Smoothie Additives

Question
Hello, I am trying to eat healthier.  I never ate breakfast, so I decided to start making smoothies so I could have something in my system.  I would make them with fruit, a green vegetable, coconut water, yogurt and alternate between Chia seeds and Flax seeds.  Now I'd like to up the ante!  I'm researching things and there are so many things out there: spirulina, chlorella, maca, msm, camu camu, acai berries etc and they're all expensive!  My questions are:

1.) Are there a couple that I could buy that have the same benefits to where I don't have to buy all of them?

2.) I hear the quality of some are dangerous and some are pointless.  For instance, I was told that acai berry powder has no nutrients, so to get the juice only.  Can you recommend a safe company that you trust?

3.) Australianspirulina.com said it's not possible to make organic spirulina, because it's commercially grown.  So are there certain things that I should not waste extra money, because it's called "organic"?

There's just too much research out there to make a sound decision!  Thank you so much for your help!

Answer
Congratulations on the first step to a healthier bod ! Your smoothies sounds almost exactly like mine with a few exceptions. I applaud your quest for a healthy start to your morning but caution you on jumping on the hype and bandwagon of "miracles" de jour. You've got the whole laundry list of on trend items.

The most important thing for you to add to that smoothie is PROTEIN. Yogurt isn't enough if you want a power packed, long lasting energy  start to your morning.

There are tons of them out there but I use Body Fortress Pure Whey. It's $15 a can at Wall Mart and has zero preservatives or artificial sweeteners. It doesn't taste great but with all of the items in your smoothie, it should be palatable.

As for the blah, blah,  blah that you have been researching, mostly hype and not worth the money. Flax and Chia are more than sufficient. In my research, (marketing hype not included), I have yet to find a true benefit to Spirulina or any of the others you mentioned that you won't get from your green vegetable and other items you are including. I'm not even sold on Chia and don't use it but I do use Flax. Remember, the diet/supplement industry is a 2.4 BILLION dollar a year industry which relies on hype and good marketing.

The benefit to the Acai powder is that it is a significant source of anti oxidants.

What you are taking in already is most likely more than sufficient for anti oxidants and other vitamins  you need (presuming the rest of your daily diet is fairly health and relatively processed food free.

If you are looking for an antioxidant supplement and all around great source of vitamins, I would suggest the multi that I've been using for the past 18 years. I have (literally) not found anything better since 1996 (and I get hit up by every company as I'm sure you can imagine) You can check it out here . It's called biofuel Proshop . It's on the right under "Advanced Liquid Nutrition". It's liquid and tastes like fruit juice so you can toss it right in your drink.  

Hope this helps some and feel free to respond with any other questions  

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