Alani Nu SuperGreens Ingredients
Alkalizing Greens Blend - 4 Grams
Organic Alfalfa Grass Powder
Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the legume family rich in a potent antioxidant called pinitol, which research shows improves your kidney, liver, and gut health and functions, while also reducing inflammation throughout the rest of your body.
The problem is, alfalfa is only proven to be effective when you consume large amounts of the fresh grass. This means there's no evidence the powdered variety in Alani Nu Super Greens will provide any health benefits at all (1).
Organic Wheatgrass Powder
Wheatgrass powder is produced out of the new sprouts from the top of the wheat plant. Thought to be low in calories and full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, it's said to reduce your cholesterol and risk of heart disease, as well as oxidative stress and damage, inflammation, and the symptoms of arthritis.
However, as none of these claims have been conclusively proven, it is just as likely that its presence in Alani Nu Super Greens does nothing at all (2).
Organic Barley Grass Powder
Barley grass is full of essential nutrients that provide a plethora of benefits, like boosting your heart health, helping you lose weight, and reducing your blood sugar and cholesterol levels (3).
The issue is, with at least 5 grams per day being required to produce these effects, even the use of a proprietary blend can't hide the fact that there's not enough present in Alani Nu Super Greens, as it weighs only 4 grams in its entirety.
Organic Lemon Fruit Juice
Lemon juice is rich in vitamin c and can provide a range of benefits, including improving the health of your skin and colon, regulating your blood pressure, boosting your immune system, aiding weight loss, enhancing digestion, and even keeping your body hydrated.
Unfortunately, not only do you need to consume a large amount for it to be of use, but its benefits have not been proven to be produced by its powdered form (4). This means it is highly unlikely that its presence in Alani Nu Super Greens does anything at all.
Organic Kale Leaf Powder
Kale is one of the most widely consumed greens on Earth, as it's full of minerals, phytochemicals, and vitamins and known to offer a number of benefits, like reducing your cholesterol and risk of heart disease.
The problem is, you'll only see these benefits if you consume at least 5 grams a day (5). As the entire blend it's in weighs less than this, it is simply impossible for it to do you any good in Alani Nu Super Greens.
Organic Astragalus Root Powder
Astragalus root powder is known for its anti inflammatory properties and can help improve the health and functions of your liver, heart, and immune system, boost your testosterone levels, and reduce your cholesterol levels (6).
As you only need to consume at least 30 mg of astragalus root powder per day to produce these effects, it is possible that Alani Nu Super Greens contains enough to be of use. However, as they have chosen to lump it in a proprietary blend, it's impossible for us to know one way or the other.
Organic Spirulina
Spirulina is a blue green algae full of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, protein, and healthy fatty acids that can suppress appetite, boost metabolism and weight loss, fight free radicals, prevent oxidative damage and stress, reduce inflammation, and blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and enhance your heart health.
The issue is, it will only do any of these things if you consume at least 8 grams a day. With this being twice the weight of the blend that it's contained in, it will add nothing to the Alani Nu Super Greens formula (7).
Organic Oat Grass Powder
Oat grass is a long dense grass similar to the one we get the common oat from. It's said to be rich in fibre, protein, minerals, and vitamins and enhance the health of your skin, immune system, and gut (8).
Unfortunately, there has been little study done on the effects of oat grass and no conclusive results have been produced. This means there's a very good chance it does nothing at all in Alani Nu Super Greens.
Organic Chlorella
Chlorella is a chlorophyte green algae full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that boosts energy levels better than sugar, without causing blood sugar spikes. It can also lower your blood sugar and cholesterol levels, fight diseases and illnesses, detoxify the body, and improve your overall health and wellbeing.
As no optimal dose of chlorella has been set, it's possible this is a rare instance where Alani Nu Super Greens actually contains a suitable dose of an effective ingredient. That said, as it's buried at the bottom of a proprietary blend it is impossible to know for sure and still highly unlikely (9).
Antioxidant Fruit Blend - 2 Grams
The Alani Nu Super Greens Antioxidant Fruit Blend consists of cabbage palm fruit powder, amla fruit powder, goji fruit powder, acerola fruit extract, mangosteen fruit powder, strawberry fruit juice, cranberry fruit juice, maqui fruit powder, and jabuticaba fruit juice.
As is often the problem in supplements that contain powdered fruit blends, Alani Nu Super Greens uses a combination of fruits that offer proven health benefits, as well as those not proven to do anything at all.
Perhaps even worse is that, while we don't know the exact dosage of each that is present, most have to be consumed in massive doses or will only benefit your health if you consume the fresh fruits.
This means the entire blend is highly unlikely to do anything for your health.
Inulin - 150 MG
Inulin is a soluble, prebiotic fiber that boosts gut and digestive health and functions, nutrient absorption, weight loss, and energy levels, prevents fat storage, treats constipation, and reduces inflammation and blood sugar and cholesterol levels (10).
The problem is, as you have to consume at least 10 grams a day to enjoy these benefits, the 150 mg in a scoop of Alani Nu Super Greens will do nothing at all.
Spectra Antioxidant Blend - 50 MG
The Alani Nu Super Greens Spectra Antioxidant Blend has coffee bean extract, broccoli concentrate, green tea extract, onion extract, apple extract, quercetin, tomato powder, camu camu fruit powder, maltodextrin, acerola fruit extract, cabbage palm powder, turmeric powder, garlic powder, basil powder, oregano powder, cinnamon powder, carrot powder, elderberry powder, mangosteen powder, black currant extract, blueberry extract, sweet cherry powder, raspberry powder, spinach powder, chokeberry powder, pomegranate juice, kale powder, blackberry powder, bilberry extract, Brussels sprout powder, and sunflower lecithin.
This blend brings up all the same issues that we encountered in the fruits blend.
From hidden or insufficient dosages to unproven ingredients, Spectra is a patented blend well known for simply helping low quality supplements get as many ingredients as possible on the label, rather than benefitting your health, and there is no evidence to suggest that is not exactly what is happening here.
Digestive Enzymes Blend - 50 MG
The Alani Nu Super Greens Digezyme Multi-Enzyme Complex contains amylase, neutral protease, cellulase, lactase, lipase, and maltodextrin.
While this collection of digestive enzymes does include a number that are beneficial to your gut health, it also omits two of the most important ones, maltase and sucrase.
Then there is the fact that the recommended dosage of individual digestive enzymes is usually hundreds of mg a day, while this blend weighs just 50 mg in its entirety (11).
You put these issues together and Alani Nu Super Greens servings simply can't benefit your digestion in the ways the brand suggests.
Probiotic Blend - 5 Billion CFU
The Alani Nu Super Greens Probiotic Blend includes the probiotics lactobacillus helveticus, lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus rhamnosus, lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium jactis, bifidobacterium bifidum, and fructooligosaccharides.
The issue here is pretty much the same as we saw in the digestive enzyme blend.
As a bare minimum, you need to consume 1 billion cfu of a probiotic for it to have any effect. With the number of probiotics present and the weight of the blend, it's simply not possible for Alani Nu Super Greens to contain even that, so it will do you no good, no matter how good what it contains may be (12).
Alani Nu Super Greens Review: Pros & Cons
Pros
- Most reviews say it has a great taste
- Contains a number of ingredients proven to be of use in a greens supplement
- Reasonably priced and gluten free
Cons
- Most of its ingredient dosages are hidden in proprietary blends
- The majority of its ingredients are not proven to benefit your health
- All of the proven ingredients are visibly present in dosages that are too low to be of use
- There is a possibility the supplement is cross contaminated with allergens
References
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30000890/
- https://centertrt.org/blog/is-wheatgrass-good-for-you.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5904770/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4554674/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136577/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522129/
- https://examine.com/supplements/spirulina/#dosage-information
- https://dsld.od.nih.gov/ingredient/Oat%20Grass
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7551956/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8039257/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923703/
- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Probiotics-HealthProfessional/
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