John Brownhill is a Gold Coast based Clinical Psychologist and entrepreneur. He is the older brother of Tom Brownhill, former professional tennis player. John was born in Kempsey, country New South Wales, Australia. In his clinical practice, John specialises in Pain management and addictions.
On a hot day in 2015 after a gym session he realised he didn’t want to drink the chocolate whey drink he had previously purchased, he went home and mixed some protein powder with water, it tasted terrible. So, he went online and found a protein waters product, “they said it tasted fantastic in their advertising, but when I tried it, it was undrinkable”.
He saw an opportunity. However, finding a chemist able to mask the dry taste associated with protein waters and keep the sugars down was a challenge. “I promised myself I wouldn’t make a product like the protein waters I had tried, if I couldn’t improve I would stay home”, he says. John eventually found a food chemist that could do it, this chemist and his wife turned out to be valuable sources of information about the beverage industry and the business of manufacturing , “they are sometimes adult supervision”, he says.
Of course, getting manufactured and distributed was no easy matter. The supplements industry is often compared to the wild west. “I got ripped off by my first distributor”, he says. “I already had a good career, which was very challenging on its own, so I had to ask myself some hard questions”.
John claims not to have any spare time, “but if I did”, he claims, “I would read and go to the beach with my niece Lucy”.
Protein fortified drinks, Protein drinks have been used in the context of physical training for decades. Modern protein drinks have a whey protein source. Some of the older protein drinks would not have been very nice to drink. Recently, protein water (water fortified with protein) products have become available.
Australian’s are considered the highest per capita consumers of protein supplements in the world, with most ready-to-go protein drinks being purchased within 45 minutes of exercise. There is some debate about when to consume a protein drink in relation to exercise, (before, during, after). Some newer research suggests that timing may be less important than amount.
There is recognition that during period of physical training protein requirements increase significantly. Additionally, there is recognition that use of a protein waters drink product is highly indicated for gastric sleeve diet, or a liquid diet after gastric sleeve or weight loss surgery.
Protein water products have a number of advantages over milk based products. Protein waters can be used closer to training than traditional milk based high carb protein drinks, or even during training. This is because they have less carbs and competition for digestion.
An issue with protein waters is a dry taste called astringency. ION-X Protein Water is the only product that has managed to mask this. The superior taste of the best protein waters, ION-X Protein Water comes from using special natural flavourings and concentrated fruit extracts, playing with acidity, and a specialised heating & cooling process. The company reports spending several years in research & development. ION-X Protein Water is considered significantly better than other protein waters on the market.