We recently released our AlkaWay Greens. Erica, our inhouse naturopath was let loose on its formulation, and we are very, very, very happy with the result. She has her own special touch in the formula. She described to me the problem many concentrated greens powders have. You buy say, a 500g pack. But how much of it is actually digested and converted to health-supporting energy? Far less than you may think! So Erica asked me if she could add her own special natural herbs that enhance absorption.
What this means is that when you use Alkaway Greens you get far, far better absorption - and therefore value - than any other Greens Powder we've tested.
So just to see what she had to say, on the spur of the moment I bought a cheap pack of BioGreen Elixir, called AEQUI from Aldi.
It describes itself as:
Probiotics
Prebiotic Fibre
Source of Magnesium
and
The Perfect Complement to Your AlkaLizing Diet.b
Being a solid user of our Greens, I didnt open it, ut delivered it to Erica, saying here';s something you might like to look at.
And here's what she sent to me the next day..
Hi, Ian,
Below are my thoughts on the greens powder you brought in.
AEQUI powder
Ingredients are in descending order of the amount of each per serve.
1. Barley grass (10%)
2. Wheat grass (10%)
3. Pineapple (10%)
4. Apple
5. Flavours
6. Hemp protein
7. Minerals – calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, selenium (7%)
8. Lime
9. FOS
10. Inulin
11. Apple pectin
12. Sweeteners – xylitol, stevia
13. Lemon
14. Spinach
15. Kiwi fruit
16. Kale
17. Alfalfa
18. Green tea
19. Spirulina
20. Chlorella
21. Probiotics (1%)
22. Horsetail
23. Vitamin C
24. Biotin
So, the 5th most by weight is flavours – it doesn’t really matter what they have used as flavours, it means that somewhere between 7 & 10% of each serve is just flavouring.
The 12th is sweeteners – and we get told our powder is a bit sweet!
The blurb mentions key minerals, but not only are they added and not naturally occurring parts of the plants used, but they come in combined as the 7th biggest ingredient – and only 7% of a serve.
The ones underlined are ones that are common ones that people have sensitivities or allergens to.
Yes, it has probiotics, but not much. It has 1.1billion colony forming units. (I think colony forming units, or CFU is American. In Australia it’s usually just listed as live organisms.) The normal kids dose (depending on what you read) is 5 – 10bill cfu, and this has 1.1billion cfu.
So... only fractionally more than nothing. A good probiotic will have about 25 billion, and as part of a more complex formula, at least 5 billion..
I don’t know much about hemp protein so I just had a bit of a read in the research. Seems its similar to soy as a source of protein. But hemp is quite low in lysine, so not the best option for anyone who ever gets cold sores.
There you go. An expert opinion! Oils ain't oils.. and Greens ain't necessarily Greens!
Alkaway Greens can be found here.