Greens supplements

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Would you recommend a powdered greens supplement (such as greens+) for a person who normally averages less than one serving of vegetables per day?

Obviously just eating more vegetables would be ideal, but despite trying I have found this difficult, mainly for behavioral reasons, and the vegetables I prefer are not particularly fibrous or nutrient dense (e.g. carrots). I realize a greens supplement is not a good replacement for sufficient vegetable intake, but I wonder if it would be better than nothing.

Thanks for your time and letting us all pick your brain.

2

I would not recommend a greens supplement. I would recommend a behavioral change and figuring out a way to overcome this block is an important part of being an adult. Perhaps there are ways to prepare vegetables that make them more palatable or easier for you to consume. Eat and love your veggies, Patrick.

2 Likes
3

Hear me out:

  • 200 ml of whole milk
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 40–50 g of spinach (frozen is a good idea)
  • 1 scoop of whey (banana flavor recommended)
  • 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (optional)

~ 450 kcal (I hope you are not on a calorie restricted diet :smile:)

4

I’ve tried a lot of Greens supplements. FWIW I found the Green+ Berry tastes the best. Many of them taste so bad they will make vegetables seem appealing to you. After all my trials I came to a few conclusions.

  1. The placebo affect on these things is huge. Reading the reviews for some products made me wonder if I was taking the same product as the reviewers.
  2. If your diet really sucks, you might receive a small benefit from supplementing with them. Note this is an extremely expensive way to supplement.
  3. The products that contain probiotics are totally unnecessary for healthy individuals and for those who need it there are better way to get your probiotics.
  4. There are many bad greens products stuffed with trendy superfood fillers.
  5. It’s my understanding that spirulina is the best ingredient in most greens powders so if you supplement with just spirulina you’ll get most of the benefit that way.

Overall I decided it’s just not worth the cost and I now eat my veggies like a good boy.

5

This sounds gross to be honest, but maybe it’s tolerable.

1 Like
6

Please cite data for numbers 1-5.

I would disagree with mostly all of this.

7

It’s not! It tastes just like a simple banana smoothie… it has been my breakfast for months now :smile:

8

I’m nearing 40, have never really eaten vegetables, and have dealt with digestive issues since my early 20s. Knowing nothing else (and by my telling you that a gastro has confirmed there are no underlying medical issues), would you say that the not eating vegetables is likely to be a cause of the digestive issues?
This comment: “figuring out a way to overcome this block is an important part of being an adult” triggered me, in a helpful way.

Thanks

9

I would not agree that not eating vegetables is the cause of your digestive issue, as if it was, it is likely the GI doc would’ve found something to yell at you about. They’re good at that.

10

I’ve been using frozen blueberries as a greens buffer for ages. You simply cant taste it.

My breakfast goes more or less like this daily.

2 cups milk.
Cup frozen blueberries
Handful of spinach pulled fresh from the garden.
Handful of almonds.
2 or so tablespoons of bran.
Whey.

Plus there are countless ways to disguise it in your cooking.

Eat your greens…

11

It’s a lot easier when I can just make unsubstantiated claims without having to cite data. :slight_smile:

1 is just anecdotal evidence from reading the myriad of greens supplements and their reviews across the internet.

2-5 are cribbed from https://www.muscleforlife.com/greens-supplements/

Pubmed sources are linked to within the article.

As always I appreciate reading differing thoughts.

12

whats the difference between multivitamin and veggies in daily basis?and why eat veggies dont follow the same concept of if you dont have any deficience dont need to? thanks

13

Did you read the article and the subsequent links?

14

There are other health-promoting compounds in vegetables that are not vitamins or minerals. You probably won’t be deficient in anything if you don’t eat veggies, but that’s not my rationale for recommending them.

15

What is your rationale for recommending them? I’ve seen a few observational studies suggesting that all cause mortality goes down as fruit and vegetable consumption goes up. But I’m curious what the actual mechanism is, if not the vitamins and minerals they provide.

(Postscript to original post: I’m eating more veggies now. Thanks for the push in the right direction.)

16

Yes, I think that observational data are suggestive that vegetable and fruit intake (and everything that goes with that) are likely health promoting. I don’t think are well-defined mechanisms here like many other things, but currently I think that recommending regular fruit and vegetable intake would be part of good nutritional strategies.

1 Like
17

Honestly, I do not particularly prefer to add greens to my food. I really love the flora and various flowers, but what some doctors advise is just nonsense. For example, recently I was at the therapist’s examination and he said that I began to get sick often due to low immunity and advised me to try to start eating flowers like Foxglove for food. I was stunned and when I read the information about these flowers at growgardener.com, I realized that this doctor was definitely crazy. So I do not recommend you do such strange doctor’s prescriptions))