Amare FundaMentals Pack is not one, not two, but three unique products packaged together by Amare Global. The companies goal is to focus on the gut-brain connection. As more and more research has been pouring out showing mental health may be correlated with gut health. Amare Global utilizes a multi-level marketing business model but also sells direct to consumers on its website. The company was founded by business/tech professionals and a Ph.D. scientist in 2017. The FundaMentals Pack consists of MentaFocus, MentaBiotics, and MentaSYNC.
Amare FundaMentals Pack Benefits
Promote a Healthy Gut
With the inclusion of probiotics, prebiotics, and natural antimicrobial agents this pack has the potential to alter your gut microbiome – for the better. Each product within the FundaMentals Pack address different aspects of the gut-brain connection.
Supports the Growth and Vitality of a Range of Beneficial Gut Bacteria
While redundant, Amare wants to highlight the effects of their product on your gut. The three products in the FundaMentals Pack is designed to kill off potentially harmful bacteria while promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Connects the Gut and Brain to Enhance the Communication between Both Brains
This is a fairly vague claim. It can be interpreted that the FundaMentals pack will improve the gut-brain axis by promoting a healthy microbiome. A healthy microbiome allows for more efficient communication between the two systems.
Boost in Cognitive Function and Clarity
Like many nootropics, such as BrainZyme and NeuroGum, Amare claims to boost cognitive function and clarity. It ties back to the “healthy gut” benefit Amare reports from the FundaMentals Pack. Again, an unhealthy gut has been correlated to various mental health disorders/illnesses. Amare believes that by improving the gut function, you will then improve mental function.
Improves Psychological Vigor (physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being)
Amare really wants to drive home the mental benefits they believe FundaMentals will produce so they reworded a previous benefit. This is essentially describing the two above benefits in another way. It is confusing that they list physical energy when talking about “psychological vigor” though.
Ingredients Shown to Improve Mood and Reduce Tension in Human Clinical Trials
At first glance, this claim might make you think Amare has done clinical trials on the FundaMentals Pack (or at least some of the products). However, this claim is just saying the ingredients found within their FundaMentals Pack have been researched in human clinical trials. While this is definitely true, the claim may mislead someone just casually looking at their products.
Ingredients
MentaBiotics
Fiber
MentaBiotics utilizes a blend of patented prebiotic fibers. This includes Iso-Fiber, BiMuno, and Sun Fiber which are iso-malto-oligosaccharide, galactooligosaccharides, & galactomannan respectively. What makes a prebiotic fiber unique from more common fiber, like psyllium husk found in Metamucil, is their specificity. Fiber, in general, is a food source for the bacteria in our guts. However, prebiotic fibers are only a food source for the good bacteria. Something like psyllium husk can be eaten by both good and bad bacteria. As a result, prebiotics are highly desired by clinicians when trying to improve a patient’s microbiome.
MentaBiotics uses some of the highest quality prebiotics out there. The fact that each prebiotic listed comes from well-known manufacturers heightens their credibility. The only drawback is MentaBiotics contains 5.38g of these prebiotic fibers. Much of the research looking at the benefits of prebiotics tend to use doses around 10-20g. The established understanding is people should be consuming approximately 15g of fiber for every 1000cal they take in each day. This means that in an ideal world people eating the recommended 2000cal per day should also be consuming 30g of fiber.
Probiotics
MentaBiotics includes three well researched and established probiotic strains. Lactobacillus helveticus R0052, Bifidobacterium longum R0175, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 have been researched clinically on their own and in combinations with other probiotics. Most companies do not list the exact strain in their products. Without knowing the specific strain (noted by R**** for example) it is impossible to know whether or not they will be beneficial.
Unfortunately, research shows that when these probiotics are dosed around 1 billion colony forming units (CFU), a measure of the number of bacteria per serving, there was little to no health benefits. MentaBiotics combination of probiotics contains 3 billion CFU. Since MentaBiotics contains a combination of probiotics and other ingredients the viability of these organisms is questionable. Research shows that when probiotics are mixed with other ingredients, like plant extracts, the bacteria often die before making it to the consumer. If this happens, the bacteria are useless in the product. It is possible that Amare Global has the stability testing down and taken the necessary steps to make sure this isn’t the case, but there is no way to know for sure. At this time it’s best to consume probiotics as a stand-alone and not in a combination with other ingredients.
Phytobiotic Proprietary Blend
L-Theanine (Suntheanine)
Theanine is an amino acid commonly found in nootropic supplements, like Nooflow, and can be found in green tea. It is capable of promoting a calm focus. This is why even though green tea contains caffeine you do not get the jitters. Theanine is often used as a mood enhancer and it works by interacting with the neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin. By enhancing GABA and serotonin, theanine helps with many areas of mental health such as anxiety, depression, attention, and even sleep. Suntheanine is a trademarked form of theanine. The use of a well-known ingredient such as Suntheanine brings credibility to the formulation. However, theanine is part of a proprietary blend that is only 75mg. This is probably dosed to low for much of an effect to be noticed. Most single doses are around 250mg.
Asian Apple Fruit Extract (ApplePhenon) also found in MentaFocus
This extract is a registered product that again shows the integrity of Amare’s ingredient selection. ApplePhenon is a high potency polyphenol extract from the Asian Apple Pear. These polyphenols have tremendous antioxidant capacity and even have antimicrobial capacity. This means they have the potential to kill bacteria. While that sounds great when you are trying to get rid of bad bacteria in your gut, it isn’t a good idea to include this in a product alongside good bacteria (probiotics). This probably has some negative effects on the number of living organisms in the powder.
French Grape Seed Extract (Enovita) also found in MentaFocus
Envitoa is another standardized ingredient that Amare uses. Grape seed extracts have been shown to contain high concentrations of procyanidins and other polyphenols. As a result, Enovita has been shown to improve blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Enovita has also been shown to have benefits on the gut thanks to these same compounds. It appears Enovita is dosed around 300mg but the MentaBiotic product has it in a proprietary blend that only totals 75mg.
New Zealand Pine Bark Extract (Enzogenol) also found in MentaFocus
Doses of Enzogenol, a standardized extract of New Zealand Pine Bark, at 480mg has been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk. A study on pigs has also shown the use of these procyanidins in pigs can beneficially impact the bacteria in the gut. Researchers had pigs consuming about 250mg/kg of bodyweight. This is way more than what is provided in MentaBiotic. Again, one of the ways this ingredient works is by killing off bacteria. It doesn’t make sense to include this in the same product as probiotics.
Digestive Performance Blend
L-Glutamine
Glutamine is often used to help people suffering from intestinal inflammation and increased permeability. Intestinal permeability refers to how easily food, bacteria, and or/toxins can cross from the intestines into the bloodstream. The more permeability, the worse it is for you. L-glutamine is an amino acid that can help maintain healthy intestinal permeability and as a result reduces inflammation. Doses of L-glutamine often exceed 2.5g to help with gut health. This product contains considerably less than 160mg of L-glutamine.
Artichoke Leaf Extract.
Artichoke leaf is referred to as a choleretic. This means artichoke can help to increase the production of bile in the liver. Bile helps to breakdown and absorb fat and fat-soluble vitamins. Bile is also one way we can get rid of excess cholesterol. Common doses of Artichoke Leaf Extract tend to be at least 300mg. MentaBiotic does not reach that threshold.
Ginger Root Extract
Ginger has long been used to help subdue the effects of nausea and vomiting. The active component of ginger are called rhizomes. These rhizomes may help to reduce inflammation and heal the gut. However, the recommended dose for ginger appears to be at least 300 mg per day. MentaBiotics include ginger in a proprietary formula that is only 160mg.
MentaFocus
Focus Empowering Proprietary Blend
Pomegranate Extract
Pomegranates are rich in antioxidants. These antioxidants are believed to be responsible for boosting blood flow in the brain. It appears that most of these studies looked at using pomegranate juice rather than a pomegranate supplement.
- Asian Apple Fruit Extract (ApplePhenon) refer to MentaBiotics
- French Grape Seed Extract (Enovita) refer to MentaBiotics
- New Zealand Pine Bark Extract (Enzogenol) refer to MentaBiotics
Rosemary Leaf Extract
Rosemary is much more than the Italian herb in the back of your cabinet. It’s filled with phenols and terpenes that have tremendous antioxidant capacity. They also have antimicrobial abilities and work as a natural antibiotic. There is some evidence to suggest the components of rosemary can also support brain function. It primarily does this by reducing free radicals and inflammation in the brain.
Oregano Leaves
Oregano is another herb that is rich in free radical fighting antioxidants. By reducing these free radicals and inflammation some scientist see oregano as a viable option to improve brain function. However, they are mostly looking at diseased brains like dementia.
Clove Flower Buds
Studies on mice have shown clove oil can improve brain function. Researchers were able to show that clove, dosed at .3mg/kg, improved antioxidant capacity, learning, and memory.
Sage Leaf Extract
Sage is filled with several different essential oils. The diterpenes and triterpenes, including carnosic acid, urolic acid, carnosol, and tanshinones appear to be responsible for sage’s benefits. These compounds have been shown to reduce waste buildup in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Tulsi Leaf Extract
Another name for Tulsi is Holy basil. This plant is considered to be an adaptogen that modulates our stress response. In particular, Tulsi leaf extracts help to control cortisol levels. High levels of cortisol are actually neurotoxic. That’s why it is important to control the stress response system.
MentaSYNC
Alpha-Beta Glucan Proprietary Blend
1,3/1,6 Beta-Glucan (Wellmune)
Beta-glucans make up the cell wall of yeast. In this case, Wellmune is a patented form of a 1,3/1,6 beta-glucan from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This unique form has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of infection in people under stress. One study actually showed that firefighters taking Wellmune reduced their risk of an upper respiratory tract infection by nearly 25%.
MycoFusions [Maitake, Shiitake, Agaricus, Chaga]
Mycofusions is a patented mushroom blend. Much like beta-glucans, alpha-glucans are capable of producing a strong immunomodulatory effect. As a result, people that supplement or regularly eat foods rich in alpha-glucans have lower levels of inflammation and markers associated with cancer.
FucoMax Fucoidan Seaweed
FucoMax is a patented fucoidan seaweed extract. Fucoidan has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and stabilize blood sugar. Along with that fucoidan also appears to has antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, and antitumor effects.
Intestinal Integrity Proprietary Blend
Calcium Butyrate & Magnesium Butyrate
While these are two different ingredients, the primary benefit here is the butyrate. Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid and a major fuel source. Therefore, butyrate can actually help to speed healing and recovery in the gut by improving tight junction function.
Zinc/Carnosine Complex
Zinc carnosine works well alongside butyrate supplements. This is due to the fact zinc carnosine improves cell growth and migration. Zinc is found in many nootropic supplements, such as Thrivous Clarity. Supplementing with about 40mg of zinc carnosine twice a day can help to reduce intestinal permeability.
Does Amare FundaMentals Pack Work?
This three-product combination includes some of the top, patented, ingredients in the supplement industry. When it comes to picking the right ingredients Amare did not go with the cheapest raw material. Each of these ingredients in their proprietary blends has significant research backing their clinical efficacy. Unfortunately, every single one of these ingredients is underdosed. Also, their combinations are counterintuitive. The biggest issue is in MentaBiotics. Amare utilized high-quality probiotic strains (while already underdosed) and combined it with antibacterial herbs. This further reduces the efficacy of the product.
Claims vs. Reality
Amare really does use some of the best ingredients in the supplement industry. But because of their dosing and manufacturing practices, this product offers very little in terms of serious gut-brain support. The three product combination FundaMentals Pack may offer some relief for people with mild-moderate gut issues. However, these products should only be used short-term, 1-3 months. Even though the ingredients are underdosed, it is not going to continuously stay on the variety of antimicrobial/antibacterial compounds found in these products.
Safety
Long-term use over 6 months is probably not a good idea. The antimicrobial agents may cause more harm than good if used for too long. Additionally, the use of antimicrobial agents can result in something called a Herxheimer reaction. This is the result of bacterial die-off in the gut overwhelming the immune system. While very rare, it is something to be aware of when taking these types of products.
Where to Buy Amare Fundamentals
- Amare FundaMentals Pack $134.95
