Greens: Eating More Vegetables, and Where a Greens Powder Fits
The Eatwell Guide recommends at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. It is a combined figure, which is where it gets slippery — four portions of fruit and one of vegetables technically counts.
Fruit is a whole food with fibre, vitamins and minerals, but it carries considerably more sugar than vegetables. The Mediterranean pattern of eating, by contrast, is built on 7–10 servings a day with the emphasis firmly on seasonal vegetables.
That gap — between what counts and what most of us actually eat — is where a greens powder is genuinely useful, and where it is genuinely oversold. Worth being clear about both.
What Beyond Greens is entitled to say
Beyond Greens delivers seven declared nutrients. Per 8g serving:
- High in vitamin K — 67µg, 90% of the reference intake
- High in chromium — 45µg, 112% of the reference intake
- High in vitamin B12 — 1µg, 39%
- Source of iron — 2.4mg, 18%
- Source of iodine — 26.3µg, 18%
- Source of molybdenum — 10µg, 21%
- High in fibre
The chromium figure is the one that usually surprises people: at 112% RI it is the highest nutrient in the product, higher even than the vitamin K.
Which means these statements are authorised, and we can make them:
- Iron and vitamin B12 contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and to the normal function of the immune system
- Iodine and vitamin B12 contribute to normal energy-yielding metabolism
- Vitamin K contributes to the maintenance of normal bones
- Iodine contributes to the maintenance of normal skin
- Chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels and to normal macronutrient metabolism
Please read this if you take an anticoagulant
Beyond Greens is high in vitamin K — 90% of the daily reference intake per serving.
Vitamin K directly affects how warfarin and other vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants work, and consistency of vitamin K intake is something people on those medicines manage with their clinician. If that is you, speak to your doctor or anticoagulation clinic before adding this or any greens powder. It is not a reason to avoid it — it is a reason to tell someone.
What is in the blend
Fermented grasses — barley, wheat, oat and alfalfa grass, with rye grass powder. Fermentation begins breaking down tough plant cell walls before the powder reaches you, using Lactobacillus plantarum and Saccharomyces boulardii cultures.
Green vegetables — broccoli and kale.
Algae and sea vegetables — chlorella, spirulina and dulse. The dulse is where much of the iodine originates.
Seed meal — flax, sunflower and sesame, which supply most of the fibre.
Botanicals — ginger root, cinnamon and liquorice root, with natural almond and vanilla flavourings.
Every plant ingredient is certified organic. Each 8g serving begins as 33g of fresh ingredients before fermenting and drying — roughly four times its weight in fresh plant material.
What a greens powder does not do
It does not replace vegetables, and we would not want it to. Whole vegetables bring bulk, water, texture and the simple business of chewing, none of which arrives in a scoop.
What it does is put a measured, declared set of nutrients into a glass on the days when the vegetables did not happen. Use it alongside the list below, not instead of it.
Ten ways to eat more vegetables
- Use cauliflower as mash, rice, or a pizza base
- Add a handful of raw spinach, chard or kale to a breakfast smoothie
- Add a scoop of Beyond Greens to a smoothie
- Steam a batch of carrot and sweet potato, cool it, freeze it, and add chunks to smoothies
- Put vegetables into frittatas and omelettes
- Make chocolate mousse with avocado
- Blend frozen banana with a splash of non-dairy milk for banana ice cream
- Swap pasta for spiralised courgette or squash
- Build a tomato sauce on finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, cooked low for an hour so they disappear into it
- Mash sweet potato instead of white
Variety matters as much as volume. Rotating through different vegetables, herbs, nuts and seeds gives you a wider range of nutrients than eating the same five things well. A trip to a market and whatever is in season is a better strategy than a list.
How to take Beyond Greens
Mix 8g — two teaspoons — into water, juice, a smoothie or food.
Start with less than a full serving. As with other high fibre products, initial use may cause bloating, gas or nausea in some people. Build up gradually and drink plenty of water.
Keep refrigerated after opening and use within 90 days.
Before you buy
Contains liquorice root — consult a healthcare professional if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have high blood pressure, or take medication. Contains iodine — speak to your clinician if you have a thyroid condition. Contains barley, wheat, oat and rye grasses, sesame and almond; may contain traces of mustard.
High in fibre, vitamin K, vitamin B12 and chromium. Source of iron, iodine and molybdenum. Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied, balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle.