About Us

Shield Nutraceuticals was founded in 2014 after the creation of our flagship digestive aid, DigestShield®. We set out to create a supplement that can soften or stop the effects of wheat, dairy and beans, along with protecting against lectins and processed foods

The main ingredient in DigestShield® is a biopolymer called chitosan. It helps mitigate the effects of lectins and it helps to aggregate dietary fat when we eat, reducing the amount that ends up in our system. 

We have since learned that chitosan has many more uses.

We have begun representing chitosan suppliers, and suppliers of antimicrobial peptides, bespoke derivatives of chitosan, nanocellulose, and ultra-pure melanin.

We sell chitosan to the public and to industry. We have chitosan available by the metric ton. Please go to https://chitosanglobal.com for more information.

Guiding Principles

Our work is grounded in principles that reflect who we are and what we stand for:

  • Science-First Formulation: Every ingredient must be clinically supported, purpose-driven, and dosed for efficacy not just marketing.
  • Radical Transparency: From labeling to lab results, we disclose everything. Our customers deserve to know what they’re putting in their bodies.
  • Ethical Manufacturing: Produced in Certified U.S. facilities, tested by third parties, and verified for safety.
  • Human-Centered Design: Products are made for real people, our team, our families, and our community.
  • Planet-Focused Strategy: Recyclable packaging, reduced emissions, and cruelty-free sourcing are non-negotiable.

Core Values

At Shield Nutraceuticals, our values shape our culture and operations:

  • Integrity: We do what’s right even when no one’s looking.
  • Empathy: We see and honor the health journeys of our customers.
  • Innovation: We are always learning, adapting, and improving.
  • Sustainability: We build products and systems that last without damaging the environment.
  • Accountability: We own our impact and take responsibility for every decision.

These values are more than words. They’re embedded in how we lead, how we hire, and how we serve.

Company History

Shield Nutraceuticals began as a personal mission. Co-founders Steve and Sheridan Nice were frustrated by the lack of safe, effective digestive aids that addressed multiple food triggers and gut imbalances. After some trial and error, and collaboration with health experts, they created DigestShield®, a revolutionary, multi-action formula designed to support digestion in the face of gluten, dairy, fats, and complex meals. There is a bit more to the story.

Creating a Digestive Aid

Many ailments and their symptoms can be traced directly to something in our diet. It is not normal to suffer from low-grade pain, skin disorders, bloating, indigestion, low energy, brain fog, joint pain or any other symptoms that people “live with”.

It is only recently that awareness is being raised about the role that wheat may play in causing these and other symptoms. But it is not just glutenin and gliadin, the two main elements of wheat gluten. There are other “bad actors” in our diet that, when combined with less-than-ideal eating habits and our “modern” food supply, create a perfect storm of discomfort or disease.

Most of us reach for an antacid, a dairy pill, a gas pill, an anti-inflammatory, or a pharmaceutical. We treat the symptom and keep going.

The creation of DigestShield® is the result of the personal experience that Steve and Sheridan  had with stomach pain, bloating, indigestion, joint pain, and occasional brain fog. An honest quest for answers started with research into the sudden rise of gluten sensitivity and lead to awareness of how dramatically many foods can affect us.

Steve and Sheridan reached out for expert advice and found Dr. Audrey Depelteau, Director of the East Tennessee State University Innovation Lab. She, in turn, introduced them to a Ph.D., Nutritional Biochemist (Andy Clark) and a Ph.D, Dissolution Chemist and Pharmacist (Chuck Collins) who eventually created DigestShield®.

They spent two years developing a powerful and unique digestive aid that addresses problems associated with the digestion of Gluten, Casein, Dairy, Carbohydrates (including FODMAPS), Fat, and Protein. DigestShield® is a proprietary blend of Enzymes, Prebiotics, and Probiotics that work synergistically to provide the digestive support you need. Eat the foods you love again!

Note: This product is a digestive aid only. It is not intended to help sufferers of celiac disease.  

What started in a local Cafe evolved into a respected brand trusted by thousands. DigestShield® is now distributed nationwide, supported by clinical science, and guided by a commitment to digestive wellness. We’ve grown from a single-product startup into a purpose-led company with one goal: Help people wherever we can, however we can, whenever we can.

Social Responsibility

We believe health is a human right and our responsibility goes beyond supplements. 

Here’s how we plan to contribute in the chitosan arena:

  • Pilot Programs: We partner with industries to attack problems with chitosan solutions. 
  • We are piloting chitosan in Guatamala on a coffee plantation to mitigate Roya Rust, a pathogen causing heavy losses to coffee growers worldwide.
  • We are piloting a treatment for Mastitis, an affliction suffered by dairy cows. 
  • We are piloting a new treatment for Frack wastewater, by flocculating heavy metals, organic and inorganic contaminents and bacterial overgrowth.
  • We are piloting a solution for several pathogens that have begun showing up in banana shipments. Our bespoke, tri-derivative approach to killing all three pathogens is the first of its type in the world.
  • We are piloting a new treatment of Roya Rust in Roses.
  • We are piloting a new method of creating a treatment to fibers when they are being manufactured to provide antimicrobial protection to wipes, hospital gowns and masks, air filters, clothing, and much more.
  • We believe that chitosan is  the most important new compound to come along since the creation of plastic. 
  • It is biodegradable, biocompatible, and non-toxic. 
  • Chitosan is going to clean up a world polluted by systems and processes that should have known better.
  • Green Commitments: We use recyclable packaging, avoid single-use plastics, and offset carbon emissions through mindful behavior and systems.
  • Ethical Partnerships: Our vendors must follow fair labor, cruelty-free, and environmental compliance standards. We ask our vendors to join the Responsible Business Alliance and to adhere to their Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics.

We are all in this together.

The People Behind Shield Nutraceuticals

Steve Nice
Co-Founder and CEO

Steve Nice is an entrepreneur who has focused his career on building businesses that promote products and systems that help people. As Co-Founder and former CEO of BedinaBox.com, he helped to create the cleanest (first OekoTex-Certified mattress in U.S. history), most durable, and comfortable memory foam mattress in America. He is responsible for the removal of dibutyl tin and phthalates from polyurethane foam manufacturing. He is the co-founder and CEO of Shield Nutraceuticals, a company dedicated to personal and environmental wellness with a lean toward Regenerative Agriculture. The three companies he has built in the past two decades are all still in business – built to last.

Sheridan Nice
Co-Founder

Sheridan Nice is the Co-Founder of Shield Nutraceuticals, Inc. She is a graduate of La Varenne, Ecole de Cuisine, Paris. Sheridan currently teaches French Cuisine, “Slow Food” cuisine and Farm-to-Table cuisine in the European tradition, through online Zoom classes and in person. In-person classes are available through East Tennessee State University and Serenity Knoll Farm in Jonesborough, Tennessee. She has 38 Years experience as a professional chef.

Charles Collins
Vice President

Dr. Charles Collins is a dissolution chemist and professor of pharmaceutical sciences. He has over forty years’ experience as a pharmacist and is an expert at formulating products for optimal performance.

Andy Clark PhD, RD
Andrew Clark
Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. W. Andrew Clark is a nutritional biochemist and a registered dietitian nutritionist. He is an Associate Dean of Research and head of a nutritional laboratory. He uses his years of nutrition science expertise to create solutions to common nutrition problems.

Audrey Depelteau, DC - Scientific Advisory Board, Shield Nutraceuticals
Audrey Depelteau
Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Audrey Depelteau is a chiropractor with over 26 years of clinical experience and is the director of a new business incubation lab. She has been utilizing and refining enzyme therapy to bring relief to her patients for many years.

Robert Santos-Prowse MS, RD - Media Manager and Scientific Liaison, Shield Nutraceuticals
Robert Santos-Prowse
Scientific Advisory Board

Robert is a registered dietitian nutritionist who led the research and provided guidance for building this website. He graduated from East Tennessee State University with a master’s degree in clinical nutrition.

Jorge Estrada
VP- International Sales

Jorge is a senior entrepreneur with 34 years of experience in the agriculture industry. He has held management positions in the high-tech agriculture sector. He is the founder and CEO of LCI Inc. in Seattle, WA, which he founded in 2000. The company serves U.S. and international businesses. He is the co-founder of Earth Conscious Solutions, LLC, established in 2018. At Chitosan Global, he leads the International sales team.

Abhinav Chauhan
Partner

Abhinav Chauhan is the Founder and CEO of Promecens Entosystems Private Limited, located in Maharashtra, India. As a cross-disciplinary scientist-entrepreneur operating at the convergence of immunotherapy, computational biology, quantum physics, and advanced engineered materials, he has more than a decade of experience across institutions and companies including CSIR-IGIB, MIT, Monash University, the University of Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, Pfizer, Novartis, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Peter Doherty Institute. His work uniquely integrates antibody and phage engineering, glyco-engineering, AI-driven biological design, and cancer and infection immunology with quantum-informed materials science, propulsion-relevant thermodynamics, and rocket and thruster architecture enabled by functional materials. At Promecens, he leads the scientific vision, global IP and patent strategy, and commercialization of ultra-high-purity melanin, advanced chitosan derivatives, and antimicrobial peptides.

Cole Totton
VP - New Product Development

Entrepreneur | Product Commercialization Operator Cole Totton is an entrepreneur and execution-focused leader who specializes in commercializing products in highly regulated and complex environments. Through ventures including Pristine Clean Club and the Kaito platform, he brings Fortune 500 execution rigor to early-stage innovation, helping translate ideas
into scalable, market-ready products without sacrificing speed, clarity, or accountability.

Alvaro Corso
VP - Latin American Joint Ventures

Alvaro Corzo is an Agricultural Engineer with over 35 years of experience in plant nutrition, biostimulation, soil health and regenerative agriculture. Providing technical advice to agricultural producers in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

    EN
    ES EN

    Etiam magna arcu, ullamcorper ut pulvinar et, ornare sit amet ligula. Aliquam vitae bibendum lorem. Cras id dui lectus.

    ADDRESS

    63739 street lorem ipsum City, Country

    PHONE

    +12 (0) 345 678 9

    EMAIL

    info@company.com

    Cart

    Better Digestion, More Savings!

    Take the first step towards a happier gut. Get 5% OFF your next purchase of DigestShield.

    Get It Now