- Home
- Ingredients
- Maca Root
Maca Root In GlycoAid
A root crop grown higher than almost any other food plant on earth.
Where Maca Root Comes From
Maca is a root crop from the Andes, grown at altitudes above four thousand metres in the Junin plateau of Peru, where almost nothing else survives. It has been cultivated there for at least two thousand years as food, not as medicine — dried and boiled into porridge, or fermented into a drink. It is a brassica, which makes it a relative of the turnip and the radish.
What Maca Root Is Doing In GlycoAid
Maca's research and its traditional reputation are both about energy, stamina, mood and libido rather than glucose. It contains glucosinolates and unique compounds called macamides. In a blood sugar formula it is there for the general energy and vitality side of the claim rather than for anything metabolic, and this page would rather say that than invent a mechanism.
The Research Behind Maca Root
There are several small human trials on maca, mostly on sexual function and mood, with mixed but not discouraging results. There is essentially no human evidence for maca and blood glucose specifically. Including it in a blood sugar formula is a formulation choice about the wider experience rather than an evidence-led one, and the honest description is exactly that.
What Dose The Studies Actually Used
Trials have used 1.5 to 3 g a day of maca powder, which is a food-scale quantity and far beyond what a shared blend delivers. In Peru it is eaten in considerably larger amounts than that as an ordinary part of the diet.
How this relates to GlycoAid. The fourteen ingredients share one 500 mg blend weight and no individual figure is printed, so what any single name contributes cannot be read off the label. The descending order on the panel is the one real clue, and this site would rather explain that than pretend to a precision it does not have.
Maca Root: Cautions Worth Knowing
Maca is a food with a long dietary safety record. As a brassica it contains goitrogens, which in very large raw quantities can affect thyroid function in people who are iodine deficient; traditional preparation boils it, which reduces them. Anyone with a thyroid condition may want to mention it.
What Maca Root Is Not
Maca comes in yellow, red and black varieties, and small trials have suggested they behave somewhat differently. Most supplements do not specify. Maca is also not related to ginseng, despite being marketed alongside it under the Peruvian ginseng label.
Finding Maca Root Outside A Capsule
In Peru maca is food rather than supplement: dried, boiled into porridge, baked into bread or fermented into a drink, in quantities far larger than any capsule. Powder is widely sold and can simply be stirred into things. The one label detail worth looking for is the colour — yellow, red or black — because small trials suggest they behave differently and most products do not say.
Questions
Maca Root Questions
The ones that come up about this ingredient specifically.
Does maca help blood sugar?
There is no meaningful human evidence that it does. It is in the formula for the energy and vitality side of the claim, and this page says so.
Is maca a stimulant?
No. It contains no caffeine and does not act like one. Reports of increased energy are not reports of stimulation.
Which colour of maca is best?
Small trials have suggested differences between yellow, red and black, but the evidence is thin and most products do not specify.
Is maca safe with thyroid problems?
It contains goitrogens as a brassica. In ordinary amounts this is a minor issue, but it is worth mentioning if you have a thyroid condition.
Nearby
Related GlycoAid Ingredients
Start Your First Bottle Of GlycoAid
One capsule with a meal, a page here for every name on the label, and two months to send it back if it does nothing for you.
- One capsule a day, taken with food
- Fourteen ingredients, all named on the panel
- Free US delivery on the 3 and 6 bottle packs
- Sixty days to return it, opened bottles included