Episode 102: Are Greens Powders Worth It?
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Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss the hot supplement, Greens Powders. Greens powders have been around for a while, but we always get questions about if they’re worth it. If you don’t like vegetables, are these an appropriate alternative? Are they worth the money? Tune in to find out!
Other resources:
Scoop on Supplements episode
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hello everyone welcome back to another episode of the upbeat dietitians podcast
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hello guys we are here today with another supplement review slash I don't
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want to call a diet review it's not really a diet but supplement review we are reviewing greens powders today which
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I can almost guarantee you've seen on your Tick Tock feed or on your YouTube channel
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it's highly likely that your favorite influencer has like in some way or another promoted some kind of greens
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powder I think the most popular one that I see is the ag1 that's actually I think
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the most popular one that's like sold so we'll talk about that one quite a bit today the other big one you've probably
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seen a lot is Bloom that's usually the one on Tick Tock which I talked about in I think was last week's episode or two
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weeks ago yeah yeah episode 100 yeah
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but yes it's there's so many claims around greens powders they've been around for a little bit now
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um but sometimes you've probably seen that they claim to like the biggest thing is bloating it gets
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promoted for like reducing bloating sometimes they claim to like increase
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your energy levels support immunity help with recovery there are also like some
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brands that even dabble into the like detox and like hormone regulation
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function or else supports your hormones eating and sleeping and drinking water
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we'll get there yes but we're gonna chat about if these
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claims are true and probably the biggest question you're wondering is should you add a greens powder to your morning
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routine or to your dietary routine in general as
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well yeah yeah we're gonna go into today what these green powders like really are
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um popular brands what's in them the big question of can they replace fruits and vegetables which you might have a little
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English what we're going to say there but we'll get there um we're going to go over if there are
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third party tested because as you know a supplement you always want to look for that and then lastly we'll get into
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price because that is also a pretty big concern with these as well but let's start with what they are so of course
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they are just a powder that's green that's like they're very aptly named I'll give them that they're not tricking
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you there no it's not getting some fat burning
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doohickey like they they named it named it well
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they'll get a few Kudos today in some ways but a lot of ways too they're not so great but anyway
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um yeah they usually are just like ground up fruits and vegetables um we'll get into like more of what's in
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them in a minute but that usually is just like the bulk of it so again ag1 which you might also know
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as athletic greens they did like a Rebrand recently and they now go by ag1 they are I think the most popular brand
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but again you've likely seen Bloom on your Tick Tock um vital proteins the collagen people
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they also have a greens powder I see first form a lot they also are like a
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like a protein powder brand as well they have a whole line of things but they're big things they're
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protein powders that one I usually see promoted by like all the bodybuilding Fitness people since they're often
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athletes for the supplement line and then even like MLM Brands like Arbonne Monet and Shakeology they all have their
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own greens powders as well everyone has one everyone has one I did
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not know about the ag1 Rebrand I because when I saw that I was like what is that
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but then I was like I typed up like oh athletic greens yes I yeah I know what this is now
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I don't know why they would Rebrand because athletic greens honestly is a pretty good name I think for what it is I thought so too yeah they had like a
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lot of brand awareness I didn't think there's any unless they
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wanted to go outside of greens that's the only thing I could think of maybe but I feel like they only really sell
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that one thing for the most part they have like other little itty bitty things but yeah I don't know I don't know
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either maybe they don't want to maybe they are like maybe people think
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only athletes could eat consume this that's true we want to be more inclusive I don't know well it's actually a good
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point because like they do say on their website like who they're for is for just about everybody
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just about everybody this is weird but they say it's optimized for athletes for
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Life leads whatever that means and everyone in between so could we please break down
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what a likely is is that the opposite of an athlete yeah and everyone in between
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was that I think you're right though like the athletic greens man it's like it was just for athletes in here they're trying
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to like really push it that it's for for everybody interesting yeah I don't know what to
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make of that slogan where that that claim I don't know they always say in
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business like you can't Target everybody because then you'll reach nobody it feels like they're targeting
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everybody but I mean I feel like they're doing okay so they don't really need to they're doing fine mix it up too much
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maybe they're like you can Niche down first but then you can make it Broad and cater to
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everyone okay I could see that it's not a bad strategy for business yeah
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fun fun stuff and also their greens are also vegan
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paleo and keto friendly which makes sense to me because there's like
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not really any animal products and greens yeah I don't
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know if they're gluten-free they didn't say that right off in their thing I'd assume they are but
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if you do take these and you are gluten-free look at that yourself yes
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I feel like they would probably advertise that if it if they were I know
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they're throwing paleous
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oh oh I get it interesting interesting stuff we'll talk about what's in the greens
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because that's probably like what you're on here like ground up fruits and vegetables
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I can make that myself you probably could probably could that's kind of like the big basis that a
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lot of the greens powders are based around is like all these added vitamins minerals prebiotics probiotics that are
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coming from like fruits and vegetables sources Athletics I'm going to keep calling them
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athletic greens because I can't I can't buy into this Rebrand I can't do it it
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looks like some type of amino acid or something and it's throwing me up I don't like it
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um but they don't have vitamin D or iron in theirs which is very interesting
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because see you say that they claim to be a multivitamin they like claim that yeah let me see if I can find their
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website like what they say exactly but the foundation of daily Health one daily
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serving delivers a comprehensive blend of core Health Products working together to fill nutrient gaps and deliver the
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foundation for daily Health Better Health like I feel like that's basically yeah or a multivitamin that's what you take a
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multivitamin for is to fill the gaps yeah but maybe is the like highest or
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most prevalent vitamin deficiency I know the Iron's up there too especially for women yeah I'm
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surprised they don't have those in there yeah once again just proves that if you do
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take this you'll still have to like eat Whole Foods as well yeah or at least
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tack on a vitamin D and iron supplement too I guess yeah which wouldn't be fun no I feel like I'd
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want to limit like supplements I'm taking oh me too I
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don't think any unless I like really feel like I need a certain one no I've started doing vitamin D and that's the
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only thing I can like barely get myself to take that I feel like vitamin D is
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like you said one that honestly a lot of us could be taking if we don't get enough especially where we live where
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there's like sun for four months out of the year yeah yeah yeah
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but yeah different powders will have different ingredients so we're talking about ag-1 again pretty specifically
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here but be sure to just like read the supplement label if you do want to get one
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hopefully they will have it posted on their website I know like I don't think Herbalife has a greens powder maybe they
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do I don't know but like Herbalife I remember we like talked about how you you can't find anything on their website
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like nothing's posted and of course I posted a YouTube review of Herbalife which is still my most viral video on
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YouTube and everyone's like oh I could find their information just fine I'm like
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have you found it maybe on Amazon like Amazon you can find it or um wherever else you decide to buy it
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like on herbalife's website they don't have their ingredients posted it's very sketchy
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foreign is pretty transparent they do have their label posted but let's talk
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about proprietary Blends a little bit because they do have a couple of them so
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they call them complexes but they have their alkaline nutrient dense raw superfood complex okay they have two of
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them sounds like a good thing I know and they have their digestive enzyme and super mushroom complex
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oh yes proprietary Blends basically mean we can put whatever we want into it and
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just not tell you what it is yes so they do say
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that they have let's see okay so on ag1 supplement vax
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label they have all the ingredients in each complex with not the amount and that's where prioritary Blends are an
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issue because like even if let's see even if organic chlorella powder did
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have any efficacy for being a helpful supplement we have no idea for taking
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the amount that'd actually be helpful based on what's in this proprietary blend because it's not posted anywhere it has the number of milligrams in the
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whole complex in the whole blend we don't know how much of each ingredient is actually in that blend so we don't
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know for sure if that chlorella powder is actually going to do anything to help you yeah also quickly jumping back
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um they do say one daily serving eliminates the need for other
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supplements such as multivitamin okay yeah I thought I saw that somewhere they also say fight on nutrients
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well a lot of even multivitamins too won't have iron in them as well so it's always good to look for that if you are
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looking for iron because if you don't need iron take the extra make your belly feel not very great no no no no no and
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if you're a man there is like a upper limit of iron
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so that's something that they probably would have to make like one catered toward women more so
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and one catered more toward men I don't know if that's in their marketing scheme right now so I wonder
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if all they don't do vitamin D as well because you can overdo it but then like all of the water slide
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about water soluble vitamins in here like vitamin C are like ridiculously
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high amounts 467 but surprisingly vitamin E is also super high too
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at 5 53 percent that's very high that's very high you don't need like excessive
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amounts of those like there's a reason they're a recommendation amounts yeah
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oh I don't think it is gluten-free because I just saw something about barley in the
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complex the superfood complex oh barley the sounds very appetizing ugh
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I did try one of these wands I didn't try ag1 but I tried like some just like knockoff
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brand back in my college just ordered eating days you know it was not very
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good I feel like maybe Agee I feel like none of these powders are good I know
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I feel like these are all something you just like you chug and then you're like okay I'm done I posted a YouTube review
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of ag1 and a lot of the comments are like this is not a real review because you didn't actually try the product I
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was like first of all I'm not going to spend a hundred dollars on a day supply or a month supply second of all I know
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we're claimed in the video that I was gonna try the product what I made very
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clear in the beginning of the video was that the whole point of the video was to talk
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about like the nutritional profile of it because I'm a dietitian like the taste of it should have nothing to do with if
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you're going to buy it or not like if I'm going to sway you to buy it or not because that's not the purpose of you taking it
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like is because of the taste like if I recommend like a food yeah I have no
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problem saying if I like the taste or not but like a supplement if I say I like the taste that should
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not be the reason why you're buying a supplement no that's something very expensive to buy just for the taste of it right
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but like if I say I like these two dollar Pop-Tarts and that's what gets
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you to go buy the Pop-Tarts go nuts but anyway that is silly as we've talked
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about like kind of the composition of these greens powders the question is like can greens powders replace fruits
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and vegetables as ag1 has claimed they can replace phytonutrients I just I love how they
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actually just vital nutrients I'm like just put whatever they can anything colorful you eat they can replace
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um but the short answer is no green powders
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should not replace fruits and vegetables there's a lot of things that
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are lacking in the powders but I know like I hear this all the time
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and the conclusion or like the resolution
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being brought up is green powders where people are like I hate fruits and vegetables like I can't eat them
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um can I do a greens powder instead just to like get in those nutrients and this could be helpful if you are
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eating like no fruits or vegetables but
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oftentimes what happens is when people don't like fruits or vegetables is because maybe like the way it was cooked
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growing up was it the most appealing they haven't like tried a lot of fruits
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or vegetables you can like cook them different ways like all different things to explore first
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we would challenge you to before you go spend a hundred dollars
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on a greens powder and like this doesn't mean that
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you need to eat like a salad or an entire veggie tray for the vegetables to
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count like it can be part of like a soup or a stir fry or it's okay if it has
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salad dressing on top of it like it all still counts as a vegetable or a
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fruit um it's like fruits you typically eat more by itself or you can you can cook
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it but you do not need to replace it with the
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screens powder also coming from like a satisfaction standpoint just like
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we've talked about this a couple of times where like the motion of like chewing sends those satisfactory like
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receptors to your brain to let now like hey this is great or like we're getting full
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um whereas if you're just drinking a powder I threw a liquid your body is not doing that motion and
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then it's not going to feel as satisfying also like you can pair vegetables with dips to make it more fun
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or you can cook them a certain way like it doesn't need to be a salad and it
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doesn't need to be like a stack of like carrots and celery you don't need to have just like a pile
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of steamed broccoli on your plate with no seasonings like if you like the cheese sauce add the cheese sauce or
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like roast your broccoli instead of olive oil and Seasonings or like Emily said like add it into the dish like stir
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fry soups whatever um like make your own pasta sauce if you're having pasta and like throw some
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stuff in there like there's all kinds of ways to sneak it in I don't know if I love the
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word sneaks it's like a secret thing you're doing but yeah I hear that all the time people say they don't like
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eating vegetables but they've only tried just like raw broccoli I'm like yeah of course you don't like vegetables that's
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all you know there's tons of ways to get it in though yeah it doesn't have to be boring oh it does have to be by itself I
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rarely eat just like a steamed vegetable on the side or just like a raw carrots like absolutely not
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no I am throwing so much seasoning on those yeah and I am cooking them
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probably in the oven that is what I use the most of but like you could air fry them roast them if you
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like access to like a grill or a broiler yeah add the butter add the olive oil
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add the marinades yeah just do it the veggies still count it's
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okay you'll be okay yeah well let's go on to our next piece which
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is about um the third party testing of these supplements so go way back to like one
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of our first episodes listen to us talk about supplements as a whole we talk about
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how to find this third-party testing and why it's important and the risk
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supplements and all of that but as for today we'll just say that supplements as you already know probably if you've been
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listening um to past episodes they are not regulated by the FDA typically and so
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because of that we recommend looking for some kind of third-party testing on the supplement you do take to ensure that
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someone is looking over it and making sure that it's not just like made in someone's basement with like random empty powders that's absolutely nothing
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or it could be harmful it's not as great as FDA approval but it gets the job done
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for now until we can get that that done I was just listening to um Christy Harrison's Wellness trap book
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have you read that yet Emily I have not oh she talks about like why the FDA does
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not play a part in it and it's actually a really crazy story like I think the
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FDA like used to have more say and stuff but then the consumer was like or maybe
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it's either the consumer people selling it they were like get your hands off of this basically I feel like it was the people selling it
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yeah so it's like a whole a whole thing so I think the FDA like wants to but
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we're not letting them basically so anyway
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that makes it easier to sell things exactly exactly I recommend that book a lot it's
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the wellness trap um okay it's really really good for those listening and for you too Emily we read it in our book
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club this past month for membership and we all like really liked it it was very informative
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um but anyway ag1 athletic greens they do claim to be third party tested by NSF
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which kudos for that um Bloom the other popular one I don't
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think they are I looked I don't think I can find anything they aren't that explains why the people that are
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promoting it it's just like your random like family influencer or like the
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couple that you follow that just talks about the relationship the whole time yeah it's all over it's and it's never
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at least rarely is it by a health professional like I don't think I've seen Bloom promoted by anyone who
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no like ag1 I have some people like dietitians even like promote ag1 or like
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have it as like a paid sponsorship or whatever but Bloom I have never seen from like a dietitian or personal
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trainer or anything no it's always the the random influencers let's talk about
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the price because I feel like this plays a huge Factor
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in all of it so I'm sure you can get a discount with an influencer code depending on which
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one it is but for ag1 specifically
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for 30 servings which it claims to be like one scoop a day so that's like one month supply it'll cost you 99
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or if you opt into their subscription program it's 79 so that's about like
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a hundred dollars for a multiply of powdered vegetables what a steal imagine
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that like on top of your like grocery bill exactly like I don't know it's
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really hard for me to gauge what the average person spends on groceries um but I feel like maybe like 50 or like
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40 50 a person for a week maybe if you're if you're being
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intentionally Frugal yeah like if you're like really try not to spend anything if you could
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just like go to the store and get whatever oh then it's ease it's
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I would say let's see I just feed me and Ross I do
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most of the shopping usually and I spent anywhere from like and it depends it depends so much on
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like if we need like toothbrushes and like that kind of stuff but I would say our total bill tends to
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range anywhere from like 100 to 200 a week so if I really really tried it if I
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could get it down to like 50 bucks a person but I feel like that is if someone is like being very
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intentional they're budging they're cutting coupons doing all that yeah which is tough and most people aren't
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just two people they're feeding a family a lot of times so right it adds up and like
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the hundred dollars per month is for one person and that's like 25 extra a week
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and powdered vegetables when I'm very confident you can spend
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less money than that on vegetables oh yeah shopping season shop sales get
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canned get Frozen definitely could bloom is cheaper though they're about 35 40 for a month supply
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30-day Supply it's one of those things I like is just like if you can't afford it
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that's great go nuts you like there's probably no harm in you adding this to
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your routine but a lot of people don't have obviously disposable income where they
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can just like add on these supplements or like you're just trying to get
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enough money to like feed the family or feed yourself um
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or like other bills like rent or if you're paying for a mortgage or if you
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have insurance you have to pay for or credit card bills like
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it's an additional cost on top of that I feel like the hundred dollar or like the 35 to 100 depending on who you buy on
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top of that bill can easily add up because that's like
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twelve hundred dollars a year potentially I think we made it pretty clear by now but if you take these you
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can afford it there's likely going to be no harm it could be
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a risk of overdoing a certain nutrient because they are pretty high quantities for a lot of them
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um but it's likely fine people will always attest to it and say they feel
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way better taking them and if they really do make you feel better that's totally fine as long as it's not causing
25:38
you more stress because it is so expensive or it is taking away from you trying to be more intentional about
25:44
eating your fruits and vegetables if you know for sure that you absolutely hate all of them and this really would
25:51
make you feel better it's probably fine something else I haven't really looked into like
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is the fiber content of these because that's a big I meant to say that of course
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um like you get a lot of fiber from your fruits and vegetables with oftentimes
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these supplements like leave out two grams from ag1
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I mean they literally just like are powdering up a fruit and veggies so it's like just the vitamins and minerals that
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you're getting so if you would like regular bowel
26:25
movements we'd probably recommend eating some physical fruits or
26:30
vegetables well sometimes people will say they do have better bowel movements when taking these but that's because they're drinking more water you drink it
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with water yes so that's why and also so we challenge you to drink
26:43
water Andy pay me first any fiber yeah
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um maybe others if you're hesitant about the price water is not free but it's definitely
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cheaper than ag1 is um the other thing too is when you're
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taking a supplement like this you're also likely while you're in that zone of like these Lifestyle Changes healthy
27:07
behaviors whatever you want to call it you're taking this greens powder while also probably doing other things too
27:14
while you're in that zone like maybe you're doing more workouts and you're also working on sleeping better and you're also trying to eat more balanced
27:20
meals so like can we say for sure that the greens powder is what is helping with you feeling better however you
27:27
wanted to find that it's hard to say you likely are factors just doing the greens powder not
27:32
changing anything else if this is kind of like a get my life together exactly which it
27:39
usually is I feel like yeah I feel like people aren't typically like
27:45
Hanging On by a thread but still taking the grades powder oh my gosh yeah and
27:52
like the pits of depression but hey we got our greens powders yeah or maybe you are and you're just if
28:00
that's the one coming into that yeah like you know it kudos to you
28:06
I feel like it's definitely something that like I know they're gonna be people that say like I feel so much better they're
28:12
always and that's like and it's totally fine but this there are other like more
28:19
financially affordable options and
28:25
you don't need to spend all this money on a supplement so I feel like that's
28:30
already going to our bottom line is I agree
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you probably don't need this it's probably unnecessary it most likely
28:42
won't cause harm there are some of those nutrients though that like there's just like excess amounts of in them
28:50
and that's something you might want to be a little bit wary of or take that into account
28:57
but the biggest harm with these
29:03
greens powders is like the advertisements around them and who's advertising them so like like Hannah
29:10
mentioned I I she's not seen one Healthcare professional promote Bloom I have not
29:17
seen one Healthcare professional promote Bloom there have been some like dietitians that have like paid
29:24
collaborations with athletic greens um and then there's like all the like
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Monet and Arbonne in first form um and all these other greens it's like
29:35
kind of looking at like who's promoting it one
29:41
two like is it affordable and then
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and also like I feel like this is like we talk this is like I always view it as like common sense but like honestly when
29:53
I was like probably in early years of college like I didn't realize
30:00
the people who had paid collaborations weren't using those products necessarily I like did not realize that I like
30:08
100 lows like oh wow they use this they don't they are just getting money from
30:14
it that does not mean they use it at all it's like one post maybe or if they have
30:21
like some deal set up where they have to post a certain amount of times but just because they're posting on it
30:28
about it does not mean they are using it um so and typically there's like a script
30:36
or like there are key points they have to include when talking about the product so yeah
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if there are certain claims that doesn't necessarily mean that
30:47
they're true it's probably something they're required to they need to get that check so
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all in all you don't need to take a greens powder if you're feeling pressured too
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drink some water try cooking your vegetables a different way try editing some seasonings butter
31:09
olive oil whatever it is to spice it up and
31:15
if you feel really stressed about seeing people promoting it online just keep in mind
31:21
there's that money component and they're not necessarily consuming that product if it's something
31:28
you eat or you don't want to see it whatever it is you don't necessarily know like
31:34
what they're doing offline so listen to our beat deets
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getting yeah today we're talking about our favorite type of lettuce so if that
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doesn't entice you I don't know riveting yeah cool well thanks for listening today
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guys we appreciate you we'll see you next week otherwise
32:58
all right bye guys
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