Even with a perfect diet, it is still likely you can experience nutrient deficiencies because modern foods may be lacking in some essential nutrients. To ensure we get enough of these, I use and recommend a multivitamin food source as a super-vegetable plant powder.
Greens Super Food Powder, What is it?
To sum up, a green super food powder is portions of vegetables and super foods in a spoonful of water-soluble powder. Apart from vegetables and super foods, the powder may also include other health-supporting ingredients such as probiotics and immune-supporting herbs.
Why Greens Supplement?
The Standard American Diet that has a lot of grains, vegetable oil, and processed ingredients. However, there are many reasons even the seemingly healthy diet alone might still not provide enough micronutrients and antioxidants.
Our Soil is Drained from Minerals and Good Bacteria
Over the past 100 years, industrial agriculture has depleted the most nutritious surface layer of minerals and beneficial soil bacteria that grow the healthiest foods. Therefore, the vegetables in our diet are also have less mineral density. The reduction of the minerals contained in our food as well as fertilizers and pesticides, can be a contributor to diseases.
Reducing the Diversity of Foods and Wild Varieties
According to a researcher, healthy hunter-gatherer humans ate a much wider variety of vegetables as compared today, up to 20 species per day and 100 species over the year. Supermarket vegetables that we normally eat were bred to have more uniform shapes and sizes, with high sugar content and less bitterness, which also means less micro- and phyto- nutrients than wild vegetables.
Reducing the Nutrient Density of Vegetables
These vegetables may have been picked weeks and traveled thousands of miles before reaching your table.
Modern Lifestyle Impoverishes Vitamins and Minerals
The modern lifestyle with chronic stressors around us and the polluting factors increases our micronutrient needs. We need B vitamins and magnesium to cope with stress. We also need more vitamin B, selenium and antioxidants to eliminate the chemicals we are exposed to.
According to the world leading nutrition researcher, Dr. Bruce Ames wrote that low micronutrient status can lead to metabolic disruption, mitochondrial decay, cellular aging, and increased DNA mutation.
These can lead to fatigue, poor immune function, weight gain, hormonal imbalances and an increased risk of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, multivitamin and mineral supplementation is recommended as a cost-effective way in preventing nutrient deficiencies.
Vitamins vs Greens Powder
Generally, it is better to get all of your micronutrients from foods than synthetic or isolated vitamins. First, nutrients that are present together in whole food sources often work in synergy, such as vitamin C and bioflavonoids in fruits and vitamins A and D in egg yolks, cod liver oil and butter. Second, trace elements in whole foods are generally more bioavailable than synthetic forms. Third, there are still important nutrients and phytochemicals in plants that still have to be discovered.
Because a greens supplement provides vitamins from nutrient-rich foods, it is a great way to ensure you get sufficient amounts of micronutrients and antioxidants. The soil can be depleted of minerals, but the sea is not. So you want to get a greens supplement that includes some marine sources of nutrients.
Most vitamins are stimulants especially vitamin B. Many people find B vitamins as stimulant that causes palpitations and anxiety. Considering that, whole food sources vitamins, along with natural nutrient forms and synergies, are less likely to cause this problem. You may have eaten foods high in B vitamins, such as vegetables or liver without heart palpitations. Since the food is also an entire, greens powder can help with fatigue and hormonal balance without excessive stimulation.
Green Powder Products Problems on the Market
There maybe a lot of green powders out there, but not all are created equal.
Most Green Powders Have a Terrible Taste
Vegetables, especially the most nutrient-dense, are good for you. Unfortunately, it is difficult to make the right taste of vegetables, especially when trying to condense up to 12 servings of vegetables in a tablespoon.
In order to make green powders tasty, many manufacturers use potentially harmful ingredients such as:
- Sugar
- Artificial sweeteners
- Artificial colors
- Emulsifiers or thickeners to maintain the texture of the mouth
- Non-organic or GMO ingredients
The Processing May Destroy Beneficial Nutrients and Antioxidants
Creating a greens super food powder is technologically difficult because many vitamins and phytochemicals are very delicate to heat, light and some forms of chemical processing. Vegetables in the greens powder should be lyophilized gently into water-soluble powders, in order to preserve the nutrients. Considering that, to use unicellular algae, the manufacturer may have to break hard the cell walls of algae for nutrients in the available cells.
Therefore you want to make sure that you buy the greens powder from a reputable company that comprehends the biology of the superfoods that include in their products and verify the presence of intact nutrients in the final products.
The Pros
- Well-documented ingredients for the synergy of nutrients and diversity
- It includes non-dairy probiotics and prebiotics
- It contains herbs that support the immune system, detoxification and adrenal
- It contains digestive and systemic enzymes that can support digestive health and help lessen inflammation
- It contains terrestrial and marine sources of nutrients, ensuring the presence of trace mineral soil missing
- Contains active forms of vitamin B and methyl donor, such as methyl folate and methylcobalamin, which means it is a good supplement for people having problems of methylation
The Cons
People with specific health problems may react to certain ingredients including:
- Food allergies and intolerance to ingredients may justify some bad reactions
- Those with bacterial growth in the small intestine can react badly to probiotics and inulin in the greens powder.
- Various herbs in greens powder stimulate the Th1 immune system, while others stimulate the Th2 immune system . Therefore, this product may be contraindicated for people suffering from autoimmune diseases, especially during a flare.
There are plenty of green super food powders appearing on the market everyday, so make sure to have your research before picking one for your family.
