Including vegetables in your diet is extremely important. Veggies are incredibly rich in nutrients and antioxidants, which boost your health and help fight off disease. Even for those who like eating veggies, it can be a challenge to eat the recommended servings each day. In fact, 90% of Americans don’t get the recommended 2-3 servings a day. (For most vegetables, 1 cup is a serving. For raw, leafy vegetables like salad greens it’s 2 cups). Vegetables are a great source of healthy nutrients like fiber, potassium, folate, and vitamin A.
Forunately green powders are popping up on vitamin and supplement shelves across the country, and many are choosing to scoop their way to their five-a-day. Green powders are combinations of plants that have been dried and blended into a powder. They are intended to help you quickly get a host of health-boosting vitamins and minerals. Common green powders include wheat grass, spirulina, chlorella, kale, kelp, pineapple, beets, ginseng, and green tea extract. some even have pre- and probiotics as well as digestive enzymes.
But with so many green powders popping up in the market, what should you be looking for in one?
Spirulina
Spirulina is an organism that grows in both fresh and salt water. It is loaded with various nutrients and antioxidants that may benefit your body and brain. Phycocyanin is the main active compound in spirulina. It has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Many people promote Spirulina as a treatment for a range of metabolism and heart health issues, including weight loss, diabetes and high cholesterol, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Chlorella
Chlorella is a green algae that, similar to spirulina, is chock full of various nutrients. Due to its chlorophyll content, it actually has evidence for removing some toxins (ex. dioxins and HCAs) from the body. Chlorella contains many nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and omega-3 fats
Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous, or brassica, vegetables are among the most nutritious foods you can add to your diet. In addition to offering an array of vitamins and minerals. Studies show that these nutrient-packed vegetables can do everything from kill off cancer cells to balance hormone levels.
We love the simplicity of green powders for their ease and the boost of instant energy they provide, so we reached out to some of the country’s top nutrition experts to find out what they actually buy themselves. Here are the top green powders:
Nested Naturals: Super Greens
This powder contains the real foods (i.e., spinach, spirulina, pineapple, etc.), rather than an extraction of the nutrients from these foods. It also has pre- and probiotics. Our favorite way to use it is in a smoothie.
Amazing Grass Green Superfood
All natural and organic ingredients include organic wheat grass, organic barley grass, organic alfalfa, organic spirulina, organic spinach, organic chlorella this green powder is a power house. The vegetable content of this powder is 6.8 grams of one serving, which is 85% of the content of each serving and the other ingredients aids in digestion of normal and unhealthy foods along with processed fiber.
Garden of Life Whole Food Vegetable Supplement
While we don’t love the taste, we love how ingredients are added. They are juiced and cold-temperature dried immediately at the farm within an hour of harvesting, locking in the concentrated nutrition everyone looks for in a greens supplement. If you are looking for a concentrated powder and not worried about leafy taste this is definitely a winner.
Are you ready to boost the amount of high-quality greens you take in each day so that you can get more vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in your body. If you need something convenient while also being life-changing, look no further than one of these powders.