Standard Process Fuels Colin O'Brady's Extreme Challenge to Be the First to Row the Drake Passage

Palmyra, WI and Kannapolis, NC – (November 19, 2019) – Standard Process today announced its continued partnership with professional endurance athlete Colin O’Brady as the exclusive nutritional supplement provider in support of his next world first goal -- to attempt to complete the first human-powered ocean row across the Drake Passage. The row will go from the southern tip of South America to the edge of Antarctica, a challenge that O’Brady calls “The Impossible Row.” O’Brady dropped hints and took guesses on his Instagram account during the week leading up to the first time he publicly announced his next expedition on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Friday, November 15. If all goes as planned, “The Impossible Row” will start on Wednesday, December 11 and go through Tuesday, December 31, or a total of 21 days.

O’Brady and a crew of five others including Fiann Paul, Andrew Towne, Cameron Bellamy, Jamie Douglas-Hamilton and John Petersen, will attempt to complete the first human-powered ocean row across Drake Passage – from the southern tip of South America to the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. This waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean is 620 miles wide and the average depth is 11,150 feet. The Drake Passage is famously choppy. The water in the passage has a strong eastward current and passes through at an estimated 125–200 million cubic yards per second, or approximately 600 times the amount of water in the Amazon River.

This announcement comes only a year after O’Brady’s partnership with Standard Process as he was on his last expedition. Standard Process worked with O’Brady to strengthen his fitness, upgraded his health, prepared and provided whole food nutrition for his body to help him achieve his fourth world record on December 26, 2018 when he became the first person to trek 932 miles across Antarctica solo, unsupported, and unaided in 54 days. Standard Process also tested O’Brady upon his return and it was determined that the nutritional “Colin bars” Standard Process developed for him to eat during his Antarctica expedition as well as other whole-food supplements worked well. Standard Process was also the exclusive nutritional supplement partner when O’Brady shattered the 50-state high point challenge world record in just 21 days in July of 2018. The 50-state high point dates back to 1966 and is a race against the clock to climb the highest peaks in all 50 states. In total, O’Brady walked, ran, hiked and climbed more than 300 trail miles, beating the previous 41-day record set in 2016 by 20 days.

Dr. Bassem F. El-Khodor, the director of discovery science & innovation, is leading the scientific nutrition team at the Standard Process Nutrition Innovation Center (NIC) in Kannapolis, North Carolina in developing the Standard Process nutrition bars that will provide O’Brady and the other five athletes the whole food nutrients they will need to complete “The Impossible Row.” The NIC is the only active clinical research center of its kind, dedicated to both mid-and long-term support of whole food clinical nutrition.

The Standard Process nutritional bars are meant to fill the nutritional gap needs of the athletes, similar to the way Standard Process’ supplements do for their customers. The goal is for the athletes to take small breaks and eat the Standard Process nutritional bars as they’re active, so they don’t have to stop to eat. Standard Process’ scientific nutritional team is hand-making the bars now so they are as fresh as possible and will also test the bars to evaluate and ensure their nutritional value before they are shipped to the athletes.

“The goal is to once again demonstrate how proper whole foods can support the body in extreme conditions and doing extreme physical activities without using other synthetic, performance-enhancing substances,” said Bassem El-Khodor, PhD, director of discovery science and innovation at Standard Process’ Nutrition Innovation Center. “By providing the proper whole-food nutrition, all athletes and people of all types can be in a better place to accomplish their goals, whatever these goals might be.”

The Standard Process scientific nutrition team is hand-making approximately 600 new-formulated, nutrition bars that take into account the nutrients O’Brady and the other five athletes will need for the different environmental and physical requirements for “The Impossible Row” challenge. It is estimated that each of the five athletes will eat approximately four Standard Process bars per day.

Dr. El-Khodor and his team have carefully refined the initial recipe they developed for the hand-made “Colin bars” he used for his Antarctica trek. Standard Process’ scientific nutritional team based the ingredients for the new bars on what they already knew about O’Brady’s food sensitivities and allergies and developed the bars for all of the athletes to provide them with the whole-food nutrients they will need.

All of the ingredients in the Standard Process nutritional bars consist of whole-food or plant-based nutrient-dense ingredients, including Standard Process’ supplements. Some of the ingredients can be found in your pantry. The Standard Process nutrition bars contain a blend of plant proteins, berries to supply antioxidants, nuts and seeds for essential fatty acids, Standard Process’ supplements for immune support and cell health, ingredients to support digestive health, and slowly digestible carbohydrates for sustained energy. The Standard Process nutrition bars are plant-based, vegan, and dairy-free.

Standard Process’ scientific nutrition team is also developing a sports performance kit and a sports recovery kit for athletes and customers of all kinds all across the country, which is a collection of some of the Standard Process’ products that went into making the hand-made nutrition bars that Colin and the team will be fueling with for “The Impossible Row.”  

“Whole food nutrition is the key to optimizing health and high performance,” said Colin O’Brady. “This project is an open invitation to everyone to reach your Impossible First, to go beyond what you think is possible. One of my favorite parts of what I do is to inspire more people, especially young people, to reach for their Impossible First.”

Born on an organic farm in Olympia, WA, O’Brady is a lifelong advocate and user of chiropractic and acupuncture services. After a near-death experience in 2008 where he suffered severe burns to nearly 25% of his body, he came back 18 months later by winning the Chicago Triathlon’s Amateur Division in 2009. This led him to return to the mountains and launched his career as a professional endurance athlete. His world record achievements include an Explorers Grand Slam speed record and a Seven Summits speed record. He is a sought-after motivational speaker for Fortune 500 companies.

“We are excited to once again sponsor Colin and his ambitious effort to complete the first human-powered ocean row across the Drake Passage,” said Charlie DuBois, Standard Process President and CEO. “While he is a lifelong user of Standard Process whole food supplements, it is his story and his accomplishments that inspire us. He uses his athletic pursuits to fuel his charitable work, encouraging others to lead active, healthy lives and pursue their biggest dreams.” 

About Standard Process, Inc. 

Standard Process is a family-owned, third-generation company that has been a leader in making whole food-based, nutrient-dense therapeutic supplements since 1929. From the company’s certified organic farm at its Palmyra, Wisconsin headquarters; to the Nutrition Innovation Center in Kannapolis, North Carolina; Standard Process is committed to clinical science that advances health and changes lives though whole food nutrition. Using regenerative farming practices and advanced manufacturing technologies designed to protect the vital nutrients found in each ingredient, Standard Process produces both raw materials and high-quality finished products in its certified organic manufacturing facility. For more information about Standard Process and to find a health care professional who sells Standard Process products, visit standardprocess.com.

About the Nutrition Innovation Center 

Standard Process’ Nutrition Innovation Center (NIC) is a first-of-kind research and innovation facility with a mission to improve human health and well-being through whole-person clinical care, organic farming, and wholistic nutritional therapies. Located on the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis for its high level of technology and the insights available through partnerships, the Center shares the campus mission of improving human health through nutrition. The Center is focused on developing advances in nutrition-based therapeutic care as well as conducting original clinical research demonstrating improved patient outcomes – all in support of integrative and wholistic healthcare practitioners. For more information including a virtual tour of the NIC visit standardprocess.com/about-us/quality/nutrition-research.

  About Colin O’Brady 

Colin O’Brady is regarded as one of the world’s best endurance athletes and a foremost expert on mindset. He is a 4-time world record holder, Yale University graduate, and highly sought after public speaker. The New York Times called O’Brady’s most recent success - the world’s first solo, unsupported and unassisted crossing of Antarctica - “one of the most remarkable achievements in polar history.” His TED talk, “Change Your Mindset and Achieve Anything” - which chronicles his recovery from a tragic burn accident that left him unable to walk to his journey to world record success - has been viewed over 1.7 million times. Colin’s expeditions provide raw, inspirational and thought-provoking content that uncovers what’s possible and aims to unlock human potential, set to a backdrop of some of the most extreme places on earth such as Mt. Everest and Antarctica. Colin has been featured by the top global Media outlets. For more information on O’Brady, visit www.colinobrady.com.