You Probably Don't Need That Green AG1 Smoothie | Hacker News Reader

You Probably Don't Need That Green AG1 Smoothie

mcgill.ca

Article from mcgill.ca brings you clickbait - read this article and be outraged! Science journalism.

Makes three major claims:

- AG1 is a very popular supplement powder used to make a one-a-day smoothie filled with 75 ingredients [True]

- The vitamins and minerals it contains are based on the idea that the average person doesn’t get enough of these nutrients through their diet, which contradicts scientific evidence [Maybe True, but claimed without evidence]

- AG1 also contains a digestive enzyme, adaptogens, and probiotics, despite the fact that there is no robust evidence that they offer benefits to humans [Proveably false, there is plenty of evidence for the benefits of these ingredients]

Famously the institution selling you this scary headline is the same one that brought you the CIA's MK Ultra experiments on unsuspecting suspects and never apologized and fought the victims for years.

In case, like me, you've never heard of this before, the website has a nicely illustrated list of ingredients

https://drinkag1.com/about-ag1/ingredients/ctr

Reading though them my main thought is "damn that looks expensive!". But it's probably good for you. Not as good as eating a leafy salad every day, but definitely not bad either. The salad would be cheaper though.

It's called "angel dusting," putting on ingredients in amounts too small to have any real effect but meant to make the product appear more effective or beneficial.

Curious about your level of expertise to render the option that this product you’ve never heard of is “probably good for you” ?

because most people agree that eating fruits and vegetables is non-debatably "good for you" and most of the ingredients in AG1 are just vitamins and dehydrated fruits and vegetable powders.

This product pays lots of Youtube creators to shill it, and I do mean shill. It's just another BS "supplement" product milking people who do not need any supplementation of any ingredient or nutrient. Nevermind that the supplement industry as a whole has a terrible record for actually putting the ingredients in the product that they say they do. I think buying random chemical compounds from small batch Florida labs off of ebay has more regulation than the supplement industry.

If you live in the US, and you get enough to eat in terms of calories, and you aren't so picky as to only eat one thing, you are most likely not notably deficient in any nutrient. Even if you think you are, if your doctor looks at your bloodwork and doesn't prescribe any specific supplement, you don't need one.

I was thinking to myself since when did AGI started creeping into food marketing. Good lord it hasn’t.

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