Do Green Powders Work? The Truth Behind the Hype

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Do green powders work? Let's talk about the truth behind the hype.

If you are on social media, you've definitely seen ads, reels, and all kinds of marketing on green powders. Green powders are touted to help with your gut health, give you boundless amounts of energy support, glowing skin, and so can it really provide all of these things.

So today I'm just going to kind of break it down into the truth behind the hype. Green powders are usually made from different types of dried and powdered fruits and vegetables. Oftentimes you'll find things like spirulina in them, chlorella, probiotics, prebiotics. You'll find things that are going to talk about really supporting every system in your body, and so it sounds healthy and we gravitate towards something that's all in one.

So today, I think it's important to break it down and kind of decide,

Is green powder the way to go?

But before we dig in, my name is Marcie Vaske. I'm a licensed nutritionist with Flusso Nutrients. At Flusso Nutrients, we work really hard to educate you on different types of supplements so that you can make a more educated choice for yourself. It's always wise to speak with a practitioner that is an expert in supplements. Therefore, if you're taking other medications or either other supplements, you can make sure that there's no contraindication going on.

So today, it's all about green powder.

[Video Transcript Below + Supplement Links Discussed In Video]

Green Powders as a Nutrient Boost (Not a Replacement)

So number one, you'll hear green powders being marketed as a nutrient boost, but it's not necessarily a multivitamin, right? So green powders for sure are going to offer a lot of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, but the real truth about it is that they're nowhere near packed with enough vitamin and minerals as a real vegetable that you would put on your plate or a fruit. And not only just those real foods, but actually a really good multivitamin is going to even be more robust in minerals, vitamins, and different antioxidants. Then a green powder will be, so they're not necessarily a replacement for vegetables and fruits, but you can use it or think of it more as like a nutrient boost sort of supplementing just to get an extra little bit in your system.

I do recommend green powders every now and again when people are just really having a hard time getting vegetables and fruits in, but it's never a replacement, it's always an addition.

Do Green Powders Work for Gut Health and Energy?

Many green powders will also talk about the big benefits to your gut health. So can they really help your gut health? And yes, some formulas will have digestive enzymes in them. They'll have probiotics, they'll have prebiotics, and these are all great things for our gut health only if you need them. But we have to remember that not all brands are clinically proven, and as in any supplement quality really matters.

So if you are struggling with gut issues and think, well, I'll just do a little bit of green powder, it has all this amazing stuff in it, you need to move into it very slowly, making sure that you're adding it slowly, because if you don't, you could end up with a lot more digestive discomfort. And also choosing a really quality brand so that you know that the product you're putting in your body is going to only do good things. But bottom line, add in greens powder slowly.

Watch Out for Fillers and Additives

If you have gut health issues, I think a really important piece to be watching out for with green powders is going to be the filler ingredients that they actually put in the powder itself. Not all green powders are created equally, and this is where we get into quality over quantity, and also they're loaded with fillers like sweeteners or that you may see proprietary blend written in quotations, and that really means that you don't really know what's in a proprietary blend. So being really mindful about the brand you're choosing and really checking into those fillers, especially if you are a sensitive person, especially if you have gut health issues, you want to know exactly what's in the product that you're consuming.

Other things that may be in green powders will be xanthan gums or even guar gums. And these can oftentimes cause a lot of bloating and gas for people, especially if they have compromised guts. So again, it's looking at the quality of the product, not the quantity.

Another question to ask yourself,

Are Green Powders Worth the Cost?

A lot of green powders can be extremely expensive, and so sometimes it's just a lot easier to be eating more whole foods, more fruits and vegetables, more of a diverse diet in general. And this way, you don't even need to have green powder if you do need to have them.

Remember, it's only as a boost. You're not replacing the fruits and vegetables, so could it be worthy if you're not able to get enough fruits and vegetables? Let's say you just have really poor gut health and you're working on healing it. So some of those things may be cut down because of certain situations that you may be working with your practitioner through. So a greens powder could be a possibility here, but it doesn't mean you're going to be doing it every day. It may be just two, three times a week. And so I guess at that point, maybe the cost is worth it for a short amount of time. But to think that you need to have green powder every day means that you are probably not having a very diverse diet in the first place.

Taste and Texture Matter Too

And of course, you want to think about taste and just the way that it mixes in your water or in whatever you choose to put it in. A lot of greens, powders can really taste like grass or just like dirt basically. But there's a lot of great ones out there that have amazing flavors, have amazing content, and I'm actually going to link one down below that I love.

I've used it for many years, for many of my clients who really struggle with certain issues and we're just working on, we use it as a boost as I've been talking about. They come in tons of flavors and it's absolutely delicious. And oftentimes you don't even just have to add it into water, but I always recommend adding into smoothies or into yogurt so that you're not just drinking greens powders. Some greens powders can be kind of fibery.

Obviously it's fruits and vegetables and fibers in there so it feels gritty. And some people, if you have kind of that texture thing, you don't really like weird things in your mouth, mixing it into smoothies, yogurt, something different than just straight up water is a lot more appetizing.

So really the bottom line is that greens powders can be amazing and they can definitely help get a kick into the higher nutrients if you need them in terms of vitamins, minerals, even some probiotics in there.

But just remember not to use it as a replacement for not eating those foods that are obviously going to give you much more benefit. Eating a real piece of fruit, eating vegetables are going to be so much more nutrient dense for you than doing some green powder.

And the second thing to remember is when choosing that green powder, really look at the ingredients and see through the fine lines and make sure you're getting a quality product. I hope this helps educate you a little bit more on green powder, what to look for and how much do you really need to add one in.

Obviously, you are the person that lives with you all day long, so you know what you need. If you don't, then you can always reach out to a practitioner such as us at our clinic or with Flusso Nutrients. So down below you can ask questions and we're really happy to answer.

So thanks for watching today and we'll see you next time.

Check out the high-quality supplements we discussed in this video - links below for your convenience!

1) NutriDyn Fruits & Greens: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/nutridyn-fruits-greens

2) ALL PROFESSIONAL QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com & https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients