it about a week. The adjustment is real, it is temporary, and it is worth sitting through. Fiber and protein are better together than either is alone In the last post I made the case for protein as the anchor nutrient for holding onto muscle as our bodies change. Fiber is the other half of that equation, and the two work differently enough that pairing them changes what a snack actually does. Protein is the most satiating of the three macronutrients — more filling, gram for gram, than either carbohydrate or fat. Fiber slows gastric emptying and blunts the speed at which glucose enters the bloodstream. Put them in the same serving and you get something that keeps you full and keeps the next two hours steady — rather than the rise and collapse that sends you back to the pantry at three in the afternoon looking for whatever is closest. This is the difference between a snack that interrupts your hunger and a snack that resolves it. Twelve grams of protein and nine grams of fiber in two hundred calories is not an accident of formulation. It is the specific combination that makes the calories do work. And it is why the total sugar line matters as much as the added sugar line — a point worth reading in full in Part 2 of this series, where we walk the whole panel line by line. What to actually look for If you take one practical thing from this post, make it this sequence. It takes about fifteen seconds in a store aisle.   Step What to do What you learn 1 Find the Dietary Fiber line on the panel The honest grams — legally limited to recognized fibers 2 Read the first five ingredients Where the bulk of the food actually comes from 3 Look for a named prebiotic fiber Chicory root, inulin, or another recognized fermentable fiber 4 Check where the syrups sit Structure ingredients near the top mean sweetness is doing the work 5 Compare fiber to protein A real food bar carries both; a candy bar carries neither   That is the whole method. It does not require a nutrition degree, and it does not require trusting anybody’s marketing — including ours. The quiet nutrient I spent most of my training life optimizing protein and barely thinking about fiber. I counted grams of one and ignored the other entirely, and I would not have told you there was a cost to that, because nobody was telling anyone there was. What changed my mind was not a headline. It was noticing, over and over in the research, that the nutrient nobody is marketing keeps showing up in the outcomes that actually matter — the barrier that holds, the inflammation that stays low, the decade that goes well instead of going sideways. Fiber is not exciting. It is not going to trend. But it is one of the clearest, cheapest, most under-used levers we have for aging the way we want to age, and almost all of us are leaving it on the table. You do not need a bar to fix that. Beans, oats, berries, artichokes, and a hundred other ordinary foods will do it better and cheaper than we can. But on the days when the vegetables did not happen and the afternoon is coming at you anyway, it matters what you reach for — and it matters whether the fiber on that label is doing anything once it gets where it is going. Ours is. Eight to nine grams of chicory root fiber. Twelve grams of plant protein. No added sugar. One bar, one habit, one thing off the list. Shop LAST Bars This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What's Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label Here’s to aging well… Cheers! Joel J. Montesano Founder, Five Plus Protein References Miketinas D, et al. Usual dietary fiber intake among US adults with and without diabetes: NHANES 2013–2018. Presented at NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE, American Society for Nutrition. n = 14,640. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Fiber intake of the U.S. population: What We Eat in America, NHANES. FSRG Dietary Data Briefs. Giannouli V, et al. Gut microbiota and ageing: mechanisms, age-related diseases, and therapeutic perspectives. Healthcare. 2026;14(14):2117. Gopinath B, et al. Carbohydrate nutrition is associated with successful aging over 10 years. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. 2016. Blue Mountains Eye Study, n > 1,600 adults aged 50+. Dried chicory root improves bowel function, benefits intestinal microbial trophic chains and increases faecal and circulating short chain fatty acids in subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes. Gut Microbiome (Cambridge University Press). 2022. Randomized placebo-controlled trial, n = 55. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA issues guidance, science review, and citizen petition responses on dietary fiber. June 14, 2018 — identifies inulin and inulin-type fructans among non-digestible carbohydrates meeting the dietary fiber definition. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Responses to citizen petitions regarding isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO). January 13, 2020 — both petitions denied; evidence did not demonstrate a beneficial physiological effect in humans.

For most of my life I thought of protein as a young man's concern. I started training at twelve. Through my twenties and thirties, protein was about building something — putting on size, recovering from hard sessions, chasing a number in the gym. I naturally thought that as I got older and trained less aggressively, I'd need less of it. That turns out to be backwards. And it's one of the more consequential things I got wrong. The Number Most of Us Are Using Is a Floor, Not a Target If you've ever looked up how much protein you need, you probably found the RDA: 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. For someone at 170 pounds, that's about 62 grams a day. Here's what that number actually means. The RDA was established as the minimum required to prevent deficiency in most healthy adults. It answers the question "how little can I get away with?" — not "how much do I need to thrive?" Those are different questions, and the gap between them widens as our bodies change. What Actually Changes Two things shift, and they compound. Muscle becomes something you maintain Starting somewhere in the fourth decade, adults lose muscle mass gradually and continuously. The decline is slow enough that many people don't notice it happening — they notice the result. The suitcase feels heavier. Getting up off the floor takes a hand on the coffee table. Recovery from a long day takes longer than it used to. This progressive loss of muscle mass and strength has a name — sarcopenia — and it isn't a disease you catch. It's the default trajectory in the absence of enough stimulus and enough protein. Your muscles respond less efficiently to the same protein This is the part I'd never heard of, and it changes what you do about the first one. When you eat protein, your body uses it to build and repair muscle tissue. As we age, that response becomes blunted — the same amount of protein produces less of a building signal than it did twenty years earlier. Researchers call this anabolic resistance. The practical consequence is uncomfortable: at exactly the point where you're losing muscle, your body gets worse at using the raw material to replace it. The counterintuitive part Many of us quietly eat less protein as we get older. Appetite softens, meals get smaller, meat feels heavier than it used to. Meanwhile the requirement is going up. So How Much Do You Actually Need? Expert groups that have looked specifically at protein needs in later life — among them the PROT-AGE study group — recommend intakes meaningfully above the RDA. Generally in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for healthy adults, and higher for those training hard or recovering from illness. Those recommendations were written with older adults in mind. But the shift they are responding to does not switch on at sixty-five. It is gradual, and it begins decades earlier — which makes this less a line to cross than a direction to start moving in. Translated into pounds, that's roughly 0.45 to 0.55 grams per pound. Body weight RDA minimum Recommended range as we age 140 lb ~51g ~63–77g 170 lb ~62g ~77–94g 200 lb ~90–110g ~90–110g The gap between those two columns is the thing worth noticing. For a lot of people it's twenty to thirty grams a day — not a wholesale diet change, but not nothing either. One note before we go further: if you have kidney disease or any condition where protein intake is medically managed, these general figures don't apply to you. That's a conversation for your doctor, not a blog post. The Part Almost Nobody Gets Right Here's where the advice usually stops — hit your daily number. But total intake is only half the story. Your body doesn't bank protein. It can't take a large evening intake and apply it retroactively to a morning that had none. Muscle protein synthesis is triggered meal by meal, and each meal needs to clear a threshold to trigger it at all. Which means how you distribute protein across the day matters as much as the total. Many of us eat backwards. Toast or coffee for breakfast. Something light at lunch. Then most of the day's protein arrives at dinner, when the body can only use so much at once. A more useful pattern is roughly even distribution — a meaningful amount of protein at each of three or four points in the day, rather than one large delivery at the end of it. Because of anabolic resistance, the per-meal threshold also rises as we age. A serving that would have triggered a full response at thirty may not at sixty. That's an argument for a bit more at each meal, not just more overall. Quality: Not All Protein Signals Equally Protein is made of amino acids. Nine of them are essential — your body can't make them, so they have to come from food. One in particular, leucine, acts as something close to a switch. It's the amino acid most directly associated with triggering muscle protein synthesis. A protein source rich in leucine sends a stronger signal than one that isn't. This is where plant protein gets unfairly dismissed, and where the picture is more interesting than the usual argument allows. Pea protein contains all nine essential amino acids — it's a complete protein, which many plant sources aren't. And in a twelve-week randomized controlled trial comparing pea protein to whey during resistance training, muscle thickness gains were statistically equivalent between the two groups. The researchers concluded that pea protein could serve as an alternative to whey-based products. That doesn't make them identical. Whey is somewhat higher in leucine per gram and digests faster. But the outcome data over a real training period is closer than many people assume, and the gap narrows further at adequate doses. We'll take that comparison apart properly later in the series. For now, the useful conclusion is simpler than the debate: complete plant protein works. Where This Gets Practical Twenty to thirty extra grams a day sounds like a lot until you break it down. It's one additional protein-forward moment in your day, most days. Some ways that looks in practice: Add protein to breakfast if it's currently coffee and something beige. For many of us this is the highest-leverage change available. Make the mid-morning or mid-afternoon gap a protein moment rather than a carbohydrate one. Same calories, different signal. Anchor each meal around a protein source before deciding what goes with it. Around training, protein before or after the session supports recovery. The total across the day still matters more than hitting a precise window. What We Made, and Why 12 Grams Every LAST Bar has twelve grams of complete plant protein, led by pea protein — all nine essential amino acids, plus iron and arginine. Twelve isn't an accident, and it isn't a maximum. It's the amount that fits into a bar that still tastes like food rather than a supplement, alongside eight to nine grams of prebiotic fiber and zero added sugar. We could have pushed the protein number higher. The bar would have been drier, chalkier, and harder to want. The point isn't that one bar meets your daily requirement. It doesn't. The point is that it closes the gaps — mid-morning, mid-afternoon, before or after a workout, the drive home, the airport — that many of us fill with something offering no protein at all. That's the whole design philosophy: not a meal replacement, but a better version of a moment you're already having. Whichever gap you're trying to close, a box of twelve is the practical way to do it — one decision, ready whenever the moment shows up. Shop LAST Bars The Short Version The RDA is a floor to prevent deficiency, not a target for aging well. Muscle declines gradually from midlife, and your body gets less efficient at using protein at the same time. Recommended intake for healthy adults as we age runs meaningfully above the RDA — roughly 0.45 to 0.55 grams per pound. Distribution matters. Three or four protein moments beat one large dinner. Breakfast is where many of us have the most room to improve. Complete plant protein works. Pea protein contains all nine essential amino acids. Next in the series: the nutrient almost everyone under-eats — fiber, your gut, and why the source matters more than the number. Sources Bauer et al., PROT-AGE Study Group — Evidence-Based Recommendations for Optimal Dietary Protein Intake in Older People, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association Babault et al. — Pea proteins oral supplementation promotes muscle thickness gains during resistance training, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition National Institute on Aging — Age-related muscle loss and physical function (nia.nih.gov) Institute of Medicine — Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids Wall et al. — Anabolic resistance of muscle protein synthesis with aging, Nutrition Reviews Banaszek et al. — The Effects of Whey vs. Pea Protein on Physical Adaptations Following 8 Weeks of High-Intensity Functional Training, Sports This article is general information, not medical or dietary advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What's Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label Here's to aging well… Cheers! — JoelFounder, Five Plus Protein

Last week I wrote about the moment in the grocery aisle — the one where you turn something over, read the back, and quietly decide it's fine. This is the follow-up. If you're going to read the back, it helps to know what you're looking at. None of this is complicated. It took me about thirty years to learn because I wasn't paying attention, not because it's hard. You can pick most of it up in the next ten minutes. I'll walk you through our own label along the way, including the two ingredients people ask us about most. The Front Is Marketing. The Back Is the Truth. Everything on the front of a package is a choice someone made to sell you something. High protein. Low sugar. All natural. Clean. Some of those words have legal definitions. Some don't. The ingredient list and the nutrition panel are different. Those are regulated, standardized, and difficult to dress up. So, the first habit is simply this: flip it over before you read the front. Once you've seen the back, the front stops working on you. Ingredients Are Listed by Weight — and That Tells You Everything This is the single most useful thing on any package, and many people don’t know this, I didn’t. Ingredients appear in descending order by weight. Whatever is listed first, there's the most of. Whatever is near the end, there's very little of. Which means you can tell what a product actually is in about three seconds. If a bar leads with a syrup or a sugar, it's a candy bar with protein added. If it leads with a nut butter, a protein source, or a fiber, it's built on food. One thing to keep in mind so you don't over-read it: potent ingredients belong near the end. Spices and botanicals — cinnamon, turmeric, ginger — are effective at small volumes, and a teaspoon of turmeric weighs almost nothing next to a nut butter. Seeing them low on a list is normal and expected. The tell isn't where the spices land. It's where the bulk ingredients land. If a package sells you on one thing and the ingredient list is mostly something else, that's the gap worth noticing. Try this on your next bar Read only the first three ingredients. Ignore everything else for a moment. Those three make up most of what you're about to eat. If they aren't things you'd want to eat on purpose, the rest of the list won't save it. The Two Sugar Lines The nutrition panel gives you two separate numbers. Total Sugars, and beneath it, Includes Added Sugars. Most guidance tells you to check added sugar. That's good advice as far as it goes. Added sugar is sugar that was put in during processing, and less of it is better. But it isn't the whole picture. A bar sweetened entirely with dates, fruit concentrate, or juice concentrate can honestly print 0g added sugar on its panel — because technically, none was added. The fruit was already sweet. Meanwhile that same bar might carry fifteen or more grams of total sugar. Your bloodstream doesn't know the difference. Concentrated fruit sugar behaves a great deal like any other sugar once it's in you. The fiber and structure that would have slowed it down in a whole date are largely gone by the time it's a paste in a bar. So, check both lines. Added sugar tells you about the manufacturer's intent. Total sugar tells you what your body is going to deal with. This matters more as we age. Repeated glucose spikes contribute to glycation — a process where sugar molecules bind to proteins in the body and gradually stiffen tissue over time. One bar is not a big deal, but you don’t want to make a habit out of it. What Isn't There Matters As Much As What Is I had been trained for years to look for grams of protein and little else. I didn't even know what was missing. Most protein bars deliver protein and then stop. That's the whole job. Which is fine, as far as it goes — but it means a lot of what you're eating is doing one thing and nothing else. Three things worth looking for: Fiber Roughly ninety-five percent of adults don't meet daily fiber recommendations. A bar with two grams isn't moving that needle. Eight or nine grams is about the practical ceiling for a single serving — enough to make a real dent in the daily gap, and about as much as most people want at one time. Significantly more than that in one sitting tends to produce more discomfort than benefit. Check whether the fiber comes from a named source — chicory root, oat fiber, acacia — or whether it just appears as a number on the panel. The source matters, and I’ll come back to why. One practical note if you're coming from a low-fiber diet: give it a few days. Going from very little fiber to eight or nine grams in a sitting can feel like a lot at first. That usually settles within a week as your gut adjusts. Functional ingredients Look for whether anything in the list is doing more than one job. Cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, cacao, and similar botanicals have each been studied for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. They also happen to taste like something. Most bars contain none of these. Not fewer than others — none. That's worth noticing, because it means the bar is contributing calories and protein and nothing else. Fat source Nuts, seeds, coconut, and MCT oil are meaningfully different from palm oil or generic vegetable oil. The label will tell you which. The Sweetener Section — Where It Gets Confusing This is the part of a label that trips up almost everyone, including people who read labels carefully. It's also where our own panel needs a minute of explanation, so I'll do both at once. Sugar alcohols are not one thing Maltitol, sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, erythritol, and glycerin are all classified as sugar alcohols — polyols. They get grouped under a single line on the nutrition panel. But they behave very differently once you eat them, and treating them as one category is where most label advice goes wrong. The difference is absorption. Sorbitol, maltitol, and mannitol are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. Whatever isn't absorbed continues into the colon, where gut bacteria ferment it. That fermentation is what produces the gas, bloating, and discomfort an hour after eating a "healthy" bar. The FDA takes this seriously enough that products containing sorbitol or mannitol are required to carry a warning that excess consumption may have a laxative effect. Glycerin behaves differently. It's readily and completely absorbed in the small intestine, which means it never reaches the colon to ferment. That's why no laxative warning is required for it. Our bars list three to four grams of sugar alcohol on the panel, and all of it is vegetable glycerin — plant-derived, vegan, and there to keep a low-sugar bar soft instead of hard and chalky. The FDA requires it to be declared as a sugar alcohol. It just doesn't act like the ones that cause trouble. If you want the longer version, we wrote a whole post on it: The Sugar Alcohol on Our Label Isn't That Kind. "The Sugar Alcohol on Our Label Isn't That Kind"  Stevia and monk fruit Both are plant-derived, zero-calorie, and don't produce a glucose response. They can taste distinctly sweet in a way some people dislike, but they don't carry the digestive issues that the fermentable polyols do. IMO syrup — fifth on our list Isomalto-oligosaccharide, made here from tapioca. It sits fifth on our ingredient list, which means there's a meaningful amount of it, and by now you know to ask what it's doing there. Two answers. It's the binder — without it, there is no bar. Not a worse bar. No bar. It's what holds a low-sugar, high-fiber formulation together in something you'd actually want to eat. And it's well tolerated. IMO has been recognized as safe by the FDA since 2008, and because most of it is absorbed before reaching the colon, it causes noticeably less gas and bloating than most fiber ingredients. Reported tolerance issues start well above thirty grams a day. There are a few grams in a bar. Here's the part worth knowing, and it's the reason I'm spending words on it: the FDA does not count IMO as dietary fiber. A manufacturer petitioned to have it added to the approved fiber list and was turned down. Some bars still market it as prebiotic fiber anyway. We can't, and we don't. Which is exactly why the eight to nine grams of fiber on our panel is chicory root inulin — an FDA-recognized dietary fiber — and not IMO inflating the number. IMO's carbohydrates are counted as carbohydrates, where they belong. When you see a bar advertising twenty grams of fiber, this is the first thing worth checking, and that is a LOT of fiber. The Question No Label Can Answer Everything above is useful. None of it is the last word. The real test is how you feel two hours later. Steady, or crashed. Comfortable, or bloated. Actually satisfied, or hungry again and slightly annoyed about it. A panel can tell you what went in. Only you can tell what it did. I ignored that signal for too long because the label said the right things, and the label was never the problem — I just wasn't listening to the part that mattered. The Short Version If you remember nothing else, here's the whole thing on one hand: •    Read the first three ingredients. That's most of what you're eating. •    Check both sugar lines — added and total. •    Look for fiber from a named source, and know that eight or nine grams is a good target for one serving. •    Ask what the bar contributes, not only what it avoids. •    If bars have left you uncomfortable, look at which sugar alcohols are in them — not whether there are any. •    Notice how you feel two hours later. That answer outranks the panel. Now Read Ours I'd rather you apply this to our label than take my word for anything. Twelve grams of complete plant protein. Eight to nine grams of fiber from chicory root. Zero added sugar and two to three grams of total sugar — both numbers, not just the convenient one. Cinnamon and turmeric in every bar, plus cacao or ginger depending on the flavor. Stevia and monk fruit for sweetness. Three to four grams of sugar alcohol, all from vegetable glycerin — none of the fermentable ones that cause the bloating. And IMO syrup doing the structural work, counted honestly as carbohydrate rather than dressed up as fiber. That's the whole panel. Nothing hidden behind a proprietary blend. If you want to compare it against what you're eating now, the Sampler Box gives you all three flavors — no subscription, no commitment. See the full panel  →  Next in the series: how much protein you actually need as your body changes — and why the number goes up, not down. Sources •    U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Food Labeling Guide; Added Sugars labeling; Interactive Nutrition Facts Label: Sugar Alcohols (fda.gov) •    U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Review of the Scientific Evidence on the Physiological Effects of Certain Non-Digestible Carbohydrates (dietary fiber determinations) •    International Food Information Council — What Is Glycerin? (ific.org) •    Madsen et al. — Evaluation of the isomalto-oligosaccharide fiber content of commercial products, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry •    Lenhart & Chey — A Systematic Review of the Effects of Polyols on Gastrointestinal Health and IBS, Advances in Nutrition •    Quagliani & Felt-Gunderson — Closing America's Fiber Intake Gap, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine •    Uribarri et al. — Advanced Glycation End Products in Foods and a Practical Guide to Their Reduction, Journal of the American Dietetic Association These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What's Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label Here's to aging well… Cheers! — Joel Founder, Five Plus Protein

There's a moment most of us have had without ever noticing it. You're standing in a grocery aisle. You pick something up, turn it over, and read the back. And something in you quietly goes: this is fine. Not good. Fine. You put it in the cart anyway. I did that for years. How "Good Enough" Became Normal I started exercising as a teenager. I've been using protein products since the nineties. Bars, powders, shakes, whatever was on the shelf that had lots of protein in it. And for almost 3 decades, I accepted the same trade every single time. Sugar crashes an hour later. A stomach that felt worse than before I ate. Ingredient lists I couldn't pronounce, on packages that said "healthy" in big letters on the front. I didn't complain. I just bought the next one. That's what settling actually looks like. It isn't dramatic. Nobody decides to lower their standard. You just accept the same compromise enough times that it stops registering as a compromise at all. Then Two Things Happened at Once My frustration finally peaked — the point where I stopped settling for the "trade-off". At the same time, my wife Lynda was diagnosed with lupus. Overnight, ingredient quality stopped being a preference in our house. It became the whole thing. Lynda started reading every label on every package, and she didn't stop. Not because it was a wellness habit, but because it mattered. Two very different problems, arriving at the same moment. My ongoing, frustrating search for clean fuel. Her new need for food she could actually eat without getting sick. Those two things met in our kitchen. Through frustration and necessity, we built the bar we couldn't find. But the bar isn't really the point of this post. The standard is. Why "Good Enough" Stops Working as Our Bodies Change Here's the part I wish someone had told me at thirty-five. A body that's twenty-five can absorb a lot of "fine." A body that's changing cannot — not because anything has gone wrong, but because the margin narrows and the same choices start costing more. Four things shift at once. Muscle becomes something you maintain, not something you have Muscle mass begins declining gradually from midlife onward. What surprises most people is that protein needs go up during that window, not down. As we age muscle responds less efficiently to the same amount of protein, so the requirement rises just as most people's intake starts drifting lower. Fiber becomes the nutrient you're quietly missing Roughly ninety-five percent of adults don't meet daily fiber recommendations. Fiber does more than most people give it credit for — it feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut, and those bacteria produce compounds that support the gut barrier itself. This is foundational, and almost nobody is getting enough. Blood sugar swings stop being harmless The spike-and-crash cycle isn't just an energy problem. Over years, repeated glucose spikes contribute to glycation — a process where sugar molecules bind to proteins in the body and gradually stiffen tissue. One afternoon crash is nothing. Twenty years of them is a pattern. Oxidative stress accumulates This one is worth understanding, because it sits underneath everything else in this series. Your body produces free radicals — unstable molecules — as a normal byproduct of being alive. Stress, poor sleep, alcohol, pollution, and heavily processed food all increase the load. When free radicals outpace your body's ability to neutralize them, that imbalance is called oxidative stress, and it's recognized as one of the hallmarks of biological aging. Antioxidants are what help tip that balance back. Which means the food you eat every day isn't neutral. It's either adding to the load or helping offset it. Aging well isn't about time passing. It's about what accumulates while it does. Resetting Normal So here's the reframe, and it's the reason this series exists. We've been taught to think of premium as the upgrade. The nicer option. The one you choose when you're feeling generous with yourself. I think that's backwards. Clean, functional, honestly-made food isn't the upgrade. It's the baseline — the standard your body was always meant to work from. The cheaper, over-processed version isn't the affordable option long-term. It's the one that falls below the line. That's what we mean by resetting normal. Not spending more for the sake of it. Moving the line back to where it should have been all along. Because what you put in your body today, impacts your health tomorrow. What Resetting Normal Actually Looks Like It isn't an overhaul. It's a handful of questions you start asking, until asking them becomes automatic. •    Does the ingredient list match the front of the package? The front is marketing. The back is the truth. •    Check both sugar lines, not one. Added sugar and total sugar are separate numbers on the panel. A bar can show zero added sugar and still carry fifteen grams of total sugar from concentrated fruit — and your bloodstream doesn't know the difference. •    Is there fiber, or just protein? Protein alone is half the job. •    Is anything in here doing more than one thing? Ingredients can carry flavor and function at the same time. •    How do I actually feel two hours later? This is the one that matters most, and no label can answer it. That last question is what took me thirty years to start asking honestly. This Is What We Built Toward When Lynda and I finally made our own bar, we weren't trying to build a better snack. We were trying to meet a standard we couldn't find anywhere else. Twelve grams of complete plant protein. Eight to nine grams of fiber, led by prebiotic chicory root. Zero added sugar — and two to three grams of total sugar. Both numbers, not just the convenient one. And real botanicals: cinnamon and turmeric in every bar, plus cacao or ginger depending on the flavor, each studied for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. If you're curious what a reset standard tastes like, the Sampler Box is the easiest place to start — three flavors, no commitment. Read the panel first. That's the whole point. Try the Sampler Box  →   Where This Series Goes Next Over the next eleven posts, we're going to take this apart piece by piece. How to actually read a protein bar label. How much protein you really need as your body changes. Why fiber matters more than almost anyone tells you. What antioxidants are doing at the cellular level. What added sugar costs over decades. Why some bars leave you bloated. What your brain needs. What your bones need. Not to convince you of anything. To give you enough to judge for yourself — including judging us. That's the standard we'd want as customers. So it's the one we'll hold as a company. Sources •    National Institute on Aging — Age-related muscle loss and physical function (nia.nih.gov) •    Bauer et al., PROT-AGE Study Group — Protein intake recommendations for older adults, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association •    Quagliani & Felt-Gunderson — Closing America's Fiber Intake Gap, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine •    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Fiber and the microbiome (hsph.harvard.edu) •    López-Otín et al. — The Hallmarks of Aging, Cell •    National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health — Turmeric and curcumin research overview (nccih.nih.gov) These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This post is part of the Resetting Normal Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Resetting Normal · Part 2: What's Actually in Your Protein Bar · Part 3: Protein and Muscle as We Age · Part 4: Fiber, Your Gut, and Aging Well · Part 5: The Most Overused Word on a Health Label Here's to aging well… Cheers! — Joel Founder, Five Plus Protein

There's a conversation most of us have had with ourselves at some point. Standing in a store, looking at a cleaner option next to a cheaper one. And thinking: Is this really worth it? It's a fair question. But it might be the wrong one. The Question We Should Be Asking We've been taught to measure value at the point of purchase. Price on the shelf. Cost per unit. What's the better deal right now. But that's a very narrow way to measure value — especially when what you're buying goes inside your body. The real question isn't: What does this cost today? The real question is: What does this cost me over time? Every food choice has an outcome. Some outcomes are good. Some aren't. And the difference between a $2.75 bar and a premium one isn't just the price — it's everything that follows. The Hidden Cost of the Cheaper Option Let's be honest about what "affordable" food actually costs. The bar that spikes your blood sugar — and the binge eating that follows two hours later. That has a cost. The protein bar that leaves you bloated and distracted for the rest of your afternoon. That has a cost. The repeated cycle of feeling off, reaching for something quick, crashing again. That has a cost — in energy, in focus, in the quiet erosion of the habits you're trying to build. None of that shows up on the price tag. But it shows up in your body. In your day. In the long arc of how you age. What We're Really Comparing Think about what you spend without hesitation. A $6 coffee in the morning. A $14 lunch that you barely tasted. A streaming service you haven't used in weeks. A round of drinks on a Friday night. None of those feel expensive. Because they've become normal. Here's the shift worth making: what if clean, premium nutrition was the normal standard — not the indulgence? What if the question wasn't "can I justify spending more on better food?" but "why would I spend money on food that works against me?" That's not a spending philosophy. That's a values conversation. Resetting the Benchmark Many people think of premium as the upgrade. The treat. The thing you do when you can afford to. We'd like to challenge that. Premium, clean nutrition isn't the luxury tier. It's the benchmark — the standard that supports the life you're trying to build. Everything below it isn't "affordable." It's below the standard. It's a subtraction. The $2.75 bar that costs you your afternoon isn't saving you money. It's borrowing against your health at a high interest rate. You Are Worth the Investment This is the part that matters most — and it has nothing to do with macros or ingredients. The reason to eat well isn't just physical. It's a statement about how much you value yourself. Every intentional food choice is a vote. A vote for the version of you that shows up to the meeting with energy. That recovers well. That ages with strength and clarity instead of fatigue and decline. You invest in your home. Your car. Your career. Your children. Your body is the one thing you can never replace — and the only asset that makes everything else possible. Investing in what goes into it isn't extravagance. It's the most rational decision you can make. What Five Plus Protein Represents We didn't build Five Plus Protein to be the premium option on the shelf. We built it to be the standard — the bar that does exactly what clean nutrition is supposed to do. Steady energy. Easy digestion. Ingredients that work with your body, not against it. At roughly $3.25 per bar — less than most coffee drinks, less than a fast food side — it's not expensive. It's intentional. And when you factor in what it replaces — the crash, the bloat, the afternoon reach for something worse — the math looks very different. This is what intentional nutrition looks like. Not perfect. Not complicated. Just consistent, clean fuel that respects the standard you've set for yourself. ► Order a full box — and make clean protein part of your daily standard. Final Thought Eating well isn't a luxury reserved for people with more money or more discipline. It's a decision about what you believe your health is worth. And here's the truth: if you don't have your health, the price of everything else goes up — dramatically. The cost of poor nutrition isn't paid at the register. It's paid later. In energy. In medical bills. In the gap between the life you wanted and the one your body could sustain. Reset the benchmark. Raise the standard. Invest in yourself like you mean it. Because you do. This post is part of the No Excuses Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Start Where You Are · Part 2: Stop Negotiating With Yourself · Part 3: The Identity Shift · Part 4: Consistency Builds Strength · Part 5: Focus on What You Can Do · Part 6: Do What You Enjoy · Part 7: Why Movement Matters More Than You Think · Part 8: How We Fuel Our Lives · Part 9: Is Eating Healthy Worth the Cost? · Part 10: One Day at a Time · Part 11: You Don't Have to Do This Alone Here's to aging well. Cheers. Joel J. Montesano Founder, Five Plus Protein

At some point, most of us realize that what worked in our twenties doesn't work anymore. The late dinners. The skipped breakfasts. The whatever's-convenient approach to eating. It's not that those things were ever ideal. It's that our bodies were more forgiving then. They absorbed the inconsistency and kept going. As we age, that forgiveness narrows. Not as a punishment. As a signal. Your body is asking for something more intentional — and when you give it that, the difference is hard to ignore. What "Intentional" Actually Means Intentional eating isn't a diet. It's not a protocol, a point system, or a list of foods you're no longer allowed to enjoy. It's a shift in how you think about food — from something you consume out of habit or convenience to something you choose with awareness. Awareness of how it makes you feel. How it affects your energy. How it supports — or undermines — the way you want to live. That shift sounds simple. But for most people it's a meaningful change. Because most of us were never taught to think about food that way. We were taught to think about calories. About macros. About good foods and bad foods. Intentional eating is different. It asks a quieter question: does this fuel the life I'm trying to build? How Nutritional Needs Shift as We Age This is the part most people don't talk about enough. As our bodies change, so does the way we process and respond to what we eat. Protein metabolism shifts — meaning we need more dietary protein to maintain the same muscle mass we could preserve more easily in our thirties. Gut microbiome diversity tends to decrease with age, making digestive comfort and fiber intake more important. Inflammation becomes easier to trigger and harder to resolve, making food choices a more powerful lever than most people realize. (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2024) None of this means food becomes the enemy. It means food becomes more important — not less. The people who age well tend to be the people who figured this out and adjusted. Not perfectly. Not with obsession. Just with more intention than before. Protein — The Most Underestimated Piece If there's one nutritional shift that matters most as we age, it's protein. Muscle mass naturally declines with age — a process called sarcopenia — and the consequences reach further than most people realize. Loss of muscle affects metabolism, mobility, bone density, balance, and even cognitive function. It's one of the primary drivers of the physical decline we associate with getting older. (Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 2023) The good news: it's largely preventable. Consistent resistance movement and adequate protein intake are the two most evidence-backed tools for preserving muscle as we age. But here's where most people fall short — not on movement, but on protein. Studies suggest that adults over 40 consistently underestimate how much protein they actually need, and that the recommended daily allowance may itself be too low for active, aging adults. Many researchers now suggest a target closer to 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for those focused on maintaining muscle and metabolic health. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2024) That's more than most people are getting. And it's harder to hit than it sounds — especially without intentional choices at every meal and snack. The Gut Health Connection What you eat doesn't just affect your energy and your waistline. It directly shapes your gut microbiome — the ecosystem of bacteria that governs digestion, immune function, inflammation, and even mood. As we age, microbiome diversity naturally decreases. A less diverse gut is more prone to inflammation, digestive discomfort, and immune dysregulation. The foods you choose either support that diversity or accelerate its decline. (Nature Medicine, 2024) Fiber-rich whole foods, fermented foods, and clean protein sources support a healthy microbiome. Ultra-processed foods, excess sugar, and artificial additives tend to disrupt it. This is why ingredient quality matters — not as a wellness trend, but as a genuine health strategy. What's in your food is doing something inside your body. The question is whether it's working for you or against you. Eating for Steady Energy — Not Just Fuel One of the most immediate benefits of intentional eating is what happens to your energy throughout the day. Most people accept energy crashes as normal. The mid-morning slump. The post-lunch fog. The 3pm reach for caffeine or sugar. None of that is inevitable. Blood sugar stability — achieved largely through what and when you eat — is one of the most powerful determinants of daily energy, mental clarity, and mood. Foods that spike glucose sharply tend to crash it just as hard. Foods that release energy slowly and steadily keep you level, focused, and functional throughout the day. (Funky Fat Foods, 2023) Intentional eating isn't about eating less. It's about eating in a way that keeps your body — and your mind — running the way you need them to. What This Looks Like in Practice It doesn't have to be complicated. A protein-forward breakfast instead of skipping it. A clean snack between meetings instead of waiting until you're ravenous. A dinner built around vegetables and quality protein instead of whatever's fastest. Small, consistent choices. Made with awareness. Applied over time. That's it. That's intentional eating. It's not perfection. It's not restriction. It's just choosing — deliberately — to give your body what it actually needs to perform, recover, and age well. Where Five Plus Protein Fits We built Five Plus Protein because intentional eating is hardest in the gaps. The moments between meals. The long workdays. The travel days. The times when a good choice isn't obvious and a bad one is right in front of you. A clean, plant-based protein bar that digests easily, doesn't spike your blood sugar, and doesn't contain ingredients you have to look up — that's not a supplement. That's a tool. A practical, portable way to stay intentional when life makes it difficult. This is how we fuel our lives. Not perfectly. But consistently. With awareness and quality. If you're ready to make clean protein a non-negotiable part of your routine — not a one-time purchase — a subscription is the simplest way to do it. It's always there when you need it. No second-guessing. No running out. ► Subscribe and make intentional nutrition part of your daily routine. Final Thought Food is not the enemy. It's not a reward system, a punishment, or a moral statement about who you are. It's fuel. For the body you're living in. For the life you're trying to build. As we age, the relationship between what we eat and how we feel becomes harder to ignore. That's not a burden — it's an opportunity. An invitation to be more intentional about something that was always important, even when we could get away with not thinking about it. Eat with awareness. Choose with intention. Fuel the life you actually want. This post is part of the No Excuses Series. Read the full series: Part 1: Start Where You Are · Part 2: Stop Negotiating With Yourself · Part 3: The Identity Shift · Part 4: Consistency Builds Strength · Part 5: Focus on What You Can Do · Part 6: Do What You Enjoy · Part 7: Why Movement Matters More Than You Think · Part 8: How We Fuel Our Lives · Part 9: Is Eating Healthy Worth the Cost?· Part 10: One Day at a Time · Part 11: You Don't Have to Do This Alone Here's to aging well… Cheers! Joel J. Montesano Founder, Five Plus Protein Sources: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Nutrition and Healthy Aging (hsph.harvard.edu, 2024) Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle — Sarcopenia and Protein Intake in Aging Adults (2023) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition — Protein Requirements for Active Aging Adults (2024) Nature Medicine — Gut Microbiome Diversity and Aging (nature.com, 2024) Funky Fat Foods — Blood Sugar and Longevity (funkyfatfoods.com, 2023)

How Much Protein Do You Need to Build Muscle? Protein plays a central role in building and maintaining muscle. But how much protein is actually needed for muscle growth? The answer depends on factors like body weight, activity level, and training intensity. If you haven't calculated your protein needs yet, start with our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Recommended Protein Intake for Muscle Growth Research suggests the optimal range for muscle growth is: 1.6–2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight For example: Body Weight Protein Target 150 lb 110–150 g 170 lb 123–169 g 190 lb 138–189 g Protein Quality Matters Muscle repair requires sufficient essential amino acids. Good protein sources include: eggs fish legumes tofu plant protein blends Convenient options like protein bars can help close gaps between meals. Protein Timing and Muscle Growth Muscle recovery is best supported when protein intake is spread throughout the day, especially around workouts. The Bottom Line For muscle growth, most research supports 1.6–2.2 g/kg of protein per day. If you want to estimate your personal protein needs, see our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Daily Protein Intake · Protein Needs After 40 · How to Increase Protein Intake · Best Plant-Based Protein Sources · Protein Timing

Protein Timing: When Should You Eat Protein? For many years, nutrition advice focused mainly on total daily protein intake. But newer research suggests protein distribution across meals may also matter. If you're unsure how much protein you need each day, start with our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Why Protein Timing Matters Protein helps repair and maintain muscle tissue. But the body can only use a certain amount efficiently at one time. Spreading protein across meals helps support: muscle repair energy levels appetite regulation Example of Daily Protein Distribution Instead of consuming most protein at dinner, aim for balance: Breakfast → 25gLunch → 25gDinner → 30gSnack → 10-15g This pattern supports better utilization of protein throughout the day. When Protein Timing Matters Most Protein timing may be especially important for: active adults strength training adults over 40 people trying to maintain muscle mass The Bottom Line Total protein intake matters most. But distributing protein across meals can help your body use it more effectively. To estimate your daily needs, see our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Daily Protein Intake · Protein Needs After 40 · How to Increase Protein Intake · Best Plant-Based Protein Sources · How Much Protein to Build Muscle

Best Plant-Based Protein Sources Plant-based diets continue to grow in popularity, and for good reason. Plant proteins provide not only protein but also fiber, micronutrients, and compounds that support long-term health. If you're trying to improve your daily protein intake, plant-based foods can play an important role. If you haven't calculated your protein needs yet, start with our Daily Protein Intake Guide.. Lentils Protein: 18 grams per cup Lentils are one of the most protein-dense plant foods available. They also provide fiber and iron. Chickpeas Protein: 15 grams per cup Chickpeas are versatile and work well in salads, bowls, soups, and spreads. Tofu Protein: 20 grams per cup Tofu is a complete plant protein made from soybeans. Nuts and Seeds Examples include: almonds pumpkin seeds chia seeds They provide protein along with healthy fats and minerals. Plant-Based Protein Bars High-quality plant-based protein bars can provide 10-15 grams of protein in a convenient format. They can be especially helpful when: traveling working long days spacing meals apart The Bottom Line Plant-based foods can easily support healthy protein intake when included consistently across meals. To estimate your daily protein needs, see our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Daily Protein Intake · Protein Needs After 40 · How to Increase Protein Intake · Protein Timing · How Much Protein to Build Muscle

How to Increase Protein Intake Without Eating All Day Many people discover something surprising when they calculate their protein needs. They’re often 20–40 grams short of their daily protein target. The good news is that closing that gap usually doesn’t require drastic diet changes. A few small adjustments can make a meaningful difference. If you're unsure how much protein you need, start with our guide on Daily Protein Intake: How Much Protein Do You Really Need Per Day? 👉Daily Protein Intake Guide Why Most People Miss Their Protein Goal The biggest protein gap usually happens earlier in the day. A typical eating pattern might look like this: Breakfast → 8–10gLunch → 15–20gDinner → 35–40g Instead of concentrating protein at dinner, spreading it across meals helps the body use it more effectively. A better distribution might look like: Breakfast → 25gLunch → 25gDinner → 30gSnack → 10–20g Simple Ways to Increase Protein Intake Add Protein to Breakfast Breakfast is often the lowest protein meal. Good options include: eggs yogurt smoothies with plant protein oats with nuts or seeds Upgrade Your Lunch Adding protein-rich ingredients can make lunch more balanced. Examples: lentils tofu chickpeas quinoa lean protein sources Use Smart Snacks Snacks are often the easiest place to increase protein intake. Options include: Greek yogurt nuts or seeds smoothies clean plant-based protein bars Convenient options can help close the protein gap on busy days. The Bottom Line Reaching your protein goal doesn't require complicated meal planning. Most people simply need to distribute protein more evenly across the day. If you haven't calculated your protein needs yet, start with our Daily Protein Intake Guide. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Daily Protein Intake · Protein Needs After 40 · Best Plant-Based Protein Sources · Protein Timing · How Much Protein to Build Muscle

Protein Needs After 40: Why Protein Matters More as You Age Most people don’t think about protein until they start exercising more or trying to build muscle. But protein becomes increasingly important as we get older, even if your goal is simply to stay healthy and active. Around age 40, the body begins to gradually lose muscle mass in a process called sarcopenia. Without enough protein and physical activity, this muscle loss can accelerate over time. Maintaining muscle is important not just for strength, but also for metabolism, mobility, and long-term health. Why Protein Becomes More Important With Age As we age, the body becomes less efficient at using protein to build and maintain muscle. Researchers call this anabolic resistance. Because of this change, adults over 40 often benefit from slightly higher protein intake compared with younger adults. Protein supports: • muscle maintenance• metabolic health• strength and mobility• bone health• energy and recovery Research from the National Institutes of Health highlights the role of adequate protein intake in preserving muscle and functional health as we age. How Much Protein Do Adults Over 40 Need? Many experts recommend: 1.0–1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight depending on activity level. For example: Body Weight Protein Per Day 140 lb 64–90 g 160 lb 73–102 g 180 lb 82–115 g If you want a simple way to calculate your needs, see our guide on Daily Protein Intake. The Most Common Protein Gap Many people consume the majority of their protein at dinner. Breakfast and lunch are often protein-light, which leaves people short of their daily goal. Simple additions can help: • eggs or yogurt at breakfast• legumes or tofu at lunch• a clean plant-based protein bar between meals Consistency matters more than perfection. The Bottom Line Protein isn’t just about building muscle. It’s about maintaining strength, metabolism, and independence as we age. For many adults over 40, aiming for 1.0–1.4 g/kg per day can help support long-term health and vitality. You can view our guide on Daily Protein Intake here. Many people find they fall short of their daily protein goal. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a convenient way to close that gap between meals. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Daily Protein Intake · How to Increase Protein Intake · Best Plant-Based Protein Sources · Protein Timing · How Much Protein to Build Muscle

Protein has become one of the most talked-about nutrients in modern nutrition. Walk through any grocery store and you’ll see protein everywhere — shakes, snacks, powders, bars, and more. But this raises an important question: How much protein do you actually need each day? The answer depends on several factors including your body weight, age, activity level, and health goals. Whether you want to maintain muscle, support weight loss, improve endurance, or simply age well, understanding your daily protein intake can help you fuel your body more effectively. Let’s break it down. Why Protein Matters for Your Health Protein is essential for nearly every function in the body. It helps: build and repair muscle tissue support metabolism and energy levels maintain healthy bones and joints produce hormones and enzymes support immune function Protein also plays a critical role in maintaining muscle mass as we age. After about age 40, muscle loss begins to accelerate if it isn’t supported by adequate nutrition and activity. Ensuring sufficient protein intake can help preserve strength, mobility, and metabolic health over time. Research from the National Institutes of Health highlights the importance of adequate protein intake for maintaining muscle mass and functional health in adults as they age:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6566799/ The Minimum Recommendation for Daily Protein Intake For many years, the official Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein has been: 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day This amount is designed to prevent protein deficiency, not necessarily to support optimal health, performance, or aging. According to Harvard Health, many adults benefit from higher protein intake than the RDA depending on activity level and health goals:https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-need-every-day-201506188096 Daily Protein Intake by Body Weight A more practical way to determine your protein needs is based on body weight. General evidence-based ranges include: Goal Protein Recommendation General health 0.8–1.0 g per kg body weight Active lifestyle 1.2–1.5 g per kg Muscle growth or heavy training 1.6–2.2 g per kg Adults over 60 1.0–1.2 g per kg These ranges are supported by position papers from the International Society of Sports Nutrition, which suggests higher protein intake supports muscle maintenance and recovery:https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8 Daily Protein Intake Calculator Use this quick formula to estimate your needs. Step 1: Convert Pounds to Kilograms Weight in pounds ÷ 2.2 = weight in kilograms Examples: 130 lb ÷ 2.2 = 59 kg 150 lb ÷ 2.2 = 68 kg 170 lb ÷ 2.2 = 77 kg 190 lb ÷ 2.2 = 86 kg Step 2: Multiply by Your Protein Target Use the target that best fits your goal: 0.8–1.0 g/kg for general health 1.2–1.5 g/kg for active adults 1.6–2.2 g/kg for muscle building or heavy training 1.0–1.2 g/kg for older adults focused on healthy aging Example Calculator If you weigh 160 lb: 160 ÷ 2.2 = 73 kg Then: General health: 58–73 g/day Active lifestyle: 88–110 g/day Muscle gain: 117–161 g/day Many people discover they are 20–40 grams short of their protein target when they run these numbers. Protein Needs Chart by Age and Weight Below is a simple chart you can use as a quick reference. General Protein Needs Chart Body Weight Weight in kg General Health (0.8–1.0 g/kg) Active Lifestyle (1.2–1.5 g/kg) Muscle Building (1.6–2.2 g/kg) 120 lb 54 kg 43–54 g 65–81 g 86–119 g 130 lb 59 kg 47–59 g 71–89 g 94–130 g 140 lb 64 kg 51–64 g 77–96 g 102–141 g 150 lb 68 kg 54–68 g 82–102 g 109–150 g 160 lb 73 kg 58–73 g 88–110 g 117–161 g 170 lb 77 kg 62–77 g 92–116 g 123–169 g 180 lb 82 kg 65–82 g 98–123 g 131–180 g 190 lb 86 kg 69–86 g 103–129 g 138–189 g 200 lb 91 kg 73–91 g 109–137 g 146–200 g Protein Needs by Age Age matters too, especially when healthy aging is the goal. Age Group Suggested Protein Intake 18–39 0.8–1.2 g/kg depending on activity 40–59 1.0–1.4 g/kg depending on activity and muscle goals 60+ 1.0–1.2 g/kg minimum, often higher if active As we get older, the body becomes less efficient at using protein to maintain muscle. A slightly higher intake helps offset this natural change. This is one reason many longevity-focused nutrition experts emphasize consistent protein intake throughout the day.   The Most Common Protein Problem: Early-Day Deficiency Interestingly, most people don’t struggle with protein at dinner. They struggle earlier in the day. A typical pattern might look like this: Breakfast: 8–10 g Lunch: 15–20 g Dinner: 35–40 g Research suggests protein is better utilized when distributed across meals. A more balanced pattern might look like: Breakfast: 25 g Lunch: 25 g Dinner: 30 g Snack: 10–20 g This supports muscle repair, stable energy levels, and better appetite regulation throughout the day. How to Close the Protein Gap For many people, the challenge isn’t understanding protein needs. It’s meeting them consistently. Whole foods remain the foundation of a healthy diet, including: eggs yogurt fish legumes tofu and tempeh nuts and seeds But busy schedules, travel, and long workdays can make consistent nutrition difficult. That’s where convenient options can help. A clean plant-based protein bar can be a simple way to add protein between meals and close the gap when whole foods aren’t available. Instead of replacing meals, this option can serve as a practical tool for consistency. Small habits repeated daily tend to matter far more than perfect nutrition once in a while A Simple Example of Closing the Gap If your target is 90-100 grams of protein per day, your day might look like this: BreakfastSmoothie with plant protein and berries → 25 g LunchSalad with tofu, lentils, or lean protein → 30 g SnackProtein bar → 10–15 g DinnerFish, legumes, or another protein-rich meal → 30 g Total: 95–100 g Much easier than trying to make up the entire gap at dinner. The Bottom Line Your ideal daily protein intake depends on your body, lifestyle, and goals. But for many adults focused on long-term health, a helpful guideline is: 1.0–1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day That level supports: • muscle maintenance• steady energy• metabolic health• healthy aging And when protein is spread throughout the day, it becomes much easier for your body to use it effectively. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s building consistent habits that support your health over time. Frequently Asked Questions How much protein should I eat per day? For many adults, 1.0–1.5 g/kg of body weight is a practical and effective range depending on activity level and goals. Do older adults need more protein? Yes. Research suggests older adults benefit from at least 1.0–1.2 g/kg to help maintain muscle and physical function. Is it better to spread protein throughout the day? Yes. Protein is generally better utilized when distributed across meals rather than concentrated in one meal. What if I struggle to reach my protein target? Focus on improving breakfast and lunch first. Then add convenient options like smoothies, yogurt, or a clean plant-based protein bar to close the remaining gap. Looking for more? Explore our nutrition guides: Protein Needs After 40 · How to Increase Protein Intake · Best Plant-Based Protein Sources · Protein Timing · How Much Protein to Build Muscle Resources Harvard Health:https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-need-every-day-201506188096 NIH article on protein and healthy aging:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6566799/ International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand:https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8

You're running late for work, and you know you need protein to fuel your day. Standing in your kitchen, you face a familiar dilemma: grab a protein bar from the pantry or spend five minutes mixing up a shake? Both promise convenient nutrition, but here's the truth: protein bars and shakes aren't interchangeable. Each has distinct advantages and drawbacks that can significantly impact your energy levels, digestion, and daily routine. If you're a busy professional looking to make the best choice for your lifestyle, understanding the fundamental differences between protein bars and shakes will help you decide which option best fits your needs. The Convenience Factor: One Clear Winner When it comes to pure grab-and-go convenience, protein bars win decisively. They require absolutely no preparation, cleanup, or refrigeration. You can toss them in your gym bag, keep them in your desk drawer, store them in your car's glove compartment, or pack them in your carry-on luggage without a second thought. You can eat a protein bar during a conference call, at your desk between meetings, on a hiking trail, or while driving—no utensils, no mess, no explanations needed. Protein shakes, on the other hand, demand considerably more logistics. You need either a blender or a shaker bottle, a liquid base like water or milk, and time for both preparation and cleanup afterward. If you're making a shake at the office, you'll need access to a kitchen or break room, plus refrigeration for your liquid base. The consumption itself is messier and less discreet, making shakes impractical for professional settings or when you're actively multitasking throughout your day. Digestibility and How Your Body Responds One of the most overlooked differences between protein bars vs shakes is how your body processes each format. Research shows that solid protein provides stronger hunger suppression than liquefied protein, meaning those who ate solid protein felt fuller for longer compared to those who drank their protein. Many people also experience bloating or digestive discomfort with shakes, particularly those made with whey protein or other dairy-based ingredients. If you've ever felt uncomfortably full or gassy after a protein shake, you're not alone; it's a common complaint among shake consumers. Protein bars, especially those made with plant-based ingredients, offer additional digestive benefits. High-fiber protein bars support digestive health rather than disrupting it. There's also an important physiological component: research shows that increasing the number of chewing cycles before swallowing reduces food intake and increases satiety. This means chewing solid food helps you feel more satisfied than drinking a shake. Plant-based protein bars offer another significant advantage: anti-inflammatory properties. While many protein shakes rely on dairy-based proteins that can trigger inflammation in some individuals, plant-based options provide protein without the potential inflammatory response that dairy can cause in sensitive individuals. Nutritional Profile: Quality Matters More Than Format When comparing protein bars vs shakes purely on nutritional content, you'll find that both typically deliver similar protein levels—usually between 15-20 grams per serving. However, the devil is in the details, and those details can significantly impact your health goals. The biggest nutritional trap in both categories is added sugar. Many popular protein shakes and bars are loaded with added sugars to improve taste, sometimes containing as much sugar as a candy bar. When choosing either option, scrutinize the nutrition label for added sugars. Your body doesn't need them, and they work against your wellness goals. Fiber content is where bars generally outperform shakes. While shakes offer minimal fiber unless you're adding fruits or vegetables, many protein bars naturally contain significant fiber from whole food ingredients, which supports digestive health and helps you feel fuller longer. The source of protein matters tremendously. Plant-based proteins provide complete nutrition without the lactose, hormones, or potential inflammatory compounds found in dairy-based protein powders. Whether you choose a bar or a shake, prioritizing whole-food ingredients over heavily processed options will always serve your body better. When to Choose Each Option Choose protein shakes when: You want fast protein absorption immediately after an intense workout You have kitchen access and genuinely enjoy the preparation process Solid food doesn't appeal to you first thing in the morning You're blending in fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods to create a nutrient-dense meal replacement Choose protein bars when: Your mornings are rushed with no time for meal prep You're traveling by plane, car, or on outdoor adventures You need to eat at your desk or in a professional setting You're an active parent shuttling kids between activities with no time to stop Convenience and true portability are your top priorities You've experienced digestive discomfort with protein shakes You want sustained energy The Bottom Line on Protein Bars vs Shakes Both protein bars and shakes can support your nutrition goals, but your lifestyle and how your body responds should guide your choice. The key is choosing a bar that eliminates the common problems associated with both shakes and inferior protein bars: one with no added sugar, plant-based ingredients for easy digestion, anti-inflammatory properties, and real food ingredients you can actually pronounce. If you're ready to experience the difference that clean, plant-based protein bars can make in your daily routine, try Five Plus Protein's sampler box and discover why thousands of professionals have made the switch from shakes to bars that actually support their wellness goals.  

You've probably grabbed a protein bar at some point thinking you were doing something good for yourself. Maybe it was after a workout, during a busy afternoon, or when you needed something quick between meetings. And hey, protein is important, we're not here to argue that. But here's the thing: protein alone isn't enough. If you're someone who thinks about the long game, about how you'll feel in 10, 20, or 30 years, then you already know that what you put in your body today matters. That is exactly why we don't just stop at protein with our LAST Bars. We pack turmeric, ginger and cinnamon into our bars, and no, it's not because they taste good (though they definitely help with that too). It's because these ingredients have a long research history in healthy aging. Let's talk about why. The Inflammation Problem Nobody's Talking About Here's something that doesn't get enough attention: chronic inflammation is one of the biggest threats to your longevity. We're not talking about the kind of inflammation you get when you stub your toe or pull a muscle. That's acute inflammation, your body's natural healing response. It shows up, does its job, and leaves. Chronic inflammation is different. It's low-grade, sneaky, and sticks around for months or even years. You might not even feel it happening. But inside your body? It's quietly contributing to everything from joint pain and fatigue to more serious concerns like heart disease, cognitive decline, and metabolic issues. The culprits? Stress, poor sleep, processed foods, environmental toxins, basically, modern life. And while you can't control everything, you can control what you eat. That's where these ingredients come in. Turmeric, ginger and cinnamon are three of the most researched spices for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric: The Golden Spice Let's start with turmeric, that vibrant golden spice you've probably seen in everything from lattes to supplements these days. But this isn't some trendy wellness fad. Turmeric has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, and modern science is studying why. The focus is curcumin, the active compound in turmeric. Curcumin has been studied extensively for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Research has explored its role in: Inflammatory markers in the body Joint health and mobility Brain function as we age Cardiovascular health over time But make no mistake, not all turmeric is created equal. Here's something many people don't know: curcumin on its own is notoriously hard for your body to absorb. That's why we're intentional about how we formulate our bars. When curcumin is paired with the other whole-food ingredients we use (and the natural fats and fiber that come along for the ride), your body can better use what you're putting into it. No hype. No fluff. Just ingredients chosen with purpose. Ginger: Your Gut's Best Friend Now let's talk about ginger, turmeric's perfect partner. Ginger has been used for centuries to soothe upset stomachs, and there's solid science to back it up. But its benefits go way beyond settling nausea after a bumpy car ride. Ginger has been studied for anti-inflammatory properties in its own right. It contains compounds called gingerols that have been studied for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. But here's what we really love about ginger: it's a long-standing ally for digestion. Why does that matter? Because your gut is basically command central for your entire body. When your digestive system is happy, everything else tends to fall into place, your energy, your immune function, even your mood. And let's be honest: many protein bars are notorious for causing digestive issues. You know what we're talking about. The bloating. The discomfort. That heavy feeling that makes you wonder if the protein was even worth it. That's not what we're about. LAST Bars are designed to be easy to digest. We use plant-based ingredients that work with your body, not against it. And ginger plays a key role in our Lemon Ginger bar. It helps support smooth digestion so you can fuel up without the unpleasant aftermath. Cinnamon: The Underrated Longevity Ingredient (Especially for Blood Sugar) Cinnamon doesn’t always get the spotlight like turmeric and ginger, but it absolutely deserves a seat at the table. It’s one of those “small daily habit” ingredients that can make a big difference over time, especially if you care about steady energy and aging well. One of cinnamon’s most talked-about benefits is blood sugar stability. In plain English: it has been studied for its role in glucose response, which matters because those sharp blood sugar swings can leave you feeling drained, snacky, and foggy (and over the long run, they’re not doing your metabolism any favors either). Here’s why we love cinnamon in the context of LAST Bars: Supports steadier energy as part of a zero-added-sugar bar built to avoid the “spike and crash” cycle Supports whole-food anti-inflammatory habits that actually feel doable day-to-day Fits the longevity mission because metabolic health and healthy aging go hand-in-hand (they’re basically inseparable) But make no mistake: we’re not tossing cinnamon in for a cozy flavor vibe. It’s in there because it supports the kind of everyday consistency your future self will thank you for. And that's the whole point of LAST Bars. We're not just making a convenient snack. We're creating something for people who are thinking about the long haul, who want to feel good today and tomorrow. Why LAST Bars Are Different Let's be real for a second. The protein bar market is crowded. Really crowded. And a lot of what's out there is... fine. It'll give you protein. It might taste okay. But is it actually good for you in a meaningful way? We built LAST Bars because we wanted something better. Something that goes beyond just checking the "protein" box. Here's what makes them different: Plant-based ingredients that are gentle on your system Turmeric and cinnamon in every bar, plus ginger or cacao: not for flavor gimmicks, but with purpose Easy to digest, made with prebiotic fiber and no sugar alcohols like maltitol or sorbitol Designed for longevity: because we care about how you feel in 20 years, not just 20 minutes We're not interested in making a bar that just gets you through your workout. We want to make something that supports your health journey for the long run. Eating for Your Future Self Here's a question worth sitting with: What do you want your health to look like in 10 years? In 20? The choices you make now: even the small ones, like what kind of protein bar you grab: add up over time. Chronic inflammation doesn't happen overnight, and neither does longevity. Both are the result of daily habits, compounded over years. That's why we're so intentional about what goes into every LAST Bar. Every ingredient has a purpose. They're there because they genuinely support your body's ability to thrive: not just today, but for the long haul. Ready to Try a Bar Built for the Long Game? If you're tired of protein bars that leave you bloated, or if you're looking for something that does more than just deliver grams of protein, we made LAST Bars for you. They're plant-based. They're easy on your stomach. And they're made with ingredients studied for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Not sure which flavor to start with? Our Lemon Ginger LAST Bar is a fan favorite that really lets the ginger shine. Or if you want to try a little bit of everything, grab a Variety Box and find your go-to. Because you deserve a protein bar that's thinking about your future as much as you are. Here's to aging well...one bar at a time, Bridget Grover PA-C

Why sugar alcohols have a bad reputation Sugar alcohols are a category of sweeteners commonly used to reduce added sugar. Some of the most common ones include: Maltitol Sorbitol Xylitol Erythritol These are often used in large amounts to make products taste sweet without sugar. The issue? Many of these are poorly absorbed in the gut, especially when consumed in higher doses. Research shows that sugar alcohols like maltitol and sorbitol can pull water into the intestines and ferment in the colon, which is why they’re linked to bloating, gas, and digestive distress — particularly for people with sensitive digestion. That’s the experience many people remember. And it’s valid. But here’s where things get misleading.

Start the Year With Better Fuel As we age, our protein needs go up — not down. From energy and recovery to muscle preservation and gut health, the right protein can make all the difference in how we feel every day. And to ensure we are getting enough protein, many of us supplement our diets with protein bars. But, buyer beware, not all protein bars are created equal. Many on the market use low-quality protein sources or fillers that can leave you bloated, sluggish, or worse. If you’ve ever experienced digestive discomfort from your “healthy” bar, you know exactly what we mean. That’s why at Five Plus Protein, we take a different approach. Why Pea Protein Is the Star of Our Bars We believe the best vegan protein bar starts with clean, complete nutrition — and that’s why we use premium pea protein as our base. Here’s what makes pea protein stand out: Complete protein: all nine essential amino acids for full-body repair and strength. Gut-friendly: pea protein is gentle, easy to digest, and perfect for sensitive stomachs. Anti-inflammatory fit: supports recovery and steady energy without stress on the body. Planet-friendly: pea protein has a lower environmental footprint than animal-based sources. These are the kind of pea protein benefits that support a lifestyle built on aging well — and feeling great while you do it. What Makes Five Plus the Best Plant-Based Protein Bar We hold every ingredient to a higher standard. It’s why Five Plus Protein Bars are: No added sugar Non-GMO Vegan Gluten-free High in fiber And always, tastes good We call these our non-negotiables — the promises we’ll never compromise on. Because better health should always taste like something you actually look forward to. Fuel Your Routine with the Right Protein If you’re ready to experience a gut-friendly protein bar that supports your health goals, start with our 6-Bar Sampler Box. Try each flavor and find your favorite. Then, upgrade to the 12-Bar Full Box for the best value — perfect for keeping your routine simple, steady, and fueled for the year ahead. 2026 starts with better fuel for a better year. 👉 Shop the 6-Bar & 12-Bar Variety Boxes 

You've just finished a solid morning run. You're standing in your kitchen, still catching your breath, and that familiar question pops into your head: “Is it better to have protein before or after my workout?” Or maybe you're the person who grabs a protein bar on the way to the gym, wondering if you're doing it all wrong. If protein timing feels confusing, you're not alone. The internet is flooded with conflicting advice about when to consume protein before or after workout sessions. Some fitness influencers swear you'll lose all your gains if you don't chug a shake within 30 minutes. Others say timing doesn't matter at all. So what's actually true? Let's cut through the noise and provide you with practical, science-backed answers that fit your real life, not some idealized version of it from a fitness magazine. 3 Key Takeaways: Total daily protein matters more than perfect timing.The “30-minute window” is largely a myth—getting enough quality protein consistently throughout the day drives results. Both pre- and post-workout protein can be beneficial.Protein before workouts can support energy and reduce muscle breakdown, while post-workout protein aids recovery—but flexibility within a 3–5 hour window is key. Consistency and quality fuel active lifestyles.Easily digestible, clean protein supports energy, recovery, and long-term fitness—making it easier to stay active and stick with healthy habits. Does Timing Really Matter? The Science Made Simple Here's the truth that might surprise you: the infamous "30-minute anabolic window" after your workout? It's mostly a myth. According to research, the post-exercise period during which protein intake is beneficial for muscle protein synthesis is actually much broader than previously thought, extending several hours after training. The research shows that for most people, consuming protein within 3-5 hours of your workout is what really matters. That tight 30-minute window? It's far less critical than we've been led to believe, especially if you're eating regular meals throughout the day. What actually influences your results more than precise timing? Your total daily protein intake, the intensity of your workout, your age, and your overall fitness goals. Spreading protein intake evenly throughout the day can be more beneficial for muscle protein synthesis than consuming large amounts at specific times. Your goal should be to consistently get enough quality protein throughout your day, rather than watching the clock. Now, let's examine what actually works in different situations. Fueling Up With Protein Before Your Workout There are legitimate benefits to having protein before exercise. Pre-workout protein can help reduce muscle breakdown during your training session, provide sustained energy (especially when paired with carbohydrates), and improve performance during longer workouts lasting 60 minutes or more. This strategy works particularly well for early morning exercisers who haven't eaten since dinner the night before, endurance athletes tackling longer runs or bike rides, or anyone who hasn't eaten in the past 3-4 hours. Your muscles benefit from having amino acids available during the workout itself. The key is choosing protein that's easily digestible and won't sit heavy in your stomach. Plant-based options, such as those in Five Plus Protein bars, provide clean fuel without the chalky taste or digestive discomfort that can accompany other protein supplements. Aim to eat 30-90 minutes before your activity to give your body time to start the digestive process. What you want to avoid: consuming heavy, hard-to-digest protein right before intense exercise. Nobody wants to feel weighed down during their workout. Supporting Recovery With Protein After Your Workout Post-workout protein plays a crucial role in supporting muscle repair and growth, helps replenish your energy stores (especially when combined with carbohydrates), and can reduce soreness while speeding up recovery time. But here's the relief: you don't need to panic if you can't consume protein immediately after your last rep or your final mile. The real window for protein consumption is within 3-5 hours post-workout, not necessarily within 30 minutes. Yes, consuming protein sooner rather than later can be beneficial, but missing that tight window won't derail your progress. Post-workout protein is vital after strength training sessions, high-intensity interval workouts, or when you know your next full meal is several hours away. This is where convenience matters for busy professionals and active parents. A portable protein bar becomes incredibly practical when you're rushing from the gym to your next meeting or when you've finished a trail run and have a 30-minute drive home. Five Plus Protein bars offer over 10 grams of clean, plant-based protein with anti-inflammatory ingredients that support recovery—no blender, no refrigeration, no excuses. What Really Matters Most for Active Adults Here's what the research keeps confirming: your total daily protein intake matters far more than precise timing. According to the Mayo Clinic Health System, people who exercise regularly need about 1.1-1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight, and those who regularly lift weights or train for running or cycling events need 1.2-1.7 grams per kilogram daily (that's roughly 0.5-0.77 grams per pound of body weight). Consistency beats perfection every single time. Regular protein intake spread throughout the day supports muscle maintenance, provides steady energy, and helps you feel satisfied between meals. For busy professionals juggling careers, families, and fitness, this is actually good news; it gives you flexibility. The practical reality? Life happens. You need protein options that work: Between back-to-back meetings, when lunch gets pushed During long hikes or bike rides, when you're miles from home As a reliable desk-drawer snack when afternoon energy crashes After your weekend pickleball game or outdoor adventure When you do consume protein, quality counts just as much as quantity, choose protein sources that are easily digestible (plant-based options work wonderfully for many people), free from inflammatory ingredients that can counteract your healthy habits, with no sugar added, and nutrient-dense beyond just the protein content. The best protein timing strategy is the one you'll stick with consistently. Find What Works for Your Body and Lifestyle The bottom line on protein before or after workout timing? There's no single "right" answer that works for everyone. It depends on your unique body, your daily schedule, and your specific fitness goals. Stop stressing about achieving perfect timing and shift your focus to consistent, quality protein intake throughout your day. Experiment with different approaches—pre-workout fuel one week, post-workout recovery the next—and pay attention to how your body responds. Notice your energy levels, your recovery time, and how you feel. Whether you prefer protein before your morning run, after your strength session, or simply as a convenient snack anytime your active lifestyle demands quality fuel, what matters most is having options that support your health without compromise. Keep a clean, easily digestible protein source handy, one that actually tastes good and aligns with your commitment to aging well and living actively. Not sure where to start? Five Plus Protein's sample box lets you try all three flavors, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Lemon Ginger, and Cafe Mocha Latte, so you can discover which one becomes your go-to fuel for whenever your body needs it most. Because the best protein bar is the one you'll actually look forward to eating, whether that's before, after, or anytime in between. Your body will tell you what works. Your job is simply to listen and provide it with the quality nutrition it deserves.

Sugar isn’t just in candy or soda—it’s lurking in yogurt, pasta sauce, even your “healthy” granola. It can sneak in as syrup, cane juice or fructose. Too much sugar and your energy throws tantrums. Your cells start protesting with inflammation. It’s like inviting sugar to sneak into your brain’s VIP section and nobody wants that rave.