Greens Powders
by Lisa Sealey, AfterShock
Unlike some of our other product reviews, we are going to look at the same product – greens supplement powders – sold by four different companies. Hopefully we can cut through some of the clutter in this category and help you decide if this is a product you want to add into your routine.
What’s good about incorporating green juice into your diet?
I’m good, really good, about getting a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods and beverages in our diets every day. You don’t have to be completely plant-based to do that, just plant focused! Food is your fuel and can be a powerful component of your aging-well strategy. But there are days, perhaps weeks (hello holiday season and vacations) where it’s tough to pack in the full spectrum of nutrients. Think of greens powder as “insurance” for the days that you don’t ring the super nutrient bell; you’re still covered. Here are the broad components this review covers:
Is it organic or are the ingredients rigorously tested? As with many things in our food and supplement supply chain, it’s hard to know exactly what’s in it from a contaminant, pesticide or other nasty chemicals perspective. Let’s face it, even with bold marketing claims, we have to enter into these customer relationships with a fair amount of trust and investigate what we can to know if what’s said is actually true.
If you’re consuming anything daily – especially a “concentrated” anything – it should probably be organic. But there is nuance in that statement. For instance, if a product uses lemon juice, does the lemon have to be organic? Ideally, yes. But in reality, the thick peel offers protection for the juice from any pesticides or non-organic materials that might have been sprayed on the outside. It’s also worth noting that organic certification is an expensive and long process, so some growers and producers follow safe practices but don’t yet have the official certification. Get education on what foods are most important to consume organic. Also, make sure any food, beverage or supplement company you purchase from is testing their product’s purity. That means testing for heavy metals, chemicals, contaminants, etc. Quality providers will list this information on their website.
The products reviewed here have a high concentration of greens, along with other nutrient-dense and health-supportive ingredients like prebiotics and probiotics and basic vitamins. There are a wide variety of powders – some formulations stick to simple greens/grasses and others have ingredients lists as long as your arm.
Cost. These products are expensive, period (but not as expensive as a daily Starbucks latte habit.) And the expense makes sense if you consider the ingredient formulations, how the ingredients are sourced, harvested, manufactured, and tested for harmful additives. But the price on some can be, er, hard to swallow. We include our ideas on how to manage the costs below.
Products
The following four products are available on Amazon, but you may find better deals if you purchase directly from the brand’s website. Prices listed were current as of November 15, 2021.
Athletic Greens ($2.63/serving)
The AG1 product is an “everything but the kitchen sink” product, with 75 vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens. Developed in 2010 in New Zealand, the company prides themselves on constant formula enhancements (51 to date!) It does contain stevia so if you’re avoiding that sweetener or don’t like its taste, it’s something to note. I’m currently using it because it is packed with everything I need (except coffee). I can bring their convenient travel packs if I’m traveling for a week or two without having to haul a big plastic container. I can confirm that TSA doesn’t particularly like finding a tub of powder, even if its green, in your carry-on.
Here’s what they publish about their testing and purity on their website: “AG1 is tested thoroughly for heavy metals. Every batch is tested twice: at the time of manufacture and again at the time of packaging. In addition to the testing performed on every batch, once a year we take that testing one step further and do an even more extensive product audit which includes testing for heavy metals. And finally, AG1 is NSF Certified, which means that an independent third party (NSF International) has tested our product to ensure there are no unsafe levels of heavy metals and other contaminants.” They also test each ingredient for quality.
Here's a code to get five free travel packs with your first purchase https://fbuy.io/ag/lisa9774
Green Vibrance (as low as $1.16/serving)
Vibrant Health has been around since 1992, an OG in the greens powder world. They don’t have the slick packaging and Instagram influencer-fueled offers that Athletic Greens and Organifi – the newer category entrants – do, but their approach is working. I have used their Green Vibrance product a lot in the past, having discovered it in various health food stores and groceries before the protein and greens shelfs were four deep and overwhelming. I like that they put every ingredient and the amount on the label, making it easier for those that really want to dig into specifics on how much they are consuming of specific ingredients. Other companies use “proprietary blend” labeling on the nutrition panel, which doesn’t let you see what the balance is of, say spirulina to shitake mushrooms.
The product isn’t fully “organic,” but they clearly note what is and what isn’t organic on the label. Further information from their website: “We design, manufacture, and market the cleanest possible products, and we endeavor to have organic certification whenever possible. However, there are many ingredients that are beneficial to the human body which are unable to be sourced organically. Whether an ingredient is organic or conventional, we take utmost care to source raw materials that have been cleaned and filtered for maximum purity.”
There is also some information about heavy metals testing on their website knowledge base here. They rely on their suppliers’ Certificate of Analysis (COA) for testing raw materials.
A few other positives on this company’s side: Vibrant Health ranks 81 on the Black Enterprise List of the nation’s largest black-owned businesses and recently made the Forbes list of black-owned businesses to support. According to their website, they support two non-profits, Vitamin Angels and Autism Hope Alliance (no specifics how/how much) – all things that are positive forces for this business.
Organifi Original Green Juice ($1.99/serving)
Organifi is a relative newcomer to this category, launched by Andrew Canole and Djamel Bettahar in 2014 in the uber-healthy city of San Diego, California. Their ingredients list is far simpler than the others we’ve reviewed and is based mostly on some mainstays in the green juice category: Spirulina, chlorella, moringa and wheat grass. Their “superfood blend” (again, the blends don’t let you know how much of each ingredient is in it) rounds it out, with stress-relieving herb ashwagandha and anti-inflammatory turmeric. The company has several other product blends that they recommend you use in addition to the greens – perhaps we’ll review those at a later date.
Their marketing strategy relies heavily on influencers and Instagram marketing: think great pictures of healthy food and healthy people, in beautiful locations (not hard to find in San Diego!) so it’s possible that Organifi is a brand you’ve seen most if you frequent social media.
Two definite pluses from our view: led by a female CEO with a background in personal training, certification in precision nutrition and a Cal Poly degree in animal science, Mae Steigler. Also, Organifi is very clear about their sourcing and how they test their ingredients. From their website: “Every blend is carefully made in a GMP-certified facility. It then moves into strict third-party testing to guarantee each batch is free of heavy metals, aerobic platelets, E. coli, salmonella, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Finally, our blends are tested once more to earn the coveted labels of USDA organic, certified glyphosate-residue free, non-GMO verified, vegan, and certified gluten-free.” That’s a major point in their direction, especially if you’re looking for fewer ingredients in your blend.
Garden of Life Raw Organic Perfect Food Green Superfood Juiced Greens ($1.07/serving)
Garden of Life makes a wide variety of health products from vitamins and probiotics to protein and greens powders. Started in 2000 by Jordan Rubin to combat his own health battles, the company was purchased by Nestlé in 2017. Despite this seemingly odd pairing, they have continued their focus on product safety with third-party certifications such as certified USDA organic and non-GMO project verified. They are also Carbonfree® (for the brand and products.)
I have used this product on and off as part of my greens juice repertoire and it’s another OG product. According to their website, the grasses in their product are “juiced and cold-temperature dried immediately at the farm within an hour of harvesting.” The product isn’t as simple a formulation as Organifi, but not as complex as AG. A perfect middle ground if you want some greens and veggies along with some digestive support through their probiotics and enzymes. This product, like two of the others (AG and Organifi) don’t reveal the exact amount of each ingredient in their “blends.” Maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn’t. Once again, the taste can be challenging for some people, despite the addition of organic pineapple flavor, which is likely to help with its palatability.
FIVE THINGS I’VE LEARNED
Watch your body’s response. Long ingredients lists are a blessing and a curse, especially if you have food allergies. Get a comprehensive, serum food allergy test if you have a doctor who will prescribe one. If not, try an at-home version, which is better than nothing. Particularly if you suspect you might have an allergy, which often shows up as a gut issue (bloating, constipation, gas) or a skin response (hives, eczema, lip swelling.) I recently discovered that I’m allergic to turmeric – I get swollen and itchy lips – after adding it to my supplement regime.
The taste is…an acquired one. Or, one that you suffer through in the name of health, energy and glowing skin – all things that take more effort in midlife! Some are better than others and none of the products we reviewed have added sugar or (horror!) fake sugars, such as aspartame. I have alternated between gulping it like a college student downs a shot of tequila at a frat party or, the far-more-adult way, adding it to a smoothie with some fruit and other ingredients to mask the flavor. Honestly, don’t believe anyone, multi-follower health and wellness influencer or not, if they tell you they like this stuff.
Consider your other supplements. I recently incorporated Athletic Greens because, in addition to its multitude of greens, pre- and probiotics, herbs and other superfoods, I wanted to get the “basic” multivitamin array they include. I’m trying to cull down the number of supplements or nutritional products I use – especially when I travel – so a comprehensive product is attractive. One thing to investigate with comprehensive products is if you’re getting too much of a certain supplement by combining it with the other things you might be taking. Iron, copper, Vitamin A are ones that can especially cause issues if you take too much. This is also something that a nutritionist or functional medicine doctor can help you sort through.
How to manage cost. As noted at the start of this review, these are expensive products to incorporate into your daily routine. Especially if you’ve got a number of other healthy routines that hit your monthly budget. One way to reduce cost is to chug your green juice every other day, effectively cutting the monthly price in half. Or, maybe just drink it on days where you know you didn’t get close to your daily nutrient/greens quotient. If you’re in a groove with your greens intake, consider taking it only when you’re feeling rundown, traveling or recovering from sickness. Balance, especially in midlife, is important and can actually reduce your stress. Alternating days where you supercharge your diet by drinking a scoop of greens powder isn’t going to hurt your body, and will definitely help your wallet!
Mix it up. Not referring to shaking these things well (which you’ll want to, believe me, as swallowing a clump of greens powder is not advisable). I’m referring to rotating between different products every now and then. If you have three or four quality products – for instance, the ones we recommend here – use a different one on alternating months. See if you notice any difference in how you feel, good or bad. They aren’t a one-size-fits-all product.
The takeaway: There are many people who could benefit from the addition of a concentrated greens powder supplement in their diets, even vegans and vegetarians. And one thing is for sure, when we hit midlife we need to be extra careful to pack nutrients into our bodies for energy, immune support and healthy aging. Unless you’re testing your micronutrients regularly and adjusting your diet and or supplements in response (who REALLY does that?) this is an easy, if not particularly inexpensive, addition to your health routine. Try it out for a while and pay attention to how your body responds by noticing your sleep quality, energy level, workout recovery, skin and gut reactions. As with all things concerning our health, we must be our own advocates, sleuths and monitors. No one else cares as much about your own health as you do!
This article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as medical advise. Always consult a medical professional before taking any supplement.