Restorative powders for old muscles Muscular pensioners – that’s the vision of a protein-shake company from Baar. Now a clinical study is investigating whether their product really works under everyday conditions. Text: Florian Fisch Illustration: ikonaut 1. 2014 – The specialist article Leucine makes muscles What had up to now been a supposition is now a fact. A Canadian research team proved that in a group of 40 young men, adding the amino acid leucine to their food can stimulate muscle growth. The readers of this article include Piero Fontana, a foodstuff developer at a Swiss food supplement company. But he’s not interested in bodybuilders, and wonders instead whether leucine might work in elderly people. Their muscles don’t react so strongly to growth signals any more, and grow more slowly. As a result of this, they suffer more falls and bone fractures.
2. 2015 – Preparing the supplement Improving the taste But pure leucine tastes awful. In order to get the right amount of this amino acid to taste better, Piero Fontana hides it in foodstuffs. He mixes it with whey protein made during cheese production, turning it into shakes and drinks in various flavours from cappuccino to clementine, and he sells them to geriatric clinics via his company Omanda in Baar (canton of Zug). He also develops leucine-rich supplements for sausages and biscuits, and registers a total of seven patents.
3. 2018 – The clinical study Does it really work? The new protein shakes are discovered by a team at the Zurich University Hospital that’s running a clinical study about agerelated muscular wasting. Of 800 people over the age of 74 who suffer a fall or injury, half are given a course of treatment using a cocktail of leucine and whey protein. The other half is given a placebo – a drink developed for the study without any protein, but with just as many calories. In parallel to this, the team assesses the effects of weight training. After 12 months they will see whether the shake really has an impact in everyday use.
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