We named Green Vibrance as one of the best green superfood powders on the market and now the Connecticut-based company Vibrant Health has produced a new version of their supplement that includes CBD oil.
CBD (or cannabidiol), a component of cannabis, only became legal over the counter in 2018 and there’s since been something of a gold rush. (Or green rush.) Countless supplement companies have popped up to try and make use of the benefits of this cannabinoid, which some research has linked to lower levels of inflammation, better sleep, and lower anxiety, among other potential effects.
While it’s not all that high in CBD (more on that later), we nonetheless found Green Vibrance + CBD Oil to be an unusually effective, nutritious, and transparent greens powder with a very impressive emphasis on digestive health.
[Check out our picks for the best greens powders on the market!]
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Nutrition
One scoop provides 40 calories (7 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein) and the following nutrients, included with their percentage of your recommended daily intake.
Vitamin A (90% as beta-carotene): 139%
Vitamin C: 58%
Calcium: 5%
Iron: 11%
Vitamin D: 125%
Vitamin E: 447%
Vitamin K: 45%
Folate: 77%
Vitamin B12: 83%
Phosphorus: 4%
Iodine: 103%
Magnesium: 6%
Selenium: 84%
Chromium: 229%
Sodium: 2%
Potassium: 5%
With greens powders, though, people typically emphasize the ingredients over the actual nutrition.
[See our review of the original Green Vibrance!]
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Ingredients
There are dozens and dozens of ingredients here organized into ten different blends.
- Organic cereal grasses (including wheat grass leaf powder, barley grass juice powder, and oat grass powder),
- Plant-Based Micronutrition (spirulina powder, broccoli powder, kale leaf powder, etc.),
- Antioxidant Life Preservers (strawberry powder, camu camu fruit, ginkgo balboa, etc.)
- Immune Support (astragalus, beta glucans, etc.),
- Adaptogens (eleutherococcus, CBD (3.5mg))
- Skeletal Support (boron, vitamin D3, cissus quandrangularis extract)
- Fiber
- Liver support (Dandelion root extract, burdock root extract, silamarina milk thistle extract)
- Enzymes & Tonics (six digestive enzymes, cayenne pepper, and ginger root powder)
- Probiotics (25 billion CFU from 12 strains)
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Benefits & Effectiveness
It’s really worth emphasizing here that this is fantastically nutritious, transparent, and high in probiotics for a greens powder. When compared with competing products, there are a lot of things that stand out:
- Most greens powders are proprietary blends, not revealing the weight of each ingredient
- Most greens powders either don’t deliver many vitamins and minerals or don’t reveal their vitamin and mineral content on the label
- Most greens powders aren’t that high in probiotic bacteria
This is why Green Vibrance + CBD Oil stands out from the crowd. A ton of vitamins and minerals, transparent labeling, and dynamite for digestive health. Twenty-five billion probiotic bacteria from a dozen strains is very impressive and it’s a more potent dosing than I’ve seen in the market.Taking probiotics, especially a wider variety of strains, is linked to better digestive health, better immunity, lower levels of inflammation, better insulin sensitivity, even better athletic recovery.(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) The digestive enzymes are also intended to help break down the food you consume, and evidence has linked them to better nutrient absorption.(7)
The rest of the ingredients appear to be good sources of antioxidants. Ingredients like wheat grass, barley grass, berry fruit powder, and many of the others are known for their antioxidant potency and may help to combat inflammation. Note that while Green Vibrance + CBD Oil is very transparent, it doesn’t quantify the antioxidant content with something like an ORAC rating, so we don’t know exactly how useful it is here. Nonetheless, I’m confident it provides antioxidants. There are also a lot of adaptogens on the list, like Siberian ginseng, ingredients that might help you react to stress and recover from exercise.
The CBD
So what about the CBD? There doesn’t seem to be enough CBD to have a meaningful effect. Research is pretty scant right now and we don’t have a whole lot of human studies to go by, but here are some of the most useful for our purposes here.
A couple of studies published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology and Neuropsychopharmacology found that 300 to 600 milligrams of CBD helped to reduce anxiety among humans, more specifically finding it can reduce fear of public speaking among anxiety prone individuals.(8)(9)
Lower doses might help as well: a 2018 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology found as little as 75 milligrams helped with tremors in people with movement disorders, and research in The Permanente Journal in 2019 found 25 to 75 milligrams helped with sleep and anxiety scores.(10)(11) Most quality CBD supplements contain at least 25 milligrams of the stuff. Green Vibrance + CBD Oil contains 3.5 milligrams of CBD per serving. So I’m simply not confident in its usefulness as a means for delivering CBD.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a useful supplement. Again, it’s one of the best greens powders I’ve ever seen. I just don’t love it as a CBD supplement.
[Read more in our complete guide to the benefits of CBD!]
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Taste
It should be made clear that Green Vibrance + CBD Oil doesn’t taste unusual for a greens powder, which are typically heavy on wheatgrass and light on sweeteners. The truth is that it’s not enjoyable: it’s a grassy, earthy taste that won’t do anything for your palate. Again, this wasn’t surprising, but this isn’t a drink you’ll want to savor. There are a lot of upsides, but the taste isn’t one of them.
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Price
One tub costs about $60 to $65 for one tub of 25 servings, so about $2.50 per serving.
If you subscribe to monthly shipments you can get a 20% discount, so that drops the price to about $2 per serving.
Relative to other green superfood powders that’s a pretty fair price. It’s hard to compare these supplements because they tend to vary so much in their ingredients, nutrition, and effectiveness. but normally they cost between $1 and $2 per serving. Given the nutrient density of Green Vibrance, I’m happy with the cost.
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very transparent
- Good amount of vitamins esp D and K
- Probiotics and enzymes are great
- Source of antioxidants
- Gluten free, non GMO
Cons
- CBD doesn’t seem to be well dosed
- Some other ingredients not very well dosed, eg. grape seed extract, ginseng
- Contains soy
The Takeaway
The good news about this product is very good: compared to other greens powders (and we’ve tried a lot) it’s vastly more nutritious, transparent, and good for digestive health than the average contender. The bad news is that it simply isn’t very high in CBD, so if you’re looking for a good CBD supplement, this isn’t it. Despite this, it’s still one of the best greens supplements on the market. It just doesn’t really outshine the original Green Vibrance based on the current scientific literature.
References
1. Le Chatelier E, et al. Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers. Nature. 2013 Aug 29;500(7464):541-6.
2. Carvalho BM, et al. Influence of gut microbiota on subclinical inflammation and insulin resistance. Mediators Inflamm. 2013;2013:986734.
3. Plaza-Díaz J, et al. Evidence of the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Probiotics and Synbiotics in Intestinal Chronic Diseases. Send to Nutrients. 2017 May 28;9(6).
4. Nichols AW, et al. Probiotics and athletic performance: a systematic review. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2007 Jul;6(4):269-73.
5. Kadooka Y, et al. Regulation of abdominal adiposity by probiotics (Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055) in adults with obese tendencies in a randomized controlled trial. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun;64(6):636-43.
6. Bäckhed F, et al. The gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates fat storage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Nov 2;101(44):15718-23.
7. Oben J, et al. An open label study to determine the effects of an oral proteolytic enzyme system on whey protein concentrate metabolism in healthy males. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008 Jul 24;5:10.
8. Zuardi AW, et al. Effects of ipsapirone and cannabidiol on human experimental anxiety. J Psychopharmacol. 1993 Jan;7(1 Suppl):82-8.
9. Bergamaschi MM, et al. Cannabidiol reduces the anxiety induced by simulated public speaking in treatment-naïve social phobia patients. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2011 May;36(6):1219-26.
10. Peres FF, et al. Cannabidiol as a Promising Strategy to Treat and Prevent Movement Disorders? Front Pharmacol. 2018 May 11;9:482.
11. Shannon S, et al. Cannabidiol in Anxiety and Sleep: A Large Case Series. Send to Perm J. 2019;23:18-041.
Green Vibrance + CBD Oil
Per Serving: ~$2.50
Pros
- Good amount of vitamins
- Transparent labeling
- High in antioxidants, probiotics, and enzymes
Cons
- Pretty low in CBD
- Grassy taste
