What is bromelain? The pineapple enzyme that breaks down protein
People ask us all the time why there's a pineapple enzyme in Heyday protein powder. The short answer: it's an enzyme that works specifically on protein. The long answer is below – what bromelain is, what it does to protein, and what the research actually tells us, without the overselling.
Protein is a big molecule that has to be cut into smaller pieces
Protein is a big, complex molecule, made up of lots of amino acids linked together in long chains. Before your body can absorb it, those long chains have to be cut into smaller pieces – peptides and amino acids. The cutting is done by a group of enzymes called proteases.
And if we're talking protein powder, we have to talk about whey. Whey is made from milk, so it contains lactose (the sugar in milk) – and a lot of people are lactose intolerant, meaning their body makes only small amounts of lactase, the enzyme that breaks lactose down.(1) Heyday protein is made from pea and rice and contains no lactose, so it's another option for people who avoid milk.
Enter bromelain
Bromelain is a natural enzyme extracted from pineapple stems (the sweet fruit itself has some too, but far less). It's what's called a proteolytic enzyme, which is a fancy way of saying it's really good at one specific job: breaking protein down into smaller peptides and amino acids.(2) It's also the reason fresh pineapple makes your tongue tingle and stops jelly from setting.
Here's what makes bromelain particularly interesting for a protein shake specifically. It's acid-stable: bromelain is more stable in acidic environments than many enzymes, meaning it can keep working in acidic conditions such as those in the stomach instead of being denatured on arrival.(3)
What the research actually shows
We'll always give you the real picture rather than the marketing version. Bromelain has been studied in lots of areas, and the clearest part is the enzyme chemistry – we know exactly how and why bromelain breaks down protein. But large-scale human studies looking at bromelain in protein shakes specifically are still fairly limited. So we see it as an ingredient with a clear, well-understood mechanism, not a promise of the same result for everyone.
So why is it in your shaker?
This is exactly why we add bromelain to our formula. It's not there for flavour or as a filler ingredient – it's there because it's an enzyme that works on protein, which makes it a natural match for a protein powder. And it comes from pineapple, so it's plant-based like everything else in our tub.
(1) Lactose intolerance is estimated to affect up to 75% of adults globally.
(2) Bromelain's proteolytic action on dietary protein is described in Pavan, Jain & Kumar (2012), a peer-reviewed review published in Biotechnology Research International.
(3) Bromelain's stability across gastric pH conditions is discussed in the enzyme literature on stem bromelain.
