What is Athletic Greens | Benefits of Athletic Greens | potential drawbacks of Athletic Greens | Will Athletic Greens break my intermittent fast | When should I take Athletic Greens
Whether you are just starting out with intermittent fasting or have been practicing for a while, you know how important sticking with your eating window and fasting window can be.
One category in particular that leaves many confused as to whether it will break a fast or not are vitamins and dietary supplements (especially green supplements!). Vitamins and dietary supplements can come in many forms such as pills or powders. Often used for their health benefits, dietary supplements can be used as part of an intermittent fasting routine.
With celebrities such as Joe Rogan promoting Athletic Greens (AG1), it’s no wonder it has climbed to the top as a popular dietary supplement. One serving of Athletic Greens contains a complex blend of vitamins, minerals, and probiotics.
Think of it as an upgraded multivitamin that provides a dose of lean greens and better taste. But, is this all-in-one greens supplement all that it claims? And, will drinking Athletic Greens break your intermittent fast?
Will Athletic Greens break my intermittent fast?
While there is no exact rule as to what will or will not break a fast, something is generally considered to break a fast if it contains a significant amount of calories or carbohydrates. With 6 grams of carbohydrates (4 grams net carbohydrates) and 50 calories, Athletic Greens will technically break your fast.
As mentioned before, dietary supplements like multivitamins can be a gray area when it comes to whether or not it will break your fast. During your fasting period, you want your insulin levels to be low so that your body can burn more fat stores.
Fasting causes insulin levels to decrease, so anything that causes insulin levels to rise can technically break a fast. Most of the time, insulin levels will only rise as a response to carbohydrate intake.
The greater the carbohydrate content (like items with added sugar), the more likely it will raise insulin levels more quickly and result in breaking your fasting period.
It’s always important to look at the Nutrition Facts label of a food item or dietary product for its nutritional values. Here you can find information like carbohydrate content as well as added sugars and total calories. This will help you to determine for yourself if something will break your fast.
There are plenty of multivitamins on the market that contain an insignificant amount of carbohydrates and calories, which would likely not break your fast. For more on which vitamins will break a fast, check out this article.
What is Athletic Greens (AG1)?
Boasting over 75 vitamins from whole food-sourced ingredients in a single serving, Athletic Greens is advertised as a comprehensive nutrition supplement that promotes gut health, increases energy levels, and supports your immune system.
Athletic Greens is a global health company that has worked to provide a convenient superfood supplement to the health and wellness market. According to their website, the Athletic Greens supplement can be used to fill nutrient gaps by providing essential nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin A, vitamin C, and B12 to name a few.
Marketed as a convenient way to boost nutrition, one scoop of the AG1 green powder can be combined with 8 oz of water and consumed once daily. It can also be added to smoothies or your preferred milk of choice. The directions state that Athletic Greens should be consumed before breakfast or on an empty stomach.
While anyone can use AG1, this green juice is often used by athletes to optimize athletic performance. It’s also compatible with a variety of diets such as keto, vegetarian, vegan, Whole30, and low carb. Athletic Greens is a low allergen supplement including gluten free, soy free, dairy free, and no corn, eggs, or animal byproducts.
What are the benefits of Athletic Greens?
One of the primary benefits of Athletic Greens is it’s an easy and convenient way to add essential nutrients as part of a healthy lifestyle. Unlike other greens powders, which often use a single ingredient (like green tea extract or leafy greens) as a primary ingredient, AG1 provides a wide variety of vitamins and minerals as well as probiotics and other ingredients to support digestive enzymes. It can easily be incorporated into your daily habits as it’s recommended to drink AG1 first thing in the morning.
With only 50 calories per serving, Athletic Greens contains fewer calories than some other supplement shakes currently on the market. It’s also a lower calorie alternative to eating the whole foods that contain each of the vitamins and minerals in an AG1 drink. This can make Athletic Greens an appealing supplement choice for those trying to limit calories to avoid weight gain or achieve a weight loss goal.
If you are looking to add a vitamin supplement to your intermittent fasting protocol, Athletic Greens can be a good option as it is low sugar and includes whole food-sourced ingredients. While it’s best to eat essential vitamins and minerals through whole foods found in a healthy diet, sometimes it can be difficult to get everything we need through food alone.
This can be especially true while intermittent fasting since you have to fit all of your calories into your eating window, which is usually a shorter amount of time when compared to a normal diet. Although a vitamin supplement isn’t necessary for most people while intermittent fasting, if you are worried that you are missing essential nutrients in your diet, a supplement will provide a safety net to protect against nutrient deficiencies.
It is important to note that Athletic Greens does not have vitamin D or iron listed on the package. There are essential nutrients that the body needs to function and users of Athletic Greens would need to ensure they are getting these nutrients from foods or other supplements.
Even though AG1 can fit into an intermittent fasting routine, the question at hand is still, Will Athletic Greens break my intermittent fast? Keep reading below to find out!
What are potential drawbacks of Athletic Greens?
Now that we know a few benefits of taking the Athletic Greens supplement drink, let’s talk about a few potential drawbacks.
Cost
There are many different dietary supplements on the market these days and some are more cost effective than others. Athletic Greens doesn’t fall on the budget-friendly side.
A package of Athletic Greens costs over one hundred dollars and this is just for a 30-day supply. This could quickly add up if used everyday for several months or a year.
Not FDA approved
Athletic Greens is classified as a dietary supplement, which the FDA does not regulate. The FDA doesn’t check up on whether the ingredients listed in a dietary supplement are what is actually in the product.
This can mean that any one of the super green drinks on the market may not actually contain any greens at all. However, since Athletic Greens is manufactured in New Zealand, it is made in a TGA-registered facility.
This means that there is some regulation as to what goes into their product. They are also NSF Certified for Sport.
Not a meal replacement
While all of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and probiotics that are included in Athletic Greens can be part of a healthy diet, it shouldn’t be used as a meal replacement.
Many who are trying to lose weight will turn to different super green drinks or a green juice as an alternative to breakfast. But, with only 50 calories and 3 grams of protein per serving, this wouldn’t qualify as a good meal replacement.
A protein shake with at least 250 calories or more would be a better option for someone looking for a meal replacement drink.
Side effects
There have been some reviews of users experiencing negative side effects after taking Athletic Greens such as bloating, stomach upset, or diarrhea.
Certain probiotics or prebiotics (like inulin) that are found in Athletic Greens have been known to cause these side effects in certain people.
When should I take Athletic Greens?
The directions provided on the package state that users should take Athletic Greens first thing in the morning and on an empty stomach.
So, if you are intermittent fasting, you would want to take Athletic Greens as the first food or drink of your eating window. Afterwards, you could resume with your normal meal that you would typically break your fast with.
Conclusion – Will Athletic Greens Break My Intermittent Fast?
My wife and I use athletic greens, its is actually our preferred “multi-vitamin”. It can be pricey, but buying all of those supplement bottles, filling up your cabinet, that can add up quite a bit more from my experience. AG1 is an all-in-one solution to this issue.
Since Athletic Greens do contain a significant amount of calories and carbohydrates, it will break your intermittent fast.
However, for those looking to add a dietary supplement to their healthy lifestyle, Athletic Greens can be a convenient option. With over 75 vitamins and minerals, as well as probiotics to support your digestive system, it is one of the most comprehensive, whole food-sourced ingredient supplements on the market today.
There are also Athletic Greens alternatives with similar ingredients out there. In most cases these will also break a fast as well, fyi.
Even though Athletic Greens may not be suitable for everyone, it can be a good option for those looking to fill nutrient gaps or add to a healthy diet while intermittent fasting.
