How to Choose Superfood Supplement
What Are Green Superfood Powder Supplements?
Greens powders are dietary supplements that are made up of powdered vegetables, grasses, fruits, and probiotics.
You mix the powder with water, juice or milk. You typically find that products contain about 25-40 ingredients.
The sorts of ingredients you will find are:
- Leafy greens including spinach and kale
- Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage
- Fruits such as raspberries, lemon, and pineapple
- Grasses such as wheatgrass and alfalfa grass
- Seaweed such as kelp and spirulina
- Probiotics such as lactobacillus acidophilus
- Herb and spice extracts including dandelion, turmeric and ginger
- Extra fiber such as rice bran, inulin, apple fiber
- Mushrooms such as shiitake mushroom extract
- Natural sugar substitutes such as stevia leaf extract
- Nutritional extracts such as green tea extract, ginkgo biloba extracts and vitamins and minerals
You’ll find that many products are vegan and ingredients may be free from genetic modification and organic.
A typical 10 gram scoop contains 40 calories. It will usually have a high fiber content. It will also likely contain good levels of many vitamins and minerals such as:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin K
- Calcium
- Iron
- Iodine
- Selenium
- Chromium
- Potassium
So your green drink is a low 40 calorie if you add water. But some people add juice or almond milk. You can also make a smoothie and add a scoop into that.
Alternatively, some greens powder are intended to make a complete meal so they will contain more calories and protein.
What Are The Benefits Of Green Superfood Drinks?
Greens powders have a number of benefits. Firstly, they are usually low in calories but very high in many minerals and vitamins. In turn this has a number of health benefits aside from fulfilling your daily requirements for good health.
They support immune and digestive health
You can also choose a greens which has the added benefit of having a probiotics which may support immune function and digestive health.
They help prevent chronic disease
It’s thought the anti-inflammatory properties of plant compounds in greens powder may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Inflammation can worsen conditions including cancer, arthritis, and diabetes. It can also cause fatigue and chronic pain.
They boost your energy levels
Greens puts your body back in balance and make it even easier for your body to get the nutrients it needs from the foods you eat. As you also get a huge dose of nutrients many consumers report feeling revitalized and energized.
They can aid in fat loss
It’s thought that restoring your body’s pH levels can help you holding on to fat in fat cells. The boost of fiber in the greens can also help you to feel full.
They make your skin glow
The vitamins and minerals can give your skin a healthy glow. In particular, A, C, and E, all of which are in plentiful supply in greens can promote skin health.
How Do The Best Green Superfood Supplements Help You?
As discussed, superfood powders may play an important role in overall wellness, they can support immune function and help reduce chronic disease risk.
While they are not a substitute for vegetables they can make sure that you are topped up with all the vitamins and minerals you need for good health. For that reason, you can certainly try giving your kids a greens powder drink. We like Amazing Grass Kidz Superfood with goodness from over 30 fruits and vegetables, in Outrageous chocolate flavor.
What To Look For When Buying Green Superfood Supplements
With so many greens powders to choose from, where do you even start?
First of all, you should choose a product that has a detailed and extensive ingredient profile of grasses, fruits and vegetables.
It’s best to to choose organically grown plant based ingredients
Also, ingredients can lose their beneficial properties if they are damaged during production. The best methods are ground or freeze-dried to preserve the properties and potency of the ingredients.
A greens supplement should also have marine sources to ensure a dense nutrient profile. Marine sources in greens include spirulina and chlorella.
Now aside from healthy ingredients you may find a few rogue ingredients such as:
- sugar
- emulsifiers or thickeners
- artificial colors
- artificial sweeteners
- non-organic or GMO ingredients
That can be somewhat unavoidable for greens powder companies to try to flavor their product. Despite sounding like a perfect elixir they are not very palatable. The taste of greens powder has been likened to freshly mowed grass or a stagnant pond.
Since every company will try to flavor and sweeten the product try to find a product that has only natural flavor enhancers and sweeteners.
With that being said, it’s all very well finding a product with the best nutritional profile but if it’s so unpalatable you can’t drink it – then you’ve wasted your money and sadly it won’t provide any nutritional benefit.
Check out reviews to see what other people think of the taste. Also it is possible to add greens powder to other savory food so having an artificial or natural fruit or vanilla flavor is not always going to be suitable.
You can also buy greens powder that contains fermented greens such as kale. This is higher in nutrients and als has probiotics but also a strong taste, too.
Products vary in price so it’s up to you if you want to buy a premium product or a better value product. A great budget greens powder is Organic Greens from Purely Inspired.
While if you have more to spend and want premium ingredients then we love Organifi green juice.
Bottom Line
Choosing a high quality greens powder has many beneficial effects. And can help you get lots of vitamins and minerals.
Be sure to team with a healthy diet for optimal health. A few ideas for incorporating greens powders into meals are to:
- Mix them into homemade salad dressing
- Add them to soup
- Toss over roasted vegetables
- Use them in an omelet
- Sprinkle them over roasted vegetables
- Add to smoothies
Alternatively, you can buy a chocolate flavor super green powder and use as a baking ingredient in healthy chocolate desserts and cakes.
As ever, it’s always best to speak to your doctor before taking any new supplement especially if you are on regular medications or have medical conditions or issues.
