My girlfriend wants me to find ways to stem my chronic heartburn (the result of a hiatus hernia) other than taking Zantac and antacids. I’ve agreed to try. A friend of hers who has beaten cancer told her that one way that she combatted the heartburn that seemed to come on with her disease was by taking Greens Plus.
My girlfriend has recently purchased a bottle of “green food concentrate”, a powder supplement, and a bottle of a liquid called “Grainfields Australia”, on the advice of the man at the health food store.
The Grainfields says on the bottle that it is, “A natural concentrated source of live, active friendly bacteria” and contains “Lactobacillus Acidophilus”. It is supposedly supposed to restore the natural bacteria that my stomach is likely depleted of because of my years of taking antacids.
The Blueberry Greens Force contains
Non-GMO Lecithin
Organic Alfalfa, Barley Grass, Wheat Grass & Red Beet Powder
Frutafit Inulin fructo-oligosaccharides FOS
SoyFerm Organic Non-GMO Fermented Soy Powder
Organic Blueberry Powder
Apple Pectin Fibre Powder
Hawaiian Spirulina
Barley Malt Powder
Pineapple Juice Powder
Acerola Berry Powder
Blue-Max Blueberry Extract (standardized to 25% anthocyanins)
Bil-Max Bilberry Extract (standardized to 25% anthocyanins)
Elder-Max Elderberry Extract (standardized to 15% anthocyanins)
Green Papaya Juice
Japanese Chlorella
Siberian Ginseng Extract (provided by 8.33 mg of a 12:1 extract) (standardized to 0.8% eleutheroside)
ImmunEnhancer AG Larch Arabinogalactan
Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract (standardized to 24% ginkgo flavonglycosides & 6% terpene lactones)
MegaNatural Broad Spectrum Grape Seed Extract
Japanese Green Tea Extract (standardized to 60% polyphenols)
Norweigan Kelp
Natural Blueberry Flavour
Natural Blue Raspberry Flavour
Stevia
Is there any clinical proof that this stuff is actually good for me? That is, considering the price tag of $30 on the Grainfields and $40 on the Greens Force, can it be expected that I’ll experience improvements in overall health, even if it’s not an apparent improvement? Can I expect to live longer, or better, or with more energy, or whatever, because I take these things?
This right here would make my BS meter go off. The intestines, especially the colon, are chock full of nice, helpful bacteria. There are no helpful stomach bacteria, though, and it only has bacteria in it if it’s infected with something like H. pylori.
That mixture sounds like it would taste interesting but not do much else.
I may be wrong in my understanding. It may not be to restore the bacteria in my stomach, but in other parts of my digestion system. It’s doesn’t mention “stomach” on the bottle…that was something I think I heard from my girlfriend…though she may have said “intestines”. And she may or may not be correctly reciting what she heard.
If it were meant to restore good intestinal bacteria, it would probably be helpful to have some good intestinal bacteria in the mixture itself. You can accomplish the same thing for much cheaper by eating some yogurt.
Human nutrition in a nutshell—the adult human body requires the following chemical compounds for optimal functioning: glucose, amino acids, arachidonic acid, 13 vitamins, about 15 - 20 elemental minerals, and water. Once these requirements are met, any other claim made by the marketer of a foodstuff regarding their food’s ability to promote homeostasis is mostly pure unmitigated folderol. For this reason, the marketers of these foods are forced to make abundant specious claims concerning the supposed health benefits of their products, very few of which could withstand more than 10 minutes of intense scrutiny from an intelligent Google-wielding 12 year old. 20 or 30 years ago, the primary claim to divinity made by these purveyors is that their products contained ‘natural’ vitamins, which conferred health benefits not obtainable from ‘synthetic’ vitamins. This particular brand of nonsense was known to 20th century chemists as ‘vitalism’, and was disproven in 1898 when Emil Fisher synthesized uric acid. This particular brand of lunacy fell by the wayside a decade or so ago, and now the current claim to superiority made by the distributors of concentrated vegetable and fruit extracts is that they contain ‘powerful antioxidants’. ( I will pause for a moment while you all swoon at the sheer magnitude of this suppositious catch phrase). While this is unquestionably true, you have to bear in mind that all chlorophyll containing plants are sources of ‘powerful antioxidants’. IANAPhytochemist, but from what I understand, the process of photosynthesis itself generates an unpaired electron which is transferred to a molecule of singlet oxygen to form a reactive oxygen species. (I’m barely treading water here, so if somebody more knowledgeable will please gleefully bash me over the head with a 2 X 4 and put me out of my misery, I would be much obliged). All plants have to produce ‘powerful antioxidants’ to protect themselves from their own metabolic processes, lest they immediately shrivel up and fry to a crisp. My advice to you and to everybody else who buys this stuff is to just save your money and eat a big helping of dark green vegetables every day. There are very sound biochemical reasons for doing this. There are essentially none for swallowing spirulina pills. I wish I had time right now to put together a really nifty presentation on the subject—I regret that I can’t. But I’ll try to put together a short resource list of reliable sources of information if anybody wants to delve into this further.
As for the ‘beneficial bacteria’ angle, what everybody has already said concerning yogurt is true. Yogurt is also cheap, tasty, and can be incorporated into the cooking process when making Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine if you have some you need to use up.
I’ve been unable thus far to find a source of information that is not associated with someone hawking these greens. I’m hoping for some unbiased information, perhaps from a medical website, or at least from a debunking website so that I can see what they have to say. Anyone know of any such resources?
Start here and just browse around in topics that are related to your particular interest, such as columns which address the Juice+ product. I’ll see if I can dredge up something more specific to your question.
I work for a large nutional supplement company and every day I’m there I’m more convinced that pretty much everything we produce (including, perhaps, the vitamins) are bunk.
I suggest following a Common Sense Diet (or what I like to call the Mom Diet because it’s basically what most parents teach their kids to do):
*Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables
*Dairy products such as cheese or yogurt
*Multi-grain breads
*Occaional protein
*And the rare “cheat” snack, but it has to be healthy in some way
Avoid overly processed food (especially canned stuff) whever possible, excersize regularly (I heartily suggest Dance Dance Revolution - it has levels going from a light walk to a full-on aerobic exercise), don’t stay up too late, etc.
A recent article in CR made it clear that adding Probiotics (aka “A natural concentrated source of live, active friendly bacteria” including “Lactobacillus Acidophilus” and it’s friends).to your diet will help with many things- including digestive problems. So, yes, Probiotics will help. A good yogurt (as yBeayf and Washoe will likely do just as good of a job, and maybe cheaper. BUT- if you hate yogurt but don’t mind pills or supplements; then fine, take a supplement.
You likely don’t get enough fiber (of the several sorts) in your diet either. The “Blueberry Greens Force” seems like it will supply that. I am not sure if you get all your vitamins- thus such a supplement will likely help too. OTOH, eating several daily servings of “greens” would be cheaper and maybe better for both.
In other words- the stuff will likely help. You could do as well and cheaper by eating “right”, however. But- face it- for many of us, it’s easier to not try and ‘eat right’ and instead chug some supplements once or twice a day. If that’s you- go for it. Besides, it’ll make your GF happy, and that is not a thing to take lightly.
I more of less agree- here’s how I’d modify that:
*Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables Dairy products- including Live culture *yogurt
*Multi-grain breads- make sure they have plenty of fiber!
*Occaional protein- *cheese, and maybe 3oz or so of lean red meat.
*
