References
1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136577/
Commonly asked questions about AG1
There’s not really much doubt that greens powders are good for you, although you do miss out on one of the benefits of eating leafy greens as a whole food, and that’s the fact that they fill you up, making you less likely to overeat. Greens powders are also slightly less bioavailable, meaning that you don’t absorb quite as much of the nutrients, but for most people this is negligible and with the average American diet being pretty bad, products like athletic greens are good for most people.
Athletic Greens are flavored pineapple, vanilla or papaya. Like most greens powders they do come with a vegetable under taste. Although some people also like to mix them into other make the flavor nicer. Typically blending it together with fruit is most people’s go to. If you’re not a massive fan of these flavors though, we’d recommend that you go for an athletic greens alternative, there are quite a few available.
As far as AG1
goes it covers off most of your daily vitamin requirements with the exception
of calcium, magnesium and potassium, but it’s not too hard for you to find
other sources of these. So it’s off to a pretty good start.
As for the
majority of it’s other ingredients however they’re broken down into 3 sections.
Alkaline,
Nutrient-Dense, Raw Superfood Complex (7388mg)
This
includes organic spirulina, lecithin, organic apple powder, inulin, organic
wheatgrass juice powder, organic alfalfa powder, organic chlorella powder,
organic barley leaf powder, acerola fruit juice powder extract, broccoli flower
powder and a host of other powders. Unfortunately, we don’t actually know what
the exact break down of this is. But, typically nutritional labels are written
from highest dose to lowest dose (this is a requirement within some EU countries.
Looking a spirulina as the main focus it has a host of health benefits
including anti inflammatory effects and potentially even chronic fatigue. [1]
Nutrient-Dense
Natural Extracts, Herbs, and Antioxidants (2732mg)
Unfortunately
for AG1, by not listing the ingredients break down here it seems quite unlikely
that they’re in high enough doses to be effective. Again, remember doses are
typically listed from largest to smallest. Which means, by the time we start
getting to the ingredients that have brain boosting effects, we have issues.
The first four ingredients alkaline pea protein isolate, citrus bioflavonoids
extract, artichoke extract and citric acid aren’t really interesting (the last
one is actually just a flavoring, being to sour what sugar is to sweet).
Rhodiola
Rosea, Milk Thistle and Ashwagandha are interesting, but when there are 19
ingredients and only 2732mg, we find it unlikely that ingredients this far down
the list are going to be dosed at the 200mg, 200mg and 600mg required to be
effective respectively. Especially Ashwagandha (12th), which is
fantastic for reducing cortisol build up and healthy sleep.
Stevia is a
sweetener, kola extract is sometimes used as a stimulant, hawthorn berry root
and dandelion root are largely used as diuretics and you start to get an idea,
that there really isn’t much here.
Digestive
Enzyme & Super Mushroom Complex (154mg)
Again the dosage is just too low astragalus root extract,
bromelain, burdock root powder, reishi mushroom powder, shiitake mushroom
powder just are too low in terms of dosage. For example Bromelain has a huge
list of benefits, particularly as a supplement for joint pain, but the dosage
is 100mg – 200mg a day. Which as we can see would be the bulk of this entire
blend.
1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136577/