Dosing and how to take them
How many GUMvees do I take a day?
The dose changes by product. Metabolic Health is one gummy twice a day, taken before meals. Creatine is five gummies a day for the first week and two a day after that. Collagen and Electrolyte come as single-serve bags, so one bag is one serving. Gut Health is a snack bag, and you can eat up to a whole bag in a day.
GNL uses a different dose for each product because the active ingredients work at different amounts. Creatine is measured in grams because that is what it takes to fill muscle stores, while chromium works in micrograms. Gut Health is designed to replace a snack rather than to be rationed, and a full bag of 15 gummies provides 15 g of fibre, 3 g of protein and one billion CFU. Please follow the instructions on the pack you are holding, since they differ from product to product.
Should I take GUMvees with food or on an empty stomach?
Only Metabolic Health depends on timing. Take one gummy before breakfast and one before your evening meal. Electrolyte and Gut Health can be taken with water at any time. Creatine and Collagen can be taken whenever you will remember them.
African wild mango seed extract acts on the meal you are about to eat, which is why the pack times the dose to meals rather than to the clock. Creatine builds up in muscle over several days, so taking it consistently matters more than the hour at which you take it.
Can I take two different GUMvees products at the same time?
In most cases you can, and taking creatine in the morning with gut health in the evening is a common pairing. One exception applies. You must not eat the Collagen bag on the same day as another supplemented food or supplement that contains vitamin D. The bag prints this as a Health Canada requirement.
The caution covers your total daily vitamin D from every source rather than an interaction between GNL products. If you already take a vitamin D supplement, eat the collagen on a different day. If you are combining products from several brands, your pharmacist can check the totals for you.
Why vitamin D matters, and where yours comes from
What happens if I miss a day?
Nothing needs correcting. Take your next dose as scheduled and carry on as normal. Please do not double the dose to catch up, because doubling creatine does not fill muscle stores any faster, and the supplemented-food products have a stated maximum of one bag a day.
Creatine builds a reservoir in muscle over several days, so a single missed day changes very little. The metabolic gummy acts on the meal you take it with, so a missed dose affects that meal only.
How long before I notice a difference?
Creatine shows its effect in training first, which is the reason for the loading week. Electrolytes work the same day. Collagen and gut health work over a longer period. Metabolic support depends on the diet and the activity it sits alongside.
Supplements are not medication and they do not follow a fixed schedule. In most cases the people who notice a change are the people who took the product consistently over a couple of months.
Can I take GUMvees with my prescription medication?
Please ask your pharmacist or your doctor before you start. The answer depends on your specific medication rather than on the gummy. Take the pack or the NPN with you, because every ingredient and its amount are printed there, and that is the information a pharmacist needs in order to check.
This matters most with the metabolic gummy. Chromium and inositol both affect glucose metabolism, so anyone taking medication for blood sugar should have that conversation before starting.
Are GUMvees safe during pregnancy or breastfeeding?
Please consult your healthcare practitioner before taking any GUMvees product if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. This instruction appears on our product pages, and the decision belongs with someone who knows your situation.
Every ingredient and its amount appear on the pack, and the two licensed products carry NPNs that your practitioner can look up. Taking the pack to your appointment will make the conversation quicker.
How old do you have to be to take GUMvees?
GNL recommends its products for adults 18 and over. Two packs carry their own thresholds set by Health Canada. Metabolic Health states adults 19 and over. The Collagen bag states that it is not recommended for anyone under 14. Please follow the age printed on the pack you are holding.
These thresholds are conditions of the licence or the notification for each product, which is why they appear on the pack rather than being left to judgement.
Do I need to stop taking GUMvees periodically?
No cycling is required. Creatine is one of the most studied supplements available and it does not need to be cycled off. You complete the loading week once at the start and then continue on the maintenance dose. Where a pack states a duration of use, please follow the pack.
The idea that supplements need a break comes from products where the body builds tolerance. Creatine, minerals and fibre do not work that way.
How do I store GUMvees, and will they melt in a hot car?
Store them in a cool, dry place, as the bags instruct. No gummy from any brand survives direct sunlight in a hot car, and medications, nutraceuticals and confectionery should all be kept out of those conditions. GUMvees tolerate small amounts of heat, but direct sun in a closed car affects every gummy on the market.
Heat softens gelatin gummies and can cause them to stick together. This changes the texture rather than the active ingredients. If a bag has been exposed to real heat, let it return to room temperature before you open it.
Ingredients, and why we chose them
Is African wild mango the same thing as a GLP-1 drug?
No. GLP-1 medications such as semaglutide are prescription drugs that act on a hormone pathway. African wild mango seed extract is a licensed natural health product that works largely through dietary fibre. The two differ in both mechanism and effect.
GNL answers this directly because the comparison comes up often. If you take a GLP-1 medication and you are considering a supplement alongside it, please ask your prescriber first.
GLP-1, explained
Why creatine monohydrate rather than another form of creatine?
Health Canada approves creatine monohydrate for use in NPN products, largely because of the research behind it. It is also the most studied form and the least expensive. Other forms cost more and have less evidence supporting them. Our licence is NPN 80126442.
If you are comparing Canadian-made creatine products, look for an NPN on the pack. The licence confirms that the form, the dose and the permitted claims were reviewed before the product went on sale.
The scoop on creatine gummies
How does creatine help women as they age?
Creatine’s licensed claim covers strength and power in short, intense efforts, and that capacity declines with age. Women typically begin with lower natural creatine stores than men. The practical approach is creatine taken alongside resistance training.
Creatine supports the training and the training produces the result. GNL describes it this way because the evidence supports the combination rather than the supplement on its own.
Creatine for her
Will creatine make women bulky or hold water?
No. Creatine monohydrate can cause temporary water retention in muscle, and that effect appears mainly in men. The concern about weight gain in women has limited support in the research.
Creatine monohydrate behaves the same way regardless of how a product is marketed, so products aimed at women contain the same ingredient as products aimed at men. Health Canada requires creatine products to carry a statement that you may gain weight, and that statement appears on our pack.
Which probiotic strain is in the gut gummy, and why that one?
The strain is Bacillus subtilis DE111, which forms spores. Spore-forming matters in a gummy, because the strain has to survive manufacturing, a warm shelf and your stomach before it reaches the gut. Many probiotic strains do not.
Health Canada names Bacillus subtilis DE111 on its list of microorganisms eligible for a probiotic claim on food, at one billion CFU per serving maintained through shelf life, and our bag provides that amount. A 2017 trial in adults with occasional irregularity used the same daily amount for 90 days, and a 2021 study in adults with an ileostomy found the spores germinating in the small intestine within three hours. Deerland, which owns the strain, funded both studies, and GNL states that alongside the results.
What is VitaFiber IMO, and why does fibre matter here?
VitaFiber IMO is a soluble prebiotic fibre. Probiotics are the bacteria and prebiotic fibre is what feeds them, so a product that includes one without the other does half the job. The Gut Health bag also contains oligofructose, and the bag provides 15 g of fibre.
The fibre serves two purposes in a gummy. It feeds the culture, and it builds the texture. Canada sets the very high source of fibre threshold at 6 g per serving, so a bag exceeds that threshold comfortably.
Who makes them, and how
Who makes GUMvees, and where?
GNL makes them at its own facility at 16726 111 Avenue NW in Edmonton, Alberta. Gummy Nutrition Lab manufactures rather than outsourcing to a contract packer, so the people who formulate the products and the people who make them work in the same building.
GNL is Canadian-owned, Health Canada-licensed, CFIA-, FDA- and NSF-registered, and vertically integrated. That combination is rare in the Canadian nutraceutical industry. GNL also manufactures for other brands, and those companies audit the facility before they place their labels on our production.
What does an NPN number mean, and where do I find yours?
A Natural Product Number is Health Canada’s licence for a natural health product. It means that Health Canada reviewed the ingredients, the amounts and the permitted claims before the product went on sale. Metabolic Health is NPN 80134727. Creatine Monohydrate is NPN 80126442.
Not every product on our shelf carries an NPN. Canada regulates three of our products, which are Collagen, Electrolyte and Gut Health, as supplemented foods under a different set of rules with their own cautions.
What does “Made in Canada” legally require?
The last substantial transformation of the product must happen in Canada, and Canadian costs must make up at least 51% of total direct manufacturing costs. GNL meets both conditions, because we manufacture in Edmonton and source roughly 80% of our ingredients in Alberta.
The claim has a legal test behind it. GNL sets the test out here so that you can see what the words on the pack actually mean.
What “Made in Canada” actually means
How do you test each batch?
GNL sends its gummies to Labstat, an independent accredited laboratory, and some testing takes place at the University of Alberta. Independent testing means that the laboratory has no interest in the result it reports.
Testing confirms that the finished gummy contains what the label states and that it is clean. Testing only the raw materials would confirm what went into the batch rather than what came out of it, and those are different questions.
Are GUMvees gluten free and allergen free?
Every GUMvees product is gluten free and free of the top 11 allergens.
GNL manufactures the whole range in one facility, which is what makes a single answer possible here. If you manage a sensitivity that sits outside the list of eleven, please check the individual pack.
The label questions
What does the “Supplemented” symbol on the bag mean?
The symbol marks a supplemented food. The Food and Drug Regulations define one as a prepackaged product in a permitted food category to which a supplemental ingredient has been added, such as a vitamin, a mineral nutrient, an amino acid or another listed substance. Supplemented foods carry no NPN. They carry a Supplemented Food Facts table instead, and a caution identifier on the front where an ingredient crosses its threshold.
Three GNL products sit in this category, which are Collagen, Electrolyte and Gut Health, and two products sit under NPNs. The two regimes apply to different kinds of product and both belong to Health Canada. Every cautionary statement on a supplemented food traces back to a specific ingredient crossing a specific threshold in Health Canada’s List of Permitted Supplemental Ingredients, which is why the cautions differ from bag to bag.
Why is the collagen gummy not recommended for anyone under 14?
Vitamin D sets that threshold. Health Canada’s List of Permitted Supplemental Ingredients requires the statement “Not recommended for those under 14 years old” on any supplemented food that declares more than 7 µg of vitamin D per serving. The formula crosses that threshold.
The same vitamin D threshold produces the other two statements on the bag, which are the instruction not to eat it on the same day as other supplemented foods or supplements containing vitamin D, and the one-bag daily maximum. All three statements travel together as a single condition of use, which is why they appear together on the label.
Why can I not take the collagen on the same day as another vitamin D supplement?
The caution covers your total daily vitamin D from every source rather than an interaction with our gummy. The bag states it directly: do not eat on the same day as any other supplemented foods or supplements with vitamin D.
If you take a daily vitamin D supplement, eat the collagen on a different day. This is a question of scheduling rather than a safety concern about the product itself.
Vitamin D, and why your level moves with the seasons
How many bags a day can I have?
One bag a day for the Collagen product, and the pack states this explicitly. The Electrolyte bag is one bag taken with water, and that pack carries the high-in-sugars identifier without a caution statement. Gut Health is up to one bag a day.
Single-serve bags exist so that the serving decision is already made for you. The bag is the serving and the bag is the daily maximum. Where a bag carries a caution statement, that statement sets the maximum.
