The USA has been going through a bit of a health and activity phase lately, which is something that we love to see. For the past decade, we were constantly being bombarded with scary news messages that obesity and its health consequences were becoming an epidemic. But all around the same time, the athletic leisure industry began to take off and workout attire became trendy in nearly all settings (Lulu Lemon, Athleta, etc), water bottles became ubiquitous as people monitored their hydration levels pre-and post-workout, and health food became a new craze.
The lockdowns forced people inside of their homes for a period of time, and when they emerged, many realized that they had taken their ability to enjoy the splendor of our nation for granted. Now you’d be hard-pressed to find an empty campsite anywhere in the nation or a hiking trail that is empty for very long.
In line with our new athletic and health-focused lifestyles, various supplements have emerged and become quite popular to aid our busy bodies in ensuring that we’re not only getting an adequate level of hydration, but also all of the vital nutrients that our bodies need to maintain said healthy lifestyle.
Two of these drinks have become extremely popular of late: Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava. While both are drinks meant to provide your body with a boost of nutrition to help keep you driving forward, the two drinks are very different in several key ways. The companies have been spending a lot of money on advertising to get their products out there, but those ads don’t really go into what exactly the drinks provide.
In this article, we will do exactly that and compare & contrast two of the most popular nutritional drinks on the market today: Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava.
What are Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava?
While Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava are both highly popular health supplement drinks, even the types of drinks they are is different. Athletic Greens (now known as AG1) is a greens supplement. This means that AG1 is made to deliver all of the greens-based nutrients that your body needs on a daily basis.
Do you remember those times as a child when your mom scolded you for not eating all of your veggies at dinner? AG1 is a drink that allows you to get all of your day’s greens in a single glass, meaning that no matter what you eat throughout the day, those greens are still getting into your gut.
Ka’Chava, on the other hand, is one of the most original and popular “superfood meals.” Rather than focusing solely on greens, Ka’Chava and drinks like it focus on delivering a wide range of various nutrients to your body. While Ka’Chava also has some of those same nutrients in each serving that can replace the green vegetables on your plate, its purpose is to provide you with a more well-rounded slate of health benefits than just greens.
Are Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava Healthy?
Absolutely, Athletic Greens (or AG1) and Ka’Chava are both extremely healthy, but in different ways. As we said above, AG1 is focused primarily on providing greens-based nutrition, while Ka’Chava is focused on various health benefits that can help put your body into a nutrient-fueled beast mode. Let’s go through some of the ingredients in each of the supplement drinks to help you understand the difference between what they provide.
Athletic Greens
Developed as a way to ensure one glass a day can help deliver all of the greens-based nutrients that your body needs, Athletic Greens claims to deliver 12 servings of vegetables in every scoop of their powder. Combining 9 synergistic blends of over 75 ingredients, Athletic Greens packs a lot of nutritional punch into every glass.
One of our biggest drawbacks with Athletic Greens lies in these synergistic blends themselves. While the company goes to great lengths to explain how many ingredients there are, and what benefits they may provide, because these ingredients are listed by blend on the back of the package rather than by line, we don’t know exactly how much of which ingredient goes into each serving.
That matters because many whole-food ingredients like spirulina, chlorella, and others have been shown to provide powerful health benefits to the human mind & body, but the studies showing these effects each have specific amounts required to do so. So while Atheltic Greens may include some of these ingredients, we don’t know exactly how much of them are included, and whether that’s enough to actually provide the health benefits that they can.
As we’ll discuss further below, Atheltic Greens isn’t meant to be a meal replacement but should be more of an addition to your daily, healthy diet. So even if certain nutrients aren’t present in large enough doses to meet your daily requirements, hopefully, you will be getting those through your regular diet.
Ka’Chava
Ka’Chava also provides a very long list of nutrients & minerals in every dose. At 70 different ingredients, it has nearly as many as Athletic Greens. Within these ingredients, Ka’Chava provides its own blends that include super greens, fruit powders, protein, probiotics, enzymes, and adaptogens (meant to help your body better handle stress).
Unfortunately, just as with Athletic Greens, Ka’Chava lists these as “proprietary blends” on the ingredient list, meaning that again we don’t know exactly how much of each item is included in the actual drink. What we do know about Ka’Chava, again like Athletic Greens, is that it is non-GMO, cruelty-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free and that 28 of its 70 ingredients are certified as organic.
While we don’t know exactly how much of each ingredient is included per serving in Ka’Chava, we also can look at the health benefit claims that the company makes for those who take the supplement daily:
- Boost the immune system
- Increase energy levels
- Aid digestion
- Reduce bloating
- Aid with weight management
- Boost the metabolism
- Improve hair, skin, and nails
- Support muscle growth
- Increase the speed of muscle recovery
- Boost mood
- Increase focus
- Reduce anxiety
Which is Right for Me? Athletic Greens or Ka’Chava?
As we outlined at the beginning of this article, while both Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava are health supplements meant to aid your diet and ensure that you are getting plenty of nutrients, they are different types of health drink supplements. Let’s get into some of those differences now:
The texture of the Drinks
The texture of food and drinks can be just as important (if not more) to some people than even the taste, and the texture of Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava couldn’t be more different. Meant to be purely an addition to your daily diet, Athletic Greens is quite light, more watery, and can be consumed rapidly if you are in a hurry and need to gulp it down fast.
Ka’Chava is much thicker, as its ingredients list includes more than just powdered fruits and vegetables. Ka’Chava truly is more of a shake than a drink, as the higher levels of protein, fiber, and other binding agents included add a significant amount of texture and thickness to the drink itself.
Protein & Calories
At only 50 calories per serving, Athletic Greens is quite low on calories and can be used when you are following a low-calorie diet. Because it is meant purely to be an adjunct to your daily diet - a drink that you consume in addition to what you eat - it is only adding another 50 calories to what your meals include. It also does not provide very much protein or fiber, at 2g each. Fiber can be very important, because not only does it aid your digestion, but it also helps your body to break down and properly absorb certain nutrients contained in foods.
Ka’Chava, on the other hand, is much higher in calories, fiber, and protein. Even though some of us have been trained to see calories as a bad thing, if used properly this makes Ka’Chava a great addition to even a low-calorie diet. The fiber not only helps with your digestion and lowers cholesterol, but it also makes you feel fuller for longer. The protein, of course, provides the same benefits, and the 25g of protein, 240 calories, and 9g of fiber make Ka’Chava a great meal or snack replacement as well as a way to ensure that your body is getting an infusion of healthy ingredients on a daily basis.
Flavor options
While its taste is considered quite good by most (it is naturally sweetened by the fruits in the mixture), there is only one flavor of Athletic Greens that is currently available. That’s great if you enjoy the taste, but not really so great if you don’t! You get what you get in terms of flavor with Athletic Greens, and because it’s the most expensive greens supplement currently on the market, it may be a good idea to find somewhere that you can perform a taste test of Athletic Greens before deciding to buy your first bag.
Ka’Chava, on the other hand, comes in five different flavors: matcha, coconut acai (which is actually a tad chocolatey), vanilla, chocolate, and chai. This gives you a pretty wide array of flavors to choose from, with the ability to mix and match if you prefer more complex flavors and can afford to buy more than one bag at a time.
Other Options Besides AG1 or Ka’Chava
If you are on the search for a greens supplement or superfood-based meal replacement, firstly we applaud you. No matter what led you on this journey of supercharging your health, it’s always good to see people taking their health and nutrition into their own hands.
While Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava are wildly popular, there is a company that we like even better for their price, taste, and health benefits in both the greens supplements and meal replacement departments. That company is Vibrant Health and the products that we prefer to use are Green Vibrance and Maximum Vibrance.
Green Vibrance by Vibrant Health
If you are looking for either your first greens supplement or one to replace your current choice, Green Vibrance is about as good as a greens supplement can get. Vibrant Health’s supplements are also certified non-GMO, vegan-friendly, soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and plant-based.
Unlike Athletic Greens, however, every single ingredient included in Green Vibrance is listed as its own line item on the ingredient list, meaning that you know exactly what you’re getting in each serving. With three different cereal grasses in two different formats each, 11 different greens to provide plant-based micro nutrition, 14 different antioxidants, three ingredients to provide immune support, adaptogens, skeletal support, plenty of fiber, liver support, enzymes, and even 25 billion CFUs of probiotics derived from 12 different strains, Green Vibrance provides all of the greens that your body needs and much, much more.
Maximum Vibrance by Vibrant Health
If you’re in the market for a meal replacement or want protein and fiber rather than only greens, Maximum Vibrance by Vibrant Health is the product that we recommend. Available in multiple flavors and including all of the benefits of Green Vibrance but with 20g of plant-based protein, 4g of fiber, and only 150 calories, Maximum Vibrance is the only product that we know of that provides so many benefits of a greens supplement along with plenty of protein and the fiber that your body needs to absorb all of those nutrients.
Conclusion
Americans are beginning to increase their activity levels and pay closer attention to their diets, which is always a good thing. As a result, a lot of different companies have popped up to provide products that aid those health journeys, with some like Athletic Greens and Ka’Chava spending a lot of money on advertising campaigns to lure in new customers.
While both of these companies' products are beneficial for your health, their uses couldn’t be more different. Athletic Greens is meant merely to be an addition to your daily, healthy diet, while Ka’Chava has more protein, fiber, and calories and would be better as a meal or snack replacement.
From our perspective, if you are in the search and want a more affordable product that provides even more benefits (and ingredient list transparency) than either of these, the Vibrant Health products Green Vibrance and Maximum Vibrance provide far more bang for your buck.
