Novaforme is one of the few supplement companies that have produced a greens supplement that’s specifically targeted at athletes. So, what makes it stand out from the crowd?
CytoGreens Ingredients
This greens powder contains about two dozen different ingredients that are broken up into seven categories: “Green Performance Matrix” for “detox and pH balance,” “Cytozymes” for “digestive enzyme assimilation,” “Active Energy Regenerator,” “Free-Radical Defense Blend,” “High-Lignan Flax Fiber” for plant-based Omega-3 fatty acids, “Liver Defense” for “systemic organ detox,” and “Immune Defense” for “immune activation support.”
(We tried 47 brands: check out our best green superfood powder picks!)
The ingredients themselves range from your standard spirulina, chlorella, and alfalfa to three kinds of ginseng, two kinds of berries, aloe vera, and milk thistle. Milk thistle is a mainstay in just about every greens powder I’ve tried because it’s framed as the catalyst for the all-important “detox” factor, since it’s been linked to liver health in a couple of studies. Note that this doesn’t mean it detoxifies your body, but it could be argued that it may support your body’s natural detoxification processes.
One scoop contains 25 calories, three grams of protein, three grams of carbohydrate and two grams of fiber.
Taste
I tried Novaforme’s açai berry green tea flavor, and lo and behold, it actually tasted like berry-infused green tea. (The ingredients include powdered matcha green tea and açai berry, along with stevia extract and natural flavors.) It’s sweeter than your average cup of green tea but nowhere near as sweet as some greens powders that try to cover up the grassy taste with piles of sweeteners and flavors. Honestly, it’s one of the best-tasting I’ve ever tried, and it’s mild enough to be sipped rather than chugged with a pinched nose.
Price
At $30 for 14 servings, or a little over two dollars per scoop, it’s relatively expensive. It doesn’t approach Athletic Greens expensive ($4.23 per serving), but you can compare it to $35 for fifteen servings of Onnit’s Earth Grown Nutrients ($2.30/serving) $40 dollars for thirty servings of AI Sports Nutrition Red & Greens XT ($1.33/serving), $30 for thirty servings of PharmaFreak Greens Freak ($1/serving), $50 for ninety servings of Sun Warrior’s Supergreens ($0.55/serving) and $52 for a hundred serves Amazing Grass’s Green Superfood ($0.52/serving).
CytoGreens Benefits and Effectiveness
CytoGreens is one of the few greens powders that don’t claim to replace a healthy intake of fruits and vegetables, which is refreshing. What it does claim to do is deliver a lot of antioxidants, and — again, unlike its competitors — it tells you why.
Instead of saying “Lots of antioxidants!” it says it contains 346 milligrams of standardized free radicals, and they have a high ORAC rating of 4,470 umoITE per serving. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and it’s a lab test that attempts to quantify the “total antioxidant capacity” of a food or supplement. So, I actually believe that this product contains a lot of antioxidants. That’s great!
Instead of saying “Lots of chlorophyll!” it quantifies the claim by saying it has twenty-one time the amount of chlorophyll as in a serving of dark leafy greens. As far as proven benefits go, chlorophyll isn’t quite as celebrated as actual vitamins and minerals, but it’s been linked to blood health and antioxidant effects.
It also comes with nine types of digestive enzymes to help you better absorb the benefits of your food, which a nice addition.
There’s not a ton of information regarding vitamins and minerals, but the product’s nutrition label does claim to deliver 140 percent of your daily Vitamin A, 15 percent of your daily Vitamin C, 15 percent of your iron, 3 percent of your calcium, and 2 percent of your potassium. Those aren’t exactly high, but again, the product doesn’t claim to be a multivitamin. It does claim to deliver more vitamin B12 than an 8-ounce steak, which is nice and specific, but milligrams of B12 aren’t included on the nutrition label, which is a little strange.
It does make pretty bold claims that it’s great for athletes because it’s been tested in multiple clinical trials to help move lactic acid out of the muscles, reduce soreness, and improve stamina and endurance.
But those studies are nowhere to be found on the site and Google doesn’t return any hits either. Seeing the studies would have bolstered my faith in what is already a pretty strong product.
The Takeaway
I’ve tried a lot of greens powders, and this is one of my top picks so far. It doesn’t pretend it can replace a multivitamin or whole foods, it provides evidence for the claims it does make, and it tastes good.
It’s on the expensive side, and I would have liked a little more information about the vitamin and mineral content, but it has a lot of consistency between what it claims and what it delivers — something that’s all too rare in the world of greens supplements.
CytoGreens
$2.14 Per Serving
