Q & A Thurs: should you be using green food supplements?
Posted by kathryn in Antioxidants, A Balanced Diet, Vegetables and Q & A Thursday
First off in this week’s Q & A Thursday, Paul has asked about green food supplements like spirulina, barley green and wheatgrass – are they any good and if so, which form is the best?
Like soy, green food supplements are a constant source of controversy. Some people are huge fans and make big claims about their health effects, while they also have very vocal detractors.
Some of the claims made for green foods are extreme, however they do have many nutritional positives.
Nutritional benefits
All green plant foods are a rich source of nutrients. This is as true of spinach, parsley and broccoli, as it is of spirulina, barley green and wheatgrass. Green foods are particularly potent sources of antioxidants, along with vitamins and minerals. These are foods we should be eating on a regular basis, for our long-term health.
The benefit of green food supplements is they are a concentrated, dried source of the food. You only need to consume a relatively small amount of powder, to get a higher dose of all these beautiful nutrients.
The other benefit to green food supplements is they are based on a whole food. In contrast to most antioxidant and multivitamin supplements, spirulina and its green food cousins are a dried and concentrated form of an actual food. On the other hand, most multivitamins and antioxidant supplements are full of isolated nutrients packaged together in a pill.
A number of studies have questionned the safety of antioxidant supplements and I am concerned we simply don’t know enough about how antioxidants and other micronutrients interact, to be certain of their safety in supplemental form. Green food supplements are a good way of bypassing this problem.
Cost
The big negative of green food supplements is their cost and in my opinion some of them are outrageously priced. While the more expensive brands may contain more nutrients, the difference is usually slight and not enough to justify the cost.
My personal preference is for using spirulina. It’s been used as a dietary supplement for a long, long time, is the most well studied of the green supplements and is usually the cheapest. Vital greens, essential greens, chlorella and barley green are all great, but I don’t think you’re getting a lot of extra benefit for the extra cost.
Powders, capsules, tablets or juice?
For a while in Sydney there was a fashion for having daily wheatgrass shots. This seems to be dying down now, which is a good thing. As well as finding the taste foul, I think the cost of a shot was a bit rich. For the $4.50 you’d spend on a wheatgrass shot, you’d be better off buying a large mixed vegetable juice, with added spinach.
It’s long been natural therapies lore that powder and capsule supplements were easier to digest, however this is no longer the case. Modern tablet manufacturing processes mean that tablets break apart quickly, by themselves, in our digestive system.
However, there are more additives, called excipients, in tablets. These are the substances that hold the tablet together and ensure it does break apart easily in your body.
Green foods vs a healthy diet
If you struggle to eat green vegetables regularly, then you would benefit from a green food supplement. As I said before, my personal preference is spirulina – it’s a good supplement and reasonably priced.
However, taking green food supplements does not replace eating vegetables and I would still encourage you to have your five daily serves of vegetables.
What are your thoughts? Do you use a green supplement and if so, how do you find it?
More information
- Nutritional information on spirulina
- Nutritional information on spinach
- WebMD article pond scum makes a splash
- Wikipedia spirulina entry
What’s Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Broccoli photograph by Caro Lines under the terms of a Creative Commons License
13 September, 2007
Comments
Hi Kathryn, I have teaspoon of organic spirulina in a smoothie, usually once or twice a week. It is a bit of an aquired taste but I like to think it’s doing some good overall.
Hi Fiona, the spirulina powder is an acquired taste. There’s something about the consistence of it, which makes it hard to mix into liquids – definitely needs to be blended into a smoothie. Some people are put off by the green colour, but I think it’s kind of pretty.
Thanks Kathryn. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had a go at Vital Greens, Maximum Greens, and they both seemed great, but as you mentioned, might not be justified in cost. I’ve always held back on the spirulina powder because of the reports on taste. Perhaps I should try caps.
Paul, spirulina caps are really good – they break up easily and then you’ve just got the powder inside. As we’ve talked about above, the powder is a bit of a strange taste, and it doesn’t mix together with water or juice very well. However, whizzed up in a smoothie it’s dandy.
I started using green supplements a few years ago at the suggestion of my naturopath to round out my diet. Or at least, that’s what I’m remembering. In my case, I’ve always used drinks and I try to vary the brands quite a bit. But you’ve got me thinking whether it’s worth it at this point.
We usually try and get brands that don’t go over about $1 US per serving. Nonetheless, that money might be better spent on more good vegetables, especially considering the fact that I feel like I don’t feel much different between when I’m taking greens or not. I suppose it can be a good insurance policy when you’re not getting adequate veggies. What do you think about that, do you think that’s valid?
Hi there Jeremy, while I do often take a “nutritional insurance” approach to supplements, they really don’t make up for missing out foods on a regular basis.
We don’t have a bit spirulina drink market here in Australia (in fact I can only think of one brand), so I can’t comment on their efficacy. However I would urge you to eat your veggies! As much as possible, real foods should be the fundamentals of your diet, with supplements only used as a back-up.
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