Whenever we seek to improve our health, we are likely to seek a product known for bolstering our mental and physical condition. Sadly, we live in an era where chemical supplements are more common than natural ones. Fortunately, natural supplements are starting to catch up with more options becoming available as time goes on.
These supplements, while healthy, are still subject to metabolic limitations that could limit their effectiveness in some individuals. Some natural supplements are more popular than others due to these metabolic limits, though you can sometimes improve your absorption rate with little work. One such supplement is green powder, which is growing in popularity with natural supplement enthusiasts.
However, green powder is still unknown to many worldwide who are only beginning the journey to a natural supplement. Understanding the limitations of nutritional and health supplements like green powder can dictate how you use them. The last thing anyone wants is to invest in a product only to discover it does not work and is a waste of funds and time. This makes learning everything about green powder extremely important to ensure you can live the healthiest version of your life. This article will provide insight into how much green powder our bodies absorb, along with some other key details.
What is Green Powder?
Before you can evaluate the effectiveness of a supplement like green powder, it is important to know what it is. Green powder, also known as "greens powder," is a dietary supplement that is meant to provide some assistance in helping you reach your daily intake of nutrients and vitamins. Green powder usually takes vegetable matter to provide these nutrients, making green powder one of the healthiest supplements available in modern nutrition.
Green powder tends to be made from:
- Leafy Greens: These include vegetables such as spinach, kale, parsley, and collards.
- Fruits: These include fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, goji, and acai berries.
- Herbs: These include herbs such as basil, astragalus, echinacea, and milk thistle.
- Seaweed: These include seaweed species such as spirulina, chlorella, dulse, and kelp.
- Grasses: These include grasses such as wheatgrass, oat grass, and alfalfa grass.
- Probiotics: These include probiotics such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium lactis.
- Nutritional Extracts: These include extracts from green tea, grape seeds, and ginkgo biloba.
While each possible ingredient is extremely healthy when consumed independently, the best will be organic. The more natural the ingredients are, the better the green powder will be for your health. The powders are also usually made to be aligned with vegan dietary preferences, so there is no remorse for vegans looking to use green powder to improve their health. However, you might be curious about what makes these green powders so useful. After all, there is little point in purchasing and consuming a supplement that offers no benefit to your health.
What are the Benefits of Green Powder?
While green powder is certainly becoming more popular with health enthusiasts, there is still some question as to why. Green powder might seem like little more than a powder made from crushed vegetable matter, but it offers an assortment of nutritional and health benefits that might be important to you. Awareness of what a nutritional supplement offers greatly affects whether you should invest in it. One of the biggest advantages offered by green powder that puts it in the column of things to try is its antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects.
The ingredients that are used to create green powder are usually packed with antioxidants, and some have anti-inflammatory effects of their own. These effects have turned green powder into an effective tool for combatting chronic conditions or diseases that might impact your life. The use of green powder in countering these conditions has been tested since the product became prominent in the health world. Researchers tested the antioxidative effects of green powder in a 4-week study.
The study took 10 otherwise healthy subjects, and the research staff provided each of them with a 10 g serving of green powder. At the end of the 4 weeks, the patients showed decreased levels of proteins damaged by oxidation. The green powder reduced the concentration of these damaged proteins in the bloodstream by 30%. A testament to the antioxidative effects green powder has to offer. The decrease of these damaged proteins plays a significant role in preventing long-term diseases like cancer.
A second 90-day study examined a group of 40 subjects suffering from elevated blood pressure. These 40 subjects were separated into a control group and a test group, with the latter receiving a 10 g serving of green powder daily. The test group showed an 8% drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Conversely, the control group showed no improvement.
However, green powder's antioxidative and anti-inflammatory benefits are not the only important benefits. Green powder is also highly nutritious and can be used to increase your overall energy levels. Some powders can also be used to improve alertness, making them a useful alternative to excess caffeine intake. Other facilities studied this effect of green powder as well.
A 3-month study took 63 healthy women and, like the previous study, separated them into test and control groups. The test group was given a 10 g dose of green powder that contained green tea extract, while the control group received a placebo. The subjects in the test group saw a beneficial increase in energy compared to the stagnating energy levels of the control group.
The consumption of green powder affords other benefits. However, these effects have led to its rise in popularity amongst health enthusiasts. The consumption of green powder can help you feel more energized and alert while protecting you from chronic conditions. However, there remains the concern of the metabolic issues we mentioned previously. The supplement is useless if you cannot absorb the green powder.
How Much Green Powder Do We Absorb?
Whenever we consume a supplement like green powder, our metabolism plays a huge role in processing it. Some products are not as easily absorbed as others, and our metabolisms tend to operate on a first-pass system. This system determines the amount of green powder our bodies can absorb based on its bioavailability.
Bioavailability is the proportion of a drug, supplement, or other compounds that our bodies can put into circulation. Unfortunately, some substances have low bioavailability despite being beneficial. Fortunately, it does not seem as though green powder suffers from low bioavailability.
Green powder is made from powdered fruits and vegetables that are highly bioavailable and will not be difficult to absorb. Researchers even evaluated the bioavailability of green powder with a series of studies using powders based on certain fruits and vegetables. When the studies concluded, the subjects consuming the green powder saw increased levels of:
- Carotenoids: A pigment found in plants that are known to improve eye health, cardiovascular health, and protect against free radicals and carcinogens.
- Lutein: A carotenoid subtype that is known to improve eye health.
- Lycopene: An antioxidant from the carotenoid family that promotes cardiovascular health, protects against certain cancers, and offers pain relief.
- Folate: A vitamin known to offer neurological and psychological health benefits.
- Vitamin C: An essential vitamin that protects against chronic disease, improves cardiovascular health, and boosts your immune system.
- Vitamin E: A vitamin that protects against oxidative stress and improves cardiovascular health.
These compounds are extremely beneficial in improving our overall health. They are also fairly easy for our bodies to absorb due to high bioavailability. Green powders also benefit from providing probiotics that are known to aid digestive enzymes in the human body. By bolstering these enzymes, our body's ability to digest and absorb certain compounds that it might otherwise struggle to process is increased. By combining the probiotic effects of green powder with the natural bioavailability found in green powders, we can absorb most of the powder and enjoy its effects.
Unfortunately, this is essentially the full extent of our understanding of green powder bioavailability. The research surrounding the supplement is still fairly new and needs supplementary studies. However, early research indicates that green powder is easy to absorb and can be enjoyed without much trouble. Knowing what green powder does and what it takes to absorb it does not complete the list of important topics. There are still a few details to consider when using green powder as a nutritional supplement.
Risks of Green Powder Use
Whenever we introduce a new substance to our diet, whether natural or not, we need to consider the potential health risks involved. While natural supplements are less likely to yield significant side effects than their pharmaceutical counterparts, it is still important to be aware of the risks. Green powder is derived from fruits and vegetables that need to be grown and harvested by farms before they can be made available for refinement. Unfortunately, growing produce is not the easiest since poor environments can render produce unfit for consumption.
If the produce is not fit for consumption when refined into green powder, the toxins in the produce will be transferred to the green powder. The main concern is heavy metal poisoning due to metal-rich soil. If produce is grown in soil with lead or other heavy metals, the metals can bleed into the produce and later hitch a ride through the conversion process to green powder. If you consume a product that has been contaminated with heavy metals, you could suffer decreased energy levels and organ damage.
Fortunately, you can avoid heavy metal poisoning from green powder by purchasing your product from a reputable vendor. However, no matter how reputable the vendor is, you still need to account for risks inherent to the green powder. Specifically, you might be taking negative interactions with prescription medication for an unrelated condition. The negative interactions associated with green powder are minimal but need to be considered either way.
Green powder can cause an adverse reaction if you take antibiotics, cholesterol medication, or weight-loss drugs. It can also cause poor reactions in people taking anticoagulants and might require you to increase your vitamin K intake to compensate. Additionally, you might have an allergy to one or more of the powder's ingredients, making its use problematic. Some ingredients, such as green tea extract and wheatgrass, can cause an allergic reaction that results in nausea and headache when consumed.
Because the risks of green powder are rare with minimal effect, they should not prevent you from looking into the product. However, you should consult your primary care physician before committing to a new supplement to ensure there is no risk. If you are cleared to use green powder as a supplement, your only remaining concern is where to find a reputable vendor from whom you can purchase some.
Keep it All Natural!
Green powder is a supplement that has risen to great heights since its inception and is becoming a well-known addition to many diets. However, the lack of information surrounding the absorption rate of green powder can be disheartening.
Fortunately, this is not an issue, and you can pursue its use without much trouble. While there are still a few concerns when using green powder, the only real challenge is finding a vendor to provide you with a quality supplement that is made as safely and naturally as possible.
Fortunately, we at Bella All Natural can offer a solution to this very concern. We offer an assortment of natural supplements designed to improve the health and beauty of our customers. Among our products is our Super Greens green powder you can use to reap the benefits discussed here and then some. We believe that the best way to address an issue is to find the most natural solution possible. With our products, you can do just that without any sense of remorse. But there is no need to take our word for it when you can visit our website today and try a jar of our green powder for yourself. As always, just remember to keep it All Natural!
