Fermented Green Supremefood Review — Is Fermented Really Better?

Of all the greens powders I’ve reviewed, Fermented Green Supremefood is the first I’ve seen that focuses on fermented ingredients. Made by the Florida-based Divine Health Nutritional Products, this product was formulated by one Don Colbert, MD, the author of some forty books on health and nutrition and a strong proponent of the benefits of fermentation.

So do the claims match the reality?

Ingredients

“Fermented is just better,” or so says the tub, and the ingredients reflect that philosophy. Most decent greens powders contain probiotic bacteria, and Fermented Green Supremefood contains four different kinds, which is great

But it also contains a prebiotic fiber, which nourishes the probiotics (literally, it’s food for them) and helps to maintain their health, as well as six kinds of digestive enzymes, which further helps to facilitate digestion and nutrient absorption.

Then there are four kinds of fermented grasses (barley, alfalfa, oat, and wheatgrass) and ten kinds of fermented vegetables (carrot, beet, parsley, spinach, broccoli, kale, cabbage, onion, pea protein, and kelp).

I’ve never seen fermented vegetables in a greens powder before, so this was notable. In addition, there are some herbs that are known for their antioxidant properties and their link to liver health (like milk thistle) and some extra fiber from flax and acacia.

One serving contains 25 calories, 4 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein and no fat.

Taste

Delicious, like an apple pie. It looks like Divine Health used to offer this product in apple cinnamon, lemon lime, and unflavored, but they decided to settle on only selling apple cinnamon. It was a good choice, particularly since it’s naturally flavored with both cinnamon and cinnamon bark extract, which are quite healthful in their own right.It’s not just a cinnamon taste, though — it’s made with plenty of stevia, so if you’re averse to sweet products, it could be off-putting.

Effectiveness

OK, so what benefits does it claim and what does it actually provide?

To start with, fermented food is probably good for you. The probiotics they provide are strongly linked to improved digestive health and nutrient absorption, a lot of studies have shown it may reduce the severity of digestive diseases like Crohn’s and IBD, plus it may improve the body’s immunity and stress response.

There are a ton of fermented foods and probiotics in this product, but there’s surprisingly little information about how many. This is a big piece of the puzzle; some greens powders provide two billion probiotics, some provide more than twenty billion. How do I know if this fermented food supplement is more beneficial than a different supplement that tells me how many probiotics it offers? I don’t know.

According to the ingredients list, this product will definitely increase your probiotic intake, and I believe that. But I don’t know if it will do so more or less than a different product. That’s a big mistake on the part of Divine Health.

The product site also tells you how its ingredients are super high in vitamin C, magnesium, vitamin A, and so on, but the tub also doesn’t disclose the vitamin or mineral content of the supplement. There’s no information on micronutrients besides sodium, so there’s no way to know where this falls on the scale of vitamin and mineral density.

The only benefit it does seem to quantify is that it contains the antioxidants of six servings of vegetables. That’s nice and specific, but for a fermented food supplement, I would have really liked more information on the digestive benefits.

Price

The official site lists Fermented Green Supremefood as $45 for 30 servings ($1.50/serving), but on Amazon it’s 28 dollars for 30 servings ($0.93/serving). Less than a dollar per serving is cheap, particularly since when it comes to digestive benefits, most greens powders only contain probiotics if they contain anything at all.

Compare that with Athletic Greens ($4.23/serving), Onnit’s Earth Grown Nutrients ($2.30/serving), Patriot Power Greens ($1.96/serving) AI Sports Nutrition Red & Greens XT ($1.33/serving), Green Vibrance ($1.08/serving), ORAC-Energy Greens ($1/serving), PharmaFreak Greens Freak ($1/serving), Sun Warrior’s Supergreens ($0.55/serving), and Amazing Grass’s Green Superfood ($0.52/serving).

Rating Out of 5

Ingredients: 4

Taste: 5

Effectiveness: 2.5

Price: 5

The Takeaway

I’m a big believer in the benefits of probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, and fermentation, and I was excited to review this product. But I was disappointed at the lack of transparency with regards to the digestive benefits. The pros are that it’s cheap, provides the antioxidants of six servings of vegetables, and provides probiotics from a lot of different sources. To be clear, I believe that it provides some digestive benefits. The downside is that you just don’t know exactly what you’re buying.

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