Athletic Greens is one of the most popular greens powder supplements out there right now. We want to know if this supplement can live up to its own hype. It’s a very healthy supplement that can have great benefits to your nutritional intake. However thanks to its proprietary blend we cannot be 100% certain to what extent. In this review we look at its flavour, the price, the composition of ingredients and their health benefits. In short Athletic Greens is good, but it’s not the best greens powder.
Athletic Greens Taste
As with most greens powder supplements the flavour of Athletic Greens is not its strongest point. One thing that is a big drawback in this regard is the lack of flavour variations. This means you have no options if you don’t like the taste of AG1.
When examining customer reviews it’s clear that taste is a problem. It seems to be an acquired taste, to put it mildly. For some, the taste is something you can get used to. If you drink Athletic Greens as part of your morning ritual the taste will eventually become normalised and something you hardly even notice.
Some people find the taste so bad however that they would prefer to mask it with juice or a smoothie. When you do this the taste seems to completely disappear in most cases. Taste is extremely subjective of course and it must be said that there are also people out there that enjoy the flavour.
Athletic Greens Price and product
Athletic Greens is one of the more expensive powder supplements currently on the market. Although there is usually a promo code floating around somewhere that can help alleviate this.
On the other hand the powder supplement of Athletic Greens does contain much more vitamins, minerals and probiotics than a lot of its competitors.
AG1 comes in bags that contain 30 servings. Once you open the package you need to keep it refrigerated. The ease of use of the Athletic Greens powder product is great. The AG1 comes with a plastic spoon for example, which fits exactly 1 serving, so you will have no trouble measuring out your portions. This is especially nice for those of us who aren’t morning people and don’t want to fidget with scales in the morning.
There are also pouches available that contain single servings. Those make it perfect to take it on the go, whether it is to your work or on a holiday. Because these pouches are individually sealed you are not going to risk having loose powder in your bag. The smaller pouches are a bit more expensive than the big bags per portion.
Athletic Greens: How to Use Greens Powders
The company recommends mixing the Athletic Greens powder supplement with 8 ounces of water. Putting it in juice, milk or mixing it in a smoothie can also work fine.
The company does say that it’s not a good idea to mix it with highly acidic or hot liquids. This could mess with the efficacy of the ingredients of the powder. Furthermore, the company advises taking the greens powder supplement in the morning on an empty stomach for peak efficiency.
Athletic Greens Ingredients
The amount of ingredients in Athletic Greens is huge. There is definitely a lot in this greens powder supplement. With 75 ingredients in total, the list is too long to name everything separately. But, it does lose points as a greens powder as it’s not actually possible for it to have the best dosage of each ingredient and you can find a more detailed breakdown of AG1’s greens powder ingredients here.
Because Athletic Greens uses a proprietary blend we don’t know exactly how much of each ingredient is in the powder. It is always better if you know exactly what is in a powder supplement, but because ingredients are listed from most to least used, taking a look at the first ingredients named will give us some insight into what is inside.
Alkaline, Nutrient-Dense Raw Superfood Complex
The main ingredients here are organic spirula (which is nutrient-dense algae), lecithin (a combination of different fats that improves your cellular health), apple powder, inulin (a dietary fibre) and wheat grass juice powder.
Nutrient Dense Extracts, Herbs & Antioxidants
This includes alkaline pea protein isolate, citrus bioflavonoids extract (which some believe can increase capillary strength), artichoke leaf extract, citric acid, and Rhodiola root dry extract (this medical plant is seen as an adaptogen).
Digestive Enzyme & Super Mushroom Complex
The main ingredients of this complex are astragalus root powder extract (this is known to be used in traditional Chinese medicine to improve the immune system), bromelain (a dietary enzyme), burdock root powder (a vegetable most used as a diuretic), reishi mushroom powder, and shiitake mushroom powder.
Dairy Free Probiotics
Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Bifidum
Athletic Greens Health benefits
Because greens powder supplements are a relatively new product there hasn’t been extensive research into their health benefits yet. There have been some smaller studies in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine about it. Here it was found that green superfoods which are similar to the ones found in Athletic Greens did result in reduced blood pressure among participants [1]. The other health benefits of AG1 can generally be divided up into three categories: digestive health, adaptogens and antioxidants.
Firstly there are the added benefits to your digestive health. The probiotic bacteria for example have been known for enhancing your immunity and even lowering anxiety. You can also find prebiotic fibre in the inulin, burdock root, and artichoke leaf all of which enhance the effectiveness of the probiotic bacteria. These fibres can also help with immunity and your digestive health. Additionally, AG1 contains digestive enzymes like bromelain which can aid your body in absorbing nutrients.
Secondly, AG1 contains what we call adaptogens. These components help the body respond to stress. What’s great about adaptogens is that they can help reduce the negative effects of stress based on physical fatigue as well as the mental stress you might run into at work. One of the ingredients, Rhodiola rosea, helps with your recovery and overall endurance. Other ingredients, like reishi mushrooms, have been linked to increased immunity. The only downside when talking about these ingredients is that they are included in the proprietary blends. So we can never know exactly how much of each ingredient is contained in the powder.
Finally, there are the antioxidants. In general, antioxidants can aid in diminishing cellular damage, which means they can slow some of the aspects of aging. Some of the vitamins included in Athletic Greens powder supplement can act as antioxidants on their own, such as the A, C and E vitamins. Next to this a lot of the whole food ingredients have a high antioxidant content. Mainly the wheatgrass, spirulina, barley leaf, chlorella, green tea leaf extract, grapeseed extract, and cocoa bean polyphenol. The downside of the proprietary mixtures plays the same role here. Just as with the other ingredients we can’t know precisely what is in the AG1 mixture.
Athletic Greens Conclusion
AG1 is a very easy to use and healthy powder supplement. However, there are similar products out there that cost less. There is also the downside of the proprietary blends which makes it impossible to know exactly what is in them. If you really want to know 100% of what is in your greens powder supplement there are better options for you. If cost is not a big problem for you and you are looking for a healthy supplement there is no reason not to try AG1, but we won’t say it’s the best powder supplement on the market.
1 – Zhang, J et al. Taking nutritional supplements for three months reduced blood pressure but not blood lipid levels in students. J Chiropr Med. 2006 Summer; 5(2): 53–59.
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