The Disturbing Truth About Athletic Greens

With so many endorsements and positive reviews, especially from those I look up to online, it’s hard not to believe that Athletic Greens is the answer to all our nutritional deficiencies. But when I discussed it with people from the nutrition field, I heard mixed reviews. So, I decided to delve deeper, speaking with experts and trying the product myself, to see if AG1 and its $100 price tag lives up to the hype.

Concerns You Should Know About:
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Proprietary Blends

One of the primary concerns with Athletic Greens is its proprietary blend. While the ingredient list includes healthy-sounding items like blueberry, broccoli, and kale, we don't know the exact quantities or the absorption rates of these nutrients and this lack of transparency makes it very hard to assess if the products truly help. Even if there are beneficial ingredients, without knowing their amounts, we can't determine their effectiveness.

It's important to note that greens powders, also strip away the fiber from ingredients removing many of their beneficial polyphenols and antioxidants inside the powder.

Nutritional Advisior, Cliff Wilde, commented on this and explained "When you have such a wide range of perceivably great things it's absolutely possible that someone could have negative reactions to several of the compounds but positive reactions perceivably to others. So my biggest issue is probably it seems unclear if these nutrients can actually absorb and if they can is there enough of those raw materials to actually produce a health outcome to back up the claims".
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Probiotics and Gut Health

Athletic Greens does include probiotics like lactobacillus acidophilus (LA1) and bifidobacterium, however, the research supporting these specific strains is limited. Lori Chang, a functional medicine dietician, fact-checked this for me and found only 1 study from 2019 that supported the bifidobacterium strain and 1 study from 1994 that supported the LA1 strain.

She explained that because there are only a few studies on the strains used in AG1, they don't conclusively prove significant benefits, so essentially we don't really know if they are effective. On top of that the probiotics used have to not only make it through the stomach but also the bile and unless it's stable against hydrochloric acid may not reach the gut'.

Heavy Metals

A major concern with greens powders is the concentration of heavy metals as when the leaves are dehydrated in concentrated amounts there's a much higher likelihood of exposure to heavy metals. This isn't a problem when eating whole foods as the fibers in them bind to and chelate the heavy metals naturally out of the system.

When I requested Athletic Greens’ certificates of analysis (COA) they initially refused. However, once obtained, the analysis showed that AG1 did in fact contain heavy metals, within the reference range. Compared to another greens powder brand called Ora Organics, AG1 had 8x the levels of cadmium, 10x the levels of arsenic, and 18x the levels of lead.

For perspective, in order to eat the equivalent amount of lead in athletic greens you'd have to eat 34.1 pounds of grapes. This of course raises concerns about long-term safety, especially since these metals can accumulate in the body.

Personal Experience

During my trial of Athletic Greens, I noticed subtle increases in alertness and focus, and after drinking it, I felt sharper and less sluggish. This aligns with the positive personal experiences shared by others, though individual responses can drastically vary.

Some of my friends love it and swear by it, like my friend and Ultraman athlete Jeff who said 'I want to be able to perform at my best cognitively and physically and in my opinion, the best way to test if something works is can I eat this and then go perform. I can't take opinion in conjecture and science over my personal experience because I've been taking this every day and know it makes me feel good'.

While my other friend Bryn said it made her feel nauseous and bloated and as soon as she stopped drinking it she felt a lot better.

Some of the ingredients in AG1 like spirulina may not be harmful for people with certain medical conditions like autoimmune, yet there is little to nothing on the site advising certain groups of people not to take it. I think this highlights AG1s one size fits all approach, despite the fact that everyone is so different, with different bioavailability and drastically different bodies.

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Conclusion

After extensive research and personal testing, I've concluded that Athletic Greens might not be the miracle supplement it's often portrayed to be. The proprietary blend, limited research on probiotics, potential heavy metal content, and differing personal opinions all suggest I should use it with caution. While it may offer benefits for some, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

The best things you can do to make your way through all the noise and disagreements are

• Learn how to read studies.
• Do your own research.
• Look out for cognitive biases (we all have them).
• Test it on yourself.‍

So the question still remains, Is athletic greens actually healthy? Well, that's for you to decide.

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For the full video review, click here.