Years in the past, I had a roommate who labored out on daily basis and would additionally eat Dionysian quantities of Entenmann’s cake. My form of man. We bought alongside, partially, due to a shared conviction that the pursuit of bodily health didn’t preclude placing away huge portions of processed sugar. To not brag, however in my prime I may eat a complete household dimension bundle of Chips Ahoy as a post-run snack. The glories of youth.
However you become older and, you’d wish to suppose, wiser. After I lately noticed my former roommate, he talked about that he’d began taking the favored every day complement powder AG1 as a type of dietary insurance coverage. He isn’t alone; the model was valued at $1.2 billion in 2022 and has been dubbed a “unicorn” in an overcrowded complement market.
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A part of this success may be attributed to seductive messaging: the AG1 web site tells us that it’s a “science-driven complement that helps bodily well being and psychological efficiency” and is “designed to interchange a number of dietary supplements by offering a complete mix of vitamins in a single tasty scoop every day.” That tasty scoop consists of 12 grams of greens powder, which are supposed to be blended with 8 ounces of water and consumed every day. Its purported advantages embrace elevated vitality, immunity protection, and improved intestine well being.
An optimized dietary enhance in an simply administered dose. For sure, we’ve heard comparable guarantees earlier than. However such miracle elixirs make us ever-keen to ask the query: Might or not it’s true this time?
What Is AG1?
Previously referred to as “Athletic Greens,” AG1 is likely one of the extra outstanding examples of the latest powdered greens craze. The model was based in 2010 by Chris Ashenden, an entrepreneur, athlete, and health fanatic from New Zealand.
Earlier this yr, AG1 introduced that Kat Cole, a former COO and president on the franchise restaurant group Focus Manufacturers (now named GoTo Meals), could be succeeding Ashenden as the corporate’s CEO, although Ashenden will stay on the board of administrators.
In line with the AG1 web site, the complement is for anybody “who needs to make sure their dietary wants are met every day” in an “obsessively curated product” that incorporates multivitamins and multiminerals, pre- and probiotics, antioxidants, and buzzy “superfoods” whose supposed well being advantages are touted by the model. Different elements embrace: rose hip fruit powder (“a supply of phytonutrients which can be foundational for the physique”), dandelion root (“identified to assist soothe the abdomen and assist digestive enzyme secretion”), and slippery elm bark powder (“identified to assuage the intestine lining”).
Obsessive curation doesn’t come low cost; a month-to-month provide of AG1 will set you again $79. By comparability, a month’s value of Greens and Superfoods from Bloom Vitamin prices about $35. However AG1 has a novel set of elements and a rigorously crafted picture of exclusivity, positioning itself because the Cadillac of the complement world.
It’s actually true that no different greens powder firm has AG1’s celeb firepower. The model has been endorsed by athletes like Olympic runner Allyson Felix and Method One driver Lewis Hamilton, in addition to an infinite roster of wellness and health influencers. Hamilton has invested within the firm, as have Hugh Jackman and Cindy Crawford. Alex Honnold, who additionally holds a minority stake, is one other AG1 fan. In an e mail, the Free Solo star advised me that whereas it was arduous to place his finger on what precisely he liked concerning the product, he nonetheless regarded it as “a part of a wholesome morning routine.”
“It helps me really feel usually effectively—sick much less typically, fewer abdomen points, and many others.,” Honnold stated.
Like many manufacturers, AG1 has an internet affiliate marketing program, partnership alternatives for content material creators, in addition to the tried-and-true low cost for subscribers who get their associates to enroll. In line with its web site, the corporate pays out a 15-percent fee on subscription gross sales by referral.
The corporate has additionally been good about partnering with a number of the largest names on the self-optimization podcast scene, together with Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan, Wealthy Roll, and Andrew Huberman. Though the Huberman Lab didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the character of its partnership with AG1, the podcast’s sponsorship web page notes that they “solely work with manufacturers whose merchandise we personally use and love.”
Do We Want Multivitamins and Greens Powders within the First Place?
On AG1’s web site, underneath a subheading that asks “What merchandise does AG1 exchange?” I discovered the next: “One every day serving of AG1 eliminates the necessity for different dietary supplements resembling a multivitamin, probiotics, greens, and superfood powders, vitamin B complicated, and vitamin C tablets.” The product, we study, “helps mind, intestine, and immune well being.” A single-arm research (which suggests a research with no management group) with 35 individuals funded by AG1 discovered that the majority customers felt “extra calm” and that their “digestion improved” after three months of utilizing the product.
After all, elevated calmness and improved digestion are quite imprecise and subjective metrics by which to proclaim efficacy. Purveyors of dietary dietary supplements should watch out about any purported well being claims, lest they find yourself being categorized as a drug—at which level they might must be vetted by the FDA. (On the AG1 web site, there’s an asterisk connected to just about all the alleged advantages of its elements to tell us that “these statements haven’t been evaluated by the Meals and Drug Administration” and that “this product isn’t supposed to diagnose, deal with, remedy, or forestall any illness.”)
Working example: in 2023 the advertising and manufacturing corporations behind dietary complement Stability of Nature needed to quickly pause operations following an FDA letter warning that the corporate was not in compliance with federal laws as a result of its well being claims technically made it a “new drug” that required FDA approval. In a separate case earlier that yr, Stability of Nature needed to pay a $1.1 million settlement as a part of a shopper safety lawsuit in California that took the model to activity for alleging it may assist deal with or forestall critical ailments like most cancers, coronary heart illness, and diabetes.
As Exterior has coated previously, many outstanding voices within the medical group don’t suppose every day multivitamins are mandatory. David Seres, a professor of medication on the Institute of Human Vitamin at Columbia College Medical Heart, has lengthy beat the drum for us to take a extra skeptical stance towards multivitamins and the broader complement market. Seres advised me that AG1 was one other instance of what was primarily a “freeze-dried salad of unique vegetables and fruit.”
Seres was adamant that, until one has a identified deficiency of a specific vitamin or mineral, multivitamins don’t have any confirmed profit. He additionally suggested towards taking every day multivitamins as a preemptive measure. “To my data, there isn’t a top quality proof of any well being profit from multivitamin supplementation within the common inhabitants,” Seres advised me. “And there’s proof that there’s potential for hurt.”
Seres referred me to a 2022 meta-analysis within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation (JAMA), which pooled 84 separate research to conclude that vitamin and mineral supplementation was related to “little to no profit” in stopping most cancers and heart problems. (AG1 was not part of this evaluation.) As for the what’s-the-harm-in-taking-a-supplement-anyway method, Seres cited a 2011 research of males within the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico that appeared to hyperlink an elevated threat of prostate most cancers with vitamin E supplementation.
After I ran this summation by a spokesperson at AG1, she supplied the next assertion: “Every of the elements in AG1 is backed by peer-reviewed literature. Our group of scientists and researchers have reviewed 1000’s of research as a part of the formulation and steady enchancment course of for AG1.”
It ought to be famous that the tutorial group isn’t unanimously towards multivitamin use. A latest research by college scientists, as an example, discovered that multivitamins would possibly assist counteract cognitive decline in older adults.
Neither is everybody as dismissive of greens powders as Seres. Emily Prpa, a registered nutritionist within the UK, advised me that for some teams—like first-year school youngsters with “very beige” diets of processed meals—the multivitamin-as-insurance method in all probability does make some sense. As for the potential of doing hurt by a possible vitamin overdose, Prpa advised me that, usually, the physique was superb at dealing with extra vitamins.
Nevertheless, Prpa careworn that her method was “meals first” and that individuals can “meet their vitamin and nutrient wants by a well-balanced eating regimen.” She steered that the “pure” approach of getting one’s vitamins was preferable anyway, since sure fat-soluble nutritional vitamins (like vitamin A) are extra successfully absorbed with meals.
Prpa additionally defined that giant doses of 1 mineral would possibly get in the best way of your physique absorbing different micronutrients ingested on the similar time—an idea referred to as aggressive absorption. “With a few of these proprietary blends the place they’re simply mixing a whole lot of issues collectively, that’s probably a crimson flag,” Prpa stated. “Are you truly getting all of these nutritional vitamins and minerals that they are saying you’re gonna get from one scoop? It’s unlikely.”
The Analysis Behind AG1
An organization spokesperson for AG1 despatched me the next assertion: “We’ve got labored with third-party consultants to conduct research and analysis to additional validate the advantages of AG1 as a complete, past the analysis and research for elements. These are printed on drinkag1.com and peer-reviewed scientific journals, and present important proof of the efficacy of AG1.”
There’s a piece on the corporate’s web site labeled “Analysis,” which lists peer-reviewed research, albeit ones which can be funded by AG1 and largely co-authored by AG1 workers. In line with the AG1 spokesperson: “As is customary for the trade, the research on AG1 are funded by the corporate and carried out by unbiased third-party consultants and labs. These research are along with a large physique of third-party literature to assist efficacy and security of the elements in AG1.”
It’s value noting that the majority of those research investigated the product’s potential useful influence on the gastrointestinal tract utilizing a simulator that “mimics the physiological and organic circumstances discovered within the human intestine” and weren’t carried out on precise people. There’s nothing unsuitable with that—in vitro research are safer and fewer invasive—however because the authors of the research themselves level out, additional investigations are wanted to confirm the product’s precise well being advantages for people in a medical setting. The decision, in different phrases, continues to be out.
The corporate’s web site additionally mentions a medical trial on human topics that concerned a double-blind trial with 30 individuals by which wholesome adults got both AG1 or a placebo for one month. (The research was simply printed within the Journal of the Worldwide Society of Sports activities Vitamin in October.) Subsequent stool samples purportedly revealed that AG1 enriched the microbiome by “greater than doubling the degrees of wholesome micro organism identified to bolster digestion.”
The wholesome micro organism in query seem like Lactobacillus acidophilus UALa-01 and Bifidobacterium bifidum UABb-10, that are each listed on AG1’s elements record. Nevertheless, whereas L. acidophilus and B. bifidum are a number of the higher identified species of probiotics, there isn’t a lot proof that the precise AG1 strains have any well being advantages.
The one research that comes up once you search for Lactobacillus acidophilus UALa-01 within the Nationwide Library of Medication’s database, PubMed.com, is a 12-week managed trial on the results of the probiotic on bone mineral density and calcium ranges in postmenopausal girls. The conclusion of the research notes that: “The consumption of L. acidophilus probiotics every day for 12 weeks amongst postmenopausal girls doesn’t have an effect on the profile of BMD, however it might assist in stabilizing bone turnover . . . Nevertheless, it’s value noting that three months of probiotic supplementation may probably disrupt calcium and glucose standing in postmenopausal girls.”
After I requested AG1 why they selected these particular strains of micro organism regardless of a relative lack of printed analysis on them, an organization spokesperson replied: “The probiotics in AG1, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum, are effectively researched and chosen for his or her security profile throughout a wide range of populations.”
Professor Gregor Reid, a distinguished professor emeritus at Canada’s Western College and creator of the 2023 e-book Probiotics: A Story About Hope, advised me that “persons are getting kind of carried away with the concept that all the pieces that’s Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium is a probiotic and that’s not the case.”
“For the patron, it’s a disgrace as a result of they appear to suppose that each one probiotics are the identical and due to this fact, if you happen to’re taking a probiotic, it should be good,” he stated. “However until there’s medical information to assist it then you definitely actually don’t know what it’s doing.”
Reid is on the scientific board of the probiotic complement firm Seed, and is perhaps incentivized to be crucial of a rival model’s product. Nevertheless, Reid was adamant that he’s not claiming that AG1 is a foul product, however that the onus is on a probiotics firm to show the dietary worth of its particular strains. As he places it, “The query is the place’s the medical information displaying these two strains have a probiotic impact and what’s the impact?”
As a sensible useful resource for individuals who need to do their very own analysis, Reid recommends a information to probiotic merchandise—a reasonably expansive listing of merchandise that lists probiotic strains and functions, in addition to related research, which is put collectively by the Alliance for Schooling on Probiotics. Lest he be accused of bias, Reid identified that neither AG1 nor Seed are listed on the positioning.
So What’s the Takeaway?
Do you have to take AG1? The tacit promise of a product the place each ingredient is “backed by peer-reviewed literature” is {that a} proprietary mix of these elements will confer an optimized synthesis of each alleged profit and minimal unwanted side effects. At current, there have been no unbiased research that confirm that AG1 does this.
However it’s additionally not arduous to seek out individuals who, like Honnold, imagine that their every day greens powder repair does have some constructive impact. Whether or not that perceived enchancment is a consequence of AG1’s method, or as a result of investing $79 per 30 days in a stylish wellness product makes you extra more likely to take possession of your well being in different methods, stays up for debate. However to paraphrase the phrases of greens powder skeptics, why not simply eat a couple of extra rattling greens?
Certainly, often when articles come out questioning the claims of some new superfood-laden wunderproduct, they are going to conclude with a reminder that there isn’t a method to outhack the standard nutritious diet. (AG1 doesn’t declare that its product eliminates the necessity for wholesome consuming.) It’s all the time so disappointing. As a result of who doesn’t need to dwell in a world the place the antagonistic results of final evening’s boozy bacchanalia may be neutralized with an ashwagandha root smoothie?
Our collective need for the dietary panacea comes at a second when mistrust towards consultants is perhaps at an all-time excessive. In line with Seres, a part of the rationale why so many individuals choose to hearken to influencer well being gurus quite than scientists is that the latter group typically hasn’t completed an excellent job in speaking dietary recommendation to most of the people. (AG1’s web site notes that the corporate has an “in-house group of docs, scientists, and researchers.”) The result’s a certain quantity of cynicism; Seres stated the primary query he hears when new pointers are introduced is, “OK, are eggs in or out this time?”
“Individuals observe the suggestions of scientists and dietary pointers for the three most essential causes potential: they need to dwell longer; they need to dwell more healthy; they usually need to be happier,” Seres stated. “Once we change our minds as scientists—which we don’t do frivolously however based mostly on new proof—we have to do a greater job of explaining why, in order that persons are truly prepared to hearken to us.”
If Seres has any phrases of consolation for individuals who could also be dismayed that we will’t cancel out our meals vices with a greens powder complement, it’s that we must always regard good diet as a utopia, quite than one thing we have to beat ourselves up for not reaching.
As he places it: “Taking pictures for the perfect eating regimen is the purpose; reaching it isn’t.”
