The NNB Nutrition Story: Supplement Ingredient Solutions for the…

For the latter part of the 2010s, the supplement industry suffered from a serious case of technological stagnation, especially in the “sports nutrition” segment. Very few new ingredients entered the market, and of those, many were simply minor tweaks of old compounds or questionably compliant stimulants.

All the while, the obesity epidemic and all that comes along with it have ballooned to record levels, with no end in sight.

One company, led by a true industry pioneer and backed by hundreds of scientists, has led the charge for change. That pioneer is a man named Kylin Liao, and his company is NNB Nutrition.

NNB Nutrition Creates Novel Ingredients

With a simple motto of “We create ingredients”, NNB Nutrition literally does just that. Beyond improving the potency, consistency, and flowability of existing popular ingredients, they develop and sell novel ingredients, the likes of which have never been on the market before the company’s inception.

This decade, NNB Nutrition is set to change the world of supplementation. It all begins with the building blocks of dietary supplements — their ingredients. Be ready: the days of boring and generic pre-workout supplements with just caffeine, beta-alanine, citrulline, and maybe some betaine are finally coming to an end. Fat burners dusted with green tea and underdosed L-carnitine are a thing of the past.

Instead, NNB is bringing something new to the table. Their new ingredient platform started by taking a serious swing at the root of our obesity crisis: metabolic and mitochondrial health. As the years have gone by, they’ve expanded to much more, including performance and hydration support.

The full story is below, but first, take time to sign up for our NNB Nutrition news alerts, because we have a lot more research and supplement ingredient news on the way:

What is NNB Nutrition?

Founded in 2015 by Kylin Liao, but built from decades of experience, NNB Nutrition was conceived to fill a market gap that desperately needed attention: new ingredient development.

An accomplished chemist, Kylin spent a considerable amount of time at the massive Sinochem Group, a Beijing-based chemical corporation. There, he managed and brought several new compounds to the market. It was during his time at Sinochem when Kylin began working with biochemist and supplement formulator Shawn Wells — one of the patent holders for the ingredients theacrine (Teacrine) and methylliberine (Dynamine). With Kylin’s help, Wells and Drs. Hector Lopez and Tim Ziegenfuss were able to bring these ingredients to market faster, cheaper, and with greater purity than anyone else.

With the ongoing success of theacrine, Shawn and Kylin began talking about other new ingredients, and Kylin was always Shawn’s “go-to” when he needed something novel, that tested out, and could be made at a commercially viable price. Throughout this process, Kylin identified several market opportunities, and decided it was time to explore them with his own business.

NNB Nutrition was launched, and it wasn’t long before Shawn was named NNB’s chief science officer.

Founded on ketones, built for flexibility

NNB Nutrition’s first foray into the ingredient business was with KetoVantage, a set of beta hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ingredients dubbed “revolutionary ketones” because they contained only the active isomer for the body (the D/R form, otherwise known as “right handed”). These powerful ketones could raise blood ketone levels two to three times more than the existing mixed isomers (D/L) on the market.

With KetoVantage, low-carb dieters and performance athletes could get additional energy-boosting ketones circulating, but with less overall minerals (salts) bound to them, saving money, space, and improving the overall flavor profile. They further developed fermented BHB and BHB free acid as well with their brilliant team of over 100 scientists.

The ingredient was a hit in the highest-performance ketogenic supplements, and NNB Nutrition had a market position to spring from. KetoVantage is now making a comeback as goBHB, rebranded to to promote its benefits for cognitive health and performance for athletes.

“Ingredient City”: Build the platform, not just the product

With the success of KetoVantage underway, Kylin’s next move was different from what most business owners would do. Rather than begin chasing ingredient sales, he decided to perfect a manufacturing strategy. Rather than invest in machinery that could only perform one task, he built a platform of tools that could be utilized to make several different ingredients.

There was greater cost up front, but with that came a flexible factory, and it’s one that enables NNB Nutrition to generate novel ingredients at a rapid pace. New equipment is still brought in, but it’s always done in a way that can improve the flow of future operations. The team works hard to prevent reliance on any one piece of hardware, which improves availability and lead times, two things any supplement brand knows can devastate a product launch.

Shawn Wells calls this flexible factory operation by another name, however: ingredient city. It’s a place where the supplement industry’s stagnation has met its match. NNB has over 1,000,000 square feet of manufacturing space, a global team of over 100 scientists, and cutting edge equipment made in Japan, Germany, and the US.

Get it made and get it fast

NNB can deliver an ingredient in a short amount of time, thanks to this technology platform. For example, we suggested that they create a stable and tested high-salidroside rhodiola extract, since similar ingredients rarely test out or don’t remain on the market, despite salidroside’s success in energy, workout, and nootropic supplements. Within three weeks, the ingredient was extracted and ready for testing, and months later, RhodioPrime 6X entered the market.

Thanks to the platform discussed above, NNB and the brands that use them can stay ahead of competition, and get ingredients developed that are simply better, stronger, and more effective than the generic versions more commonly found.

Targeting Metabolic Health and Trust

Along with KetoVantage®, NNB Nutrition also launched an industry-leading grains of paradise extract named CaloriBurn GP and an advanced form of berberine in GlucoVantage dihydroberberine.

Grains of paradise extract is known for its ability to increase energy expenditure and activate more thermogenic brown fat cells. Although there are competing ingredients on the market, they use controversial extraction methods that may not hold up to Amazon’s 3rd-party testing methods for weight management items. NNB has also found that the competitors don’t always extract the spice in a way that preserves the components used in the most successful weight loss studies.

Kylin and the team at NNB took it upon themselves to extract something better, and are always happy to share the lab tests to prove it (you can see two CaloriBurn lab tests here).

GlucoVantage, meanwhile utilizes dihydroberberine, a patented ingredient that’s been shown to have 5X the bioavailability of regular berberine, a popular glucose disposal agent ingredient. With its improved uptake, GlucoVantage requires lower doses, eliminating the GI distress caused when using higher doses of standard berberine.

The above ingredients demonstrate two important themes discussed below:

• Trust
• A slant towards metabolic health

Earning the world’s trust

In Kylin’s words, “It’s my goal to get this industry taken SERIOUSLY again.” Kylin understands that smaller ingredient suppliers and brokers are known for cutting corners and shipping ingredients that don’t always test out per their specifications. With a below-spec ingredient in hand, smaller supplement brands are often left holding the bag, making for stressful and low-trust transactions.

While NNB Nutrition always wants brands to follow laws and test all incoming raw materials, they also don’t ever want to break a brand’s trust. Everything must be tested before leaving “Ingredient City,” and everything must pass the test.

Unique and novel ingredients are great, but they’re for nothing if they don’t test out and stay on the market for the long haul. NNB Nutrition is one of the few ingredient suppliers targeting the sports nutrition and weight-loss markets that puts a consistent brand name and message behind their products. This is a brand that’s here to stay. So let’s take a moment to understand their message.

The metabolic advantage: NNB’s focus on mitochondrial health

Aside from GlucoVantage and CaloriBurn, if you’ve followed our coverage of NNB Nutrition’s other ingredients (MitoBurn L-BAIBA, CurcuPrime tetrahydrocurcumin, MitoPrime L-ergothioneine, Puremidine spermidine, ZinjaBurn dehydrozingerone, C8Vantage MCT powder, goBHB, and di-leucine), you’ve likely noticed that these are all powerful metabolic enhancers that support anti-aging effects.

NNB started with weight loss, but that’s only a small part of the story behind these ingredients. Above all else, they are metabolic enhancers that focus on true mitochondrial health. The mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of the cells, and Shawn and Kylin strongly believe that poor sleep habits and the world’s processed food supply have damaged our mitochondria to the point where we cannot generate enough energy from our own environment!

Before NNB, recent advances in weight loss ingredients simply revolved around stimulants or possibly better absorption of existing ingredients. That hasn’t been enough to hold the line, and our global health strategies are not advancing our fight against the obesity epidemic.

Achieving clean energy

Kylin and his team are interested in “clean energy,” by way of mitochondrial support. If your mitochondria are running well, your body is likely running well. With NNB, there are no unsafe or questionable stimulatory ingredients. The NNB lineup is for improving health and true human performance.

In order to do this, the ingredients generally work in the following functions:

• Lower the blood sugar and insulin burden on the body, thereby reducing advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that contribute to pain, inflammation, and aging
• Improve ketogenesis, providing an alternate form of energy that’s favorable in the face of insulin resistance
• Decrease inflammation that leads to joint discomfort, brain fog, and the inability to shed weight
• Increase energy expenditure and thermogenesis
• Provide antioxidant support that goes well beyond what’s demonstrated in standard ingredients like vitamin C, glutathione, and CoQ10
• Prevent lipid peroxidation and other forms of fatty acid damage that are so common with diets high in processed foods that contain toxic waste oils
• Increase mood, vigilance, cognition, and immunity to enable better workouts and lifestyle

The list goes on, but the point is clear: NNB Nutrition has a new generation of ingredients that deviate far from the standard “stim-up then crash and burn” mantra so many brands have focused on over the past decade.

Of course, brands can always add stimulants and other ingredients to their final ingredient formulations, but in these supplements, it’s generally the NNB inclusions that make the product powerful and unique.

Below is a brief look at each major ingredient NNB has on the market for 2020.

The NNB Ingredient Series

Just like NNB utilizes a manufacturing platform for robustness, they have three different ingredient platforms to guide brands that are looking for something different and new:

• The Burn Series

  The Burn Series contains supplements that increase energy output, often through induced thermogenesis and cellular signaling.

  • CaloriBurn (grains of paradise extract)

    Discussed above, CaloriBurn is a thermogenic grains of paradise extract, standardized to 12.5% 6-paradol, but also has the additional beneficial constituents used in research (6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 6-gingerdione). Other inferior extracts on the market only contain 6-paradol, yielding fewer benefits on their own.

    This is a classic ingredient for any fat burner, whether it’s stimulant-based or stimulant-free.

  • MitoBurn (L-BAIBA)

    The ingredient with the most potential for the future, L-BAIBA is an “exercise mimetic” that is generated by muscle tissue when you work out. It’s a non-protein amino acid that’s actually used to signal other parts of the body that exercise is ongoing, and to ramp up various exercise-based “programs,” such as energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

    Although L-BAIBA is already generated when exercising, research shows that supplementing more may further increase the benefits of exercise.

    

    MitoBurn from NNB Nutrition has been tested out to be a pure form of BAIBA on the market!

  • ZinjaBurn (dehydrozingerone)

    ZinjaBurn is unique because it simultaneously straddles the line between fat burner, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. The ingredient, dehydrozingerone, is a relative of curcumin but comes from ginger, and we believe it’s responsible for much of ginger’s fat-fighting prowess.

    A flexible ingredient (ZinjaBurn), we see huge stacking potential with both CaloriBurn as a fat burner or CurcuPrime (discussed below) as an anti-inflammatory.

• The Vantage Series

  The Vantage Series is designed to provide you with a metabolic advantage. These ingredients elevate ketones and decrease blood sugar levels in unique ways, enabling you to “unlock” your fat-burning prowess by lessening your body’s resistance to burning it.

  • GlucoVantage (dihydroberberine)

    

    We’ve long said that GlucoVantage dihydroberberine has 5x the bioavailability if traditional berberine. In our ‘5X’ article, we explore the very well-designed study that demonstrated this.

    Perhaps the most powerful and successful ingredient in NNB’s lineup, GlucoVantage, is dubbed “the super berberine.” It’s pure dihydroberine, a form of berberine that is more potent and bioavailable than traditional berberine. This enables users to drive carbohydrates into muscle cells as opposed to fat, improving all kinds of metabolic health markers along the way.

    This is useful for both athletes looking to maximize the effects of post-workout carbohydrate consumption as well as those who struggle with low carbohydrate tolerance.

    With a lower dose to get better results, GlucoVantage is the future of berberine and the entire “glucose disposal agent” category in general.

  • goBHB (D/R betahydroxybutyrate ketone salts, formerly KetoVantage)

    Discussed in detail above, KetoVantage is NNB Nutrition’s group of D/R-BHB ketone salts that are used to elevate ketone levels more effectively and efficiently than standard mixed (D/L) BHB salts.

    KetoVantage isn’t just for low-carb / keto dieters, however. Everyone can get a boost from ketones, including athletes looking to mix them with carbohydrates to make dual-powered “rocket fuel.”

  • C8Vantage (C8 MCT Powder)

    MCT is short for medium chain triglycerides, which are a group of ultra fast-absorbing saturated fats that are, nearly instantly, available for energy. However, the shorter-chain MCT, C8 (caprylic acid), is most potent, bypassing additional digestion steps and processing.

    

    Kylin doesn’t just talk to the talk, he walks the walk!

    MCT oil is incredibly popular, but it’s also messy, inconvenient, and not optimally ketogenic. To solve the market’s problems, NNB Nutrition created C8Vantage, which is a nearly pure C8-based powder that’s sustainably sourced. It comes in both vegan and dairy creamer options, and mixes incredible in drinks such as coffee and protein powders.

• The Prime Series

  Most interesting of all is the Prime Series, which is built to prime your body — and thus your mitochondria — for improved health and training

  • HydroPrime (65%+ glycerol powder)

    What better way to prime your body for a workout than to get hydrated?! After hearing countless complaints about clumpy, gritty, and low-yield glycerol powders from brands, consumers, and manufacturers alike, NNB Nutrition took it upon themselves to make something far better.

    HydroPrime is a 65% or greater glycerol powder that solves the above issues seen in previous generations of glycerol, and depending on a brand’s formula, can be driven as high as 75% glycerol yield! This enables athletes to get “hyperhydrated,” giving more water-based pumps and cellular volumization.

  • CurcuPrime (tetrahydrocurcumin)

    

    Meet Tetrahydrocurcumin: A precision-targeted, more bioavailable curcumin metabolite that is more white than yellow!

    Tetrahydrocurcumin (4-HC) is a major bioactive derivative of curcumin, and thanks to advances in science, it’s also given credibility as the engine behind much that curcumin brings to the table. CurcuPrime is pure tetrahydrocurcumin, which brings many of the weight loss side of the anti-inflammatory ingredient’s effects, such as its ability to lower blood sugar levels.

  • MitoPrime (L-ergothioneine)

    Dubbed “the intelligent antioxidant,” L-ergothioneine has an extremely rich history. It’s theorized to have helped life survive “the Great Oxygenation Event” 2.4 billion years ago, thanks to its incredible reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activity! As an antioxidant, L-ergothioneine has been shown to outperform vitamin C, glutathione, and coenzyme Q10.

    Our bodies have a unique and specific transporter for ergothioneine, and it’s even a candidate for vitamin status. It’s found in mushrooms and organ meats, two items that have lost prevalence in our food supply.

    

    This article has been updated in 2024 to reflect new ingredients!

    MitoPrime is one of the few L-ergothioneine ingredients found on the market — and is the most underrated ingredient in the lineup — with few realizing just how incredibly powerful it is.

  • ElectroPrime

    ElectroPrime is NNB Nutrition’s unique formula that combines appropriate nutrients and electrolytes to provide comprehensive hydration in one pre-mixed ingredient. Taken with water, it supports the body’s hydration needs, but also helps maintain fluid balance across cells, improving the body’s ability retain and absorb water.

As you now see, NNB Nutrition is focused on health, and that focus begins with the mitochondria. More ingredients are on the way, including the high-salidroside rhodiola rosea extract discussed in our example above.

Beyond that, there are still more possibilities for the future, and that includes collaborating with scientists from around the world:

Ingredientology: Co-develop ingredients with NNB Nutrition

It’s impossible for one company and its team to read every research study. Supplement formulators and scientists are always stumbling on new ingredient ideas, but often have no possible way to synthesize or extract them. This is where NNB Nutrition comes in.

In a process known as “Ingredientology,” NNB Nutrition has begun partnering with scientists, supplement formulators, intellectual property and patent experts, study designers and academic researchers and product developers to create new branded ingredients with intellectual property and studies behind them. They are leveraging their production platform and expert team like no one else in the industry. Put simply, it could be an ingredient for a single supplement, but it could also be co-patented and leveraged into an entire new business partnership that benefits everyone.

NNB has their eyes open for any opportunities that can continue moving the needle forward, so if you hear of something that’s a common pain point within the industry, bring it to NNB and they may bring it to market for, or with, you!

NNB Nutrition: The shake-up the supplement industry needed

It’s long been time since someone came in and shook up the supply side of the supplement industry. With NNB Nutrition firing on all cylinders, the industry’s “season of stagnation” is a thing of the past. This is a company that believes in improving health, and doing it with ethics. We couldn’t be more excited to finally see someone bringing novel ingredients and technology to the field.

If you’re interested in any of the above ingredients, or want to learn more about working with NNB Nutrition, click on any of the articles above, or head over to NNBNutrition.com.