Editor's note: Thorne's dissolvable disc suite has been discontinued. Learn more about our other offerings here.

One of Thorne’s important missions is to provide a healthier alternative to today’s functional food and beverage space. In accomplishing this mission, Thorne’s line of dissolvable supplement discs also lessens the impact on the environment by utilizing sustainable packaging alternatives and reducing plastic waste.

Dissolvable disc technology is a creation of Thorne Innovation Labs™, a groundbreaking idea center where Thorne’s best and brightest focus on understanding the needs of today’s society to design the next generation of innovative health solutions.

Starting with exceptional ingredient quality and world-class nutritional supplement formulas, Thorne has crafted a novel format – a printed, dissolvable supplement disc – that provides essential nutrients through an unparalleled alternative to gummies and sugar-filled beverages. With revolutionary technology and sustainable packaging, dissolvable supplement discs are challenging the packaging industry’s negative impact on the environment.

Dissolvable disc technology: A vision for a healthier future 

No one should be limited by a definition of health that is anything less than optimal. That's what Thorne believes and why we are committed to providing innovative health solutions. It’s because we believe better lives begin with better health.

Thorne brought unique and valuable expertise to this endeavor. As the established leader of evidence-based supplements and wellness products for consumer self-care and physician-directed therapies, the company uses extensive scientific expertise and R&D capabilities in natural therapies to source the world’s highest-quality ingredients and to develop innovative and exclusive product formulations.

Through their unique printed, dissolvable supplement disc, Thorne is transforming the highest-quality ingredients and formulas into an enjoyable consumable liquid that is a wellness solution of essential nutrients and botanicals.

This unique effort will adhere to Thorne’s already industry-leading standards, including: 

  • Practicing 100-percent transparency in ingredient sourcing and product formulation. 
  • Maintaining the highest quality standards by adhering to the FDA's current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) guidelines.
  • Testing every raw ingredient for identity, purity, and potency. 
  • Staying committed to Thorne’s “No List” – the list of unnecessary fillers, additives, and allergens that will never be included in Thorne's dissolvable supplement discs.

Designed for you

Each dissolvable supplement disc formula is designed for a particular health and wellness objective, such as formulas for GI health, sleep support, and a kids’ daily multi-vitamin/mineral complex.*

A printed, flexible disc is simply dropped into any liquid of choice, and it quickly dissolves to create an easy solution for optimizing health.*

Get your nutrients without any unnecessary sugar

In today’s market, sports drinks, enhanced waters, energy drinks, soy beverages, and other "functional beverages" are loaded with excessive sugar. And that’s not good.

As "healthy" drinks and gummies gain in popularity, experts are raising the alarm about the amounts of sugar that sweeten these products and, in particular, the health risks linked to excessive sugar consumption, such as:

  • Heart disease1
  • Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease2
  • Increased risk of diabetes3
  • Weight gain4
  • Cavities5

In addition to all that unwanted sugar, there is usually an extraordinarily small amount of useable nutritional substance. Although these “healthy” beverages that saturate the market do have some level of nutrient composition – they are usually not in optimally absorbed forms nor in truly functional amounts.

Look at any bottle of a so-called vitamin-infused drink and you likely will see a few vitamins – vitamin B12, for example. But not all vitamin B12 ingredients are the same. Mass-produced beverages typically use an inactive form of vitamin B12 known as cyanocobalamin. Thorne’s dissolvable discs only contain methylcobalamin – vitamin B12 in its methylated, tissue-ready form.

Does this matter? Yes, because sometimes the body has difficulty converting inactive vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) if there are issues like compromised liver function, poorly functioning enzymes, digestive disturbances, or age. On the other hand, the active, tissue-ready form of vitamin B12 is in a readily absorbable form that can be immediately utilized by the body – no conversion required.

What’s more, most functional beverages offer only minuscule amounts of micronutrients. It comes down to answering this question: Would you rather obtain 25 percent of your daily value nutrients in formats your body has trouble absorbing, or 100 percent of a nutrient in its optimal, most absorbable form?

While Thorne wants each dissolvable supplement disc to taste good, more importantly Thorne wants the supplement to be healthy. Therefore, we utilize a small amount of a sugar alternative, such as a sugar alcohol or a non-sugar sweetener like stevia, to enhance the flavors in each disc.

We design each formula down to the smallest detail. Every ingredient in our supplement discs serves a specific, targeted purpose. The result is a supplement that quickly dissolves in a cold liquid while creating a consistent form of delivery – and without the added calories from sugar.

A sustainable solution

Thorne’s mission is to improve health and wellness – not only for the individual, but also for the planet. Thorne strongly supports sustainability, and we strive to leave the smallest possible carbon footprint on the planet.

Imagine the sheer number of plastic bottles in production right now for beverages that will be transported around the world. It requires a ridiculous amount of energy to make, package, and transport all that plastic. And all the oil used to produce that plastic contributes to global climate change.

Where does all that plastic end up?

• In our oceans: A 2015 study estimates there are more than 15 trillion piece of plastic in the world’s oceans, and that number grows significantly every year.6

• In our landfills: One report estimates that only 14 percent of recyclable packaging is collected, while only two percent is actually recycled.7 

Other sustainable alternatives – despite our best intentions – still end up in landfills. Although plastic alternative containers, like aluminum, can be recycled and reused, Americans still throw away more than $700 million of aluminum cans every year, and only two-thirds of aluminum cans are recycled. The other third? Thrown into landfills along with the plastic waste.

Thorne has designed its dissolvable supplement discs with all of this in mind. Because a disc is dropped directly into a reusable water bottle, it reduces the amount of wasteful plastic that can end up polluting our planet. In addition, the production process to make it does not require as much energy to create, package, and transport these dissolvable supplement discs as it does for millions of plastic-bottled “healthy” beverages.

We also apply a more sustainable approach to our packaging

The packaging for Thorne’s dissolvable discs is 100-percent plastic free, and the carton is 100-percent recyclable. As this product line grows, Thorne is working toward using an internationally certified biodegradable – and completely compostable – biopolymer packaging. This groundbreaking packaging can be processed with organic waste to produce high-quality biomass material. In turn, that material can be used to create new packaging or be returned to the earth as fertilizer for agricultural production.

This is all part of Thorne’s mission to positively impact the health and wellness of individuals while reducing our impact on the planet.

Thorne Innovation Labs strives to create the world's most innovative solutions for health and wellness. The projects generated radically disrupt market practices by pushing the limits of human potential and redefining what it means to be well.

References

  1. Kim H, Kwon H, Jeong S, et al. Effects of abdominal visceral fat compared with those of subcutaneous fat on the association between PM10 and hypertension in Korean men: A cross-sectional study. Sci Rep 2019;9(1):5951. Published 2019 Apr 11. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42398-1
  2. Jegatheesan P, De Bandt J. Fructose and NAFLD: The multifaceted aspects of fructose metabolism. Nutrients 2017;9(3):230. Published 2017 Mar 3. doi:10.3390/nu9030230
  3. Xi B, Li S, Liu Z, et al. Intake of fruit juice and incidence of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2014;9(3):e93471. Published 2014 Mar 28. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093471
  4. Malik V, Pan A, Willett W, Hu F. Sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain in children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr 2013;98(4):1084-1102. doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.058362
  5. Gupta P, Gupta N, Pawar A, et al. Role of sugar and sugar substitutes in dental caries: a review. ISRN Dent 2013;2013:519421. Published 2013 Dec 29. doi:10.1155/2013/519421
  6. Ocean Trash: 5.25 Trillion Pieces and Counting, but Big Questions Remain https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/150109-oceans-plastic-sea-trash-science-marine-debris  [Accessed: May 27, 2022]
  7.  Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 2016. The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics - Background to key statistics from the report (February 2016). https://emf.thirdlight.com/link/f668rdcezflu-oxunnl/@/preview/1?o [Accessed: May 31, 2022]