I’m Breaking Up with Athletic Greens. Here Are the Alternatives I Like.

If you’re like me, you probably get five or six ads daily for Athletic Greens. Whether listening to YouTube videos or scrolling Instagram, it seems like I can’t go more than a few pieces of content without hearing the promise that I can clear out my medicine cabinet and replace my current vitamins and supplements with a single, tasty scoop of Athletic Greens. As someone who drank Athletic Greens daily for over two years and then decided to cancel his subscription, the ads are a bit wasted on me since I don’t plan on returning to Athletic Greens in the immediate future. Their AG1 product is just a rebranded version of their original greens drink product, and consolidating my vitamins and supplements into a single product doesn’t currently justify the price of an AG1 subscription.

Is Athletic Greens Actually Good?

One thing I want to be clear about is that Athletic Greens is a good product. It’s very high quality, and the nutrient density is ideal. The reasons I’m choosing not to go back to Athletic Greens have nothing to do with the quality of the AG1 product. Instead, I’ve moved on from Athletic Greens because:

1. Their price increase in 2020 made it unsustainable to continue repurchasing on a 30-day basis. I’m all about frugality and being conscious about my spending, and paying the equivalent of half of my car payment every 30 days for a greens supplement just added up a bit too much.
2. The flavor is a bit inconsistent and not great. Athletic Greens’ AG1 product doesn’t taste bad, per se, but it’s an acquired taste. Plus, I noticed that in the months leading up to the AG1 rebranding, the taste seemed to be fairly inconsistent. Some months the product had its usual earthy flavor; other months it was flavorless and sweeter than usual. I’ve consistently tested negative for COVID-19, so I can’t blame the virus-induced loss of taste as the culprit.
3. I’ve had negative experiences with their affiliate program. Despite sending thousands of visitors to their website each month and generating several thousand dollars in revenue for them, I couldn’t get my account manager to answer any of my emails and stopped getting paid the affiliate sales commissions I had earned. I’ll skip the nitty-gritty details, but to make a long story short, I was essentially told that because I’m not a professional athlete, they didn’t care how many sales I earned them or that I had missed out on $4,000 in ad revenue alone (roughly $6,500-$8,000 if I factored in lost affiliate commissions) in 2020. For me, after my disappointment in the wavering taste quality and price increase, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
4. Keeping your bag refrigerated and spacing out when you drink your greens while consuming your morning coffee was just a bit of a nuisance, especially while traveling.

What Are the Best Alternatives for Athletic Greens? It Depends On Your Goals.

If you don’t want to spend $100+ each month on Athletic Greens, you’re not out of luck! You can take great multipurpose supplements in Athletic Greens’ place– many of which are much more affordable. Deciding on the best alternative for you will depend upon your goals. Why are you wanting to take a supplement in the first place? No matter how high quality a product is, there’s no such thing as health in a bottle. Supplements are a way to fill nutritional gaps or give you a boost in specific nutrients for a specific outcome. Consider the following goals. Which one is the best fit for you and your nutritional goals?

I’m Comfortable Paying a Premium, But Only for An Exceptional Product

Athletic Greens are expensive, but when it comes to supplements, being expensive isn’t always a bad thing. If you’re comfortable with a higher price tag, what’s important is knowing that you’re getting exactly what you need. Speaking of getting precisely what you need, I recently tried Viome and have been blown away by the results. Viome is great for biohackers, health enthusiasts, and anyone looking to have their supplement regimen tailored to their individual needs. With Viome, you complete a healthy inventory and then ship off some biological samples for analysis. Viome then looks at your results and compiles custom supplements for your individual cellular and gut biome health needs. The supplements you receive are unique to you and nobody else. You end up paying as much as you would for Athletic Greens. Still, you get incredibly precise nutrition alongside recommendations about what foods your body is likely to respond to best. I have felt amazing since starting my Viome vitamin and probiotics routine. I’ve had steady energy, regular bowel movements, and a better mood.

Pros of Viome:

• Completely customized to you. The supplements you get are specifically yours and can be adapted over time as your needs do.
• You’re not just taking 300% of your daily recommended doses of trace vitamins and minerals arbitrarily.

Cons of Viome

• Viome can be pricey, but you get what you pay for. The personal health insights updated every 6-months are invaluable for biohacking and fine-tuning your nutritional plan.

Try Viome for Yourself Here.

I Want A Greens Supplement to Improve My Digestive Health

If you’re looking for a greens supplement that is ideal for digestive health, I would recommend Transparent Labs’ Prebiotic Greens. Transparent Labs’ Prebiotic Greens takes a two-pronged approach to support digestive health. First, it is rich in algae-based greens. Second, there’s a ton of prebiotic fiber. Together, as their website puts it, these two ingredients optimize “your often-overlooked microbiome and consequently [affects] all aspects of digestion and wellbeing.” It comes in an unflavored version, which does have a natural, somewhat earthy (but not overpowering) flavor from the algae-based greens. There’s also a peach mango flavor if you prefer stirring a spoonful into a cup of water and enjoying it that way. Best of all, a 30-day serving will only cost you $39.99 USD. That means you could get 2.5 tubs of Transparent Labs Prebiotic Greens for the cost of one 30-day bag of AG1.

Pros of Transparent Labs Prebiotic Greens

• Great for digestive health– the algae and dietary fiber will contribute to bowel movement regularity, digestive efficiency, and reduced gas and bloating for most individuals.
• Very affordable. $40 per month comes out to roughly $1.33 USD per serving.

Cons of Transparent Labs Prebiotic Greens

• If you’re looking for a product with all-around nutrient density, this may not be ideal. While it does contain decent amounts of protein, iron, calcium, and potassium, if you’re looking for other core vitamins that you aren’t already getting in your diet, it may not be ideal.

I’m Not Sure If I Have A Well-Rounded Enough Diet and Want to Fill Gaps

If you’re primarily looking to fill dietary gaps and ensure that you’re getting all of your key nutrients daily, my advice would be not to overthink it. Multivitamin pills and capsules are still great (avoid the gummies, generally speaking). For multivitamins, I’m a fan of Swolverine’s daily multivitamin for something affordable (30 servings for $19.99) and high quality. Swolverine is quickly becoming my favorite go-to source of supplements, so that’s no surprise. I should also note, however, that if your concern with getting in some nutritional insurance is because you don’t know how well-rounded your diet is, analyzing and correcting your diet should be step number one before purchasing a supplement. Nobody has a perfect diet all the time, and we all have periods where we’ll need to alter our food intake (such as when we travel, are overly busy, or generally disrupt our routines). You can’t beat real food. Supplements can provide nutritional insurance to cover those irregularities, but if your regular diet isn’t nutrient-dense, a pill isn’t going to make you feel better miraculously.

Pros of Swolverine’s Daily Multivitamin

• It’s very affordable and very nutrient-dense! At $19.99 per month, if you take a full dose (2 capsules) every day, that averages out to about $0.66 per day.

Cons of Swolverine’s Daily Multivitamin

• In my opinion, there’s no drawback to this product. However, if you struggle with pills, it won’t be a great fit since a full serving is two small capsules.

I Want More Greens In My Diet, But I Hate the Taste/Texture/Effort That Goes Into Prepping and Eating Green Veggies

I get it. There are “fitness” cookbooks that will tell you to dump six cups of fresh spinach into a pot, let it wilt, and sprinkle it with lemon juice and sea salt to get in your daily greens. I love spinach and kale and cabbage, and it can still be hard to eat adequate amounts of such greens daily. It’s harder still to enjoy eating adequate amounts, especially when I’m busy. So, if you’re mainly looking for a greens supplement to ensure you’re getting enough greens and veggies in your diet, then I recommend trying Amazing Grass Greens Blend in either Original or Berry. I’m a sucker for berries, so I prefer the Berry version, but either way, this is a pretty solid product. Each serving contains the equivalent of two servings of fruits and vegetables, and it’s fairly high in vitamins C and K. At $23.99 per 30 servings, it’s also quite affordable.

Pros of Amazing Grass Greens Blend

• Contains two servings of fruits and vegetables.
• It’s very convenient– a much easier way to get in a serving of greens than prepping a full spinach dish.

Cons of Amazing Grass Greens Blend

• Similar to our critique of Transparent Labs’ Prebiotic Greens above, if you’re looking for a highly well-rounded nutrient density that covers all major vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals, then this doesn’t cover all of your bases.

Which Alternative Is Right for You?

When I canceled my Athletic Greens subscription, once shipping and handling and taxes were factored into the cost of my greens, I paid about $117 per 30-day supply of greens. This cost was so high that I started spreading out my shipping frequency and rationing how often I consumed my greens, which greatly undercuts their effectiveness. If you were to purchase all three of the alternatives I mentioned in this article (which would be fairly redundant, and I don’t particularly recommend it), you’d still rack up a lower total cost ($83.97) than you would for a bag of Athletic Greens. I’ll try to save money whenever possible, so I explored these products first. For transparency, my current routine includes taking the Swolverine Greens & Reds supplement every morning. This functions in much the same way as the Transparent Labs and Amazing Grass products I mentioned. However, since I knew I wanted to include the Swolverine multivitamin as one of the alternatives, I chose to highlight other brands that will produce similar results while saving you even more money.