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Athletic Greens vs BPN Strong Greens

Athletic Greens vs Strong Greens

Athletic Greens and Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) are big names in the health supplement world, and especially in the super greens market.

The two formulas actually seem pretty similar, and both brands are certainly targeting the same clientele (mainly athletes), so it’ll be really interesting to see which formula actually packs more of a punch.

Are you keen to get your hands on one of these super greens formulas but you’re not sure which one to choose?

So, get ready to dive deep into the world of super greens reviewing, and in this review, we’re going to be comparing two of the most popular powders on the market – Athletic Greens and BPN Strong Greens.

Athletic Greens vs BPN Strong Greens

What Is Athletic Greens AG1?

Athletic Greens is one of the most popular and most talked-about super greens formulas on the market today. Since the formula was first showcased to the world in 2008, it’s only grown exponentially, with an estimated revenue sitting anywhere between $20-$50 million.

Athletic Greens was initially marketed as the next best super greens formula for athletes, but seeing how many other types of people started to buy it, it’s now marketed towards anyone and everyone!

The Athletic Greens formula contains over an astounding 70 ingredients, including super greens, probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, adaptogens, herbs, and extracts – it really is jam-packed with nutritional goodness.

Or, so you have to hope it is! Unfortunately, the ingredients label isn’t fully disclosed and the formula is actually made from proprietary blends. Proprietary blends are my worst nightmare when it comes to supplements, as it means no one but the brand knows how much of each ingredient actually exists in a formula.

Although, I will be taking a look at the ingredients in closer detail later. First, let’s take a quick look at the formula as a whole and see what pros and cons it has!

Athletic Greens (AG1) Pouch

Pros

  • Contains 75 ingredients, including prebiotics, probiotics, enzymes, and adaptogens
  • Vegan-friendly, gluten-free, sugar-free, and nut-free
  • Easily dissolvable and tastes good!
  • Popular with athletes, celebrities, and fitness influencers

Cons

  • Made using proprietary blends (no fully disclosed list of ingredients)
  • More expensive than other formulas, with a $3.23 cost per serving

Read my Athletic Greens review.

What Is BPN Strong Greens?

BPN Strong Greens is a ‘nutrient powerhouse’ formula packed with 18 potent ingredients, not including flavorings.

BPN claims that the formula will provide the consumer with everything they need to supercharge their day and their nutrient intake overall.

Just like Athletic Greens, this formula was initially created for and marketed to athletes, but BPN realized how much everyone was enjoying the formula, so it’s now marketed to anyone and everyone!

Looking at the ingredients list briefly, BPN has been more transparent than Athletic Greens by showing the amounts of certain ingredients. However, unfortunately for some reason, there is still a proprietary blend in the formula, and just like with Athletic Greens, this makes the brand looks less transparent.

However, more of that later. First, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this formula overall.

BPN Strong greens on table

Pros

  • Some of the ingredients are disclosed
  • Tested and certified by the BSCG (Banned Substance Control Group)
  • Low cost

Cons

  • There’s a proprietary blend in the formula
  • The taste of the product is highly debted

Read my Strong Greens review.

Athletic Greens Vs. BPN Strong Greens Benefits

Athletic Greens

Athletic Greens makes a real effort to show potential consumers the benefits that this formula is supposed to offer. There’s a whole page on the Athletic Greens website, dedicated to showing the health benefits of the formula.

However, it doesn’t stop there! Unlike other brands that typically list the benefits of formulas as a whole, Athletic Greens has decided to give health benefits information about every ingredient within the formula.

This is really informative and I obviously really appreciate it, However, I find it confusing as to why the brand has gone to all of this effort to give so much information about health benefits but decided to give no information about the actual amounts of each ingredient within the formula!

Although the brand does highlight the benefits of each and every ingredient, the main overall benefits of Athletic Greens are that the formula boosts the immune system, protects cells from radical damage, supports the digestive system, enhances nutrient absorption, and reduces stress levels.

BPN Strong Greens

Although BPN Strong Greens is supposed to be a nutritional powerhouse formula and benefits the overall wellbeing of the consumer, the brand does talk about a few specific health benefits that the formula provides the consumer.

BPN Strong Greens increases natural energy levels, improves mental clarity, supports gut health and digestion, reduces stomach bloating and discomfort, strengthens the immune system, and reduces inflammation.

As well as providing overall health benefits information, BPN also highlights some of the most important ingredients within the formula and provides information about the specific health benefits the consumer can derive from these.

BPN highlights wheatgrass for its detoxing properties, coconut water for increased hydration, beet juice for improved blood flow, chlorella for improved digestion, turmeric for stomach-soothing effects, and Ashwagandha for reduced stress levels.

Athletic Greens Vs BPN Strong Greens Ingredients

Athletic Greens

The Athletic Greens formula contains 75 ingredients that are all vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, keto-friendly, paleo-friendly, and non-GMO!

Everything from whole food super greens and probiotics to enzymes and adaptogens exists in the formula, meaning it provides the consumer with a wide range of specific health benefits from each ingredient – or, does it?

Unfortunately, all of the ingredients in the formula exist within proprietary blends, so it’s actually not confirmed that the consumer will be provided with the right amounts of each ingredient, meaning it might not actually work and provide the benefits the brand claims it will.

Although I hate proprietary blends and don’t see why it’s so difficult for a brand to just be transparent with the ingredients list, one good thing about Athletic Greens formula is that the proprietary blends are heavily weighted.

For example, the Alkaline Nutrient Dense Raw Superfood Complex totals 8453mg per serving, meaning there actually could be sufficient amounts of at least a few of the ingredients.

However, it’s impossible to provide a conclusive answer as to whether the formula will actually provide the benefits the brand claims it will, or not because we just don’t have that information available to us!

Athletic Greens supplement label

BPN Strong Greens

BPN Strong Greens is made from 18 ingredients, not including the flavoring ingredients. The super greens ingredients exist within a proprietary blend, but the other seven ingredients stand alone, and the amounts of each of these ingredients are shown. It’s also nice to see that most of these ingredients are organic.

The formula is gluten-free, non-GMO, and vegetarian. From what I can see, the product doesn’t contain dairy and therefore I would assume it’s vegan, but BPN doesn't market it as being vegan.

Although the formula does have a proprietary blend with undoubtedly the most important ingredients in it, at least the brand has disclosed the amounts of some of the ingredients.

Obviously, it’s impossible for me to try and figure out if the proprietary blend formula will provide sufficient amounts of each ingredient, but I can take a look at the other ingredients.

For example, looking at both Wheatgrass ingredients in the formula, they total 2500mg (2.5g), and the daily recommended dosage of Wheatgrass sits between 3-5g, meaning the formula just misses out on meeting the recommended amount.

This is true for a selection of the ingredients, but the only saving grace is that at least the consumer knows this and can consume more of the formula if they want to hit these recommended doses, whereas, with Athletic Greens, the consumer has no idea how much of any ingredients they’re consuming.

BPN Strong Greens supplement label

Athletic Greens Vs BPN Strong Greens Taste

Athletic Greens

Athletic Greens is sweetened with stevia extract and flavored with papaya, broccoli powder, carrot, cherry powder, pineapple flavor, and vanilla flavor. The brand has certainly got the flavoring of this formula spot on – it tastes really good.

In fact, the Athletic Greens is one of the best tasting formulas I have ever tried and I featured it on my ‘Best Tasting Greens’ list, awarding it first place!

The Athletic Greens formula not only tastes refreshing and perfectly sweet, but it doesn’t have a grassy bitter taste like a lot of super greens powders typically. The formula also mixes well and doesn’t produce a gritty texture, making it a pleasant formula to consume.

BPN Strong Greens

BPN Strong Greens is available in either Lemon or Mixed Berry flavor. Both types of formula are naturally sweetened using stevia extract and monk fruit extract, as well as naturally flavored using organic tapioca dextrose, citric acid, malic acid, and natural flavors.

The reaction to the taste of the BPN Strong Greens is really mixed, some people think the flavors are great and they really cover over the grassy taste of the potent ingredients, and others struggle with the overly sweet taste.

Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of the taste of either of the flavors of BPN Strong Greens as it’s just too intensely sweet for me. Although I’m not a huge fan of a grassy tasting super greens formula, I do still like a formula to taste healthy.

Regardless of what flavor of the Green Vibrance you decide to buy, it tastes good! The formula isn’t overly delicious, but it’s pleasant and easy to drink. It also mixes well and doesn’t leave any grit in the glass after settling.

Athletic Greens Vs BPN Strong Greens Cost

Athletic Greens

Athletic Greens is much more expensive than other super greens formulas on the market, and this is one of the most common complaints about the formula – some people just can’t afford it.

A 30-day servings pouch of Athletic Greens costs $97. This works out at a cost per serving of $3.23. This is way more expensive than the BPN Strong Greens formula, and most of the super greens formulas on the market.

In a bid to make the formula appear cheaper to potential customers, you can actually save 21% if you subscribe to receiving the formula on a regular basis. If you choose to do this, the cost per serving works out at $2.56 which although still expensive, seems much more cost-friendly.

BPN Strong Greens

One tub of BPN Strong Greens (248g) contains 30 servings and costs $39.99. This works out at a cost per serving of $1.33. This is much cheaper than the Athletic Greens formula.

BPN also has a subscription option on this product, and you can save 10% if you choose to subscribe to receive the formula on a regular basis. This works out at a cost per serving of $1.20.

Regardless of whether you choose to subscribe to the formula or not, this is a very reasonable cost per serving, especially in comparison to the price of Athletic Greens.

Adam drinking SGT

Athletic Greens Vs BPN Strong Greens: Which is Better?

I really like both of these formulas when looking at them as a whole, but they also both let me down when looking more closely in certain areas.

Looking at Athletic Greens, the fact that the formula is made up of proprietary blends, and the price of the formula is high, puts me off.

Then, looking at BPN Strong Greens, the taste, and the fact that even though the brand has chosen to be transparent about some ingredients, there’s still a proprietary blend on the ingredients list.

Personally, I wouldn’t purchase either of these formulas because proprietary blends are an absolute no-go for me, but if I had to (which I do for this review haha), I would go for Athletic Greens.

I would probably choose Athletic Greens because both formulas contain proprietary blends anyway, and at least with Athletic Greens, the blends are heavily weighted which means you’d hopefully be consuming the right amounts of some of the ingredients.

The better taste and better customer reviews would also lead me to choose Athletic Greens.

Adam Author

About the LifeHacker Guy

Hi, I'm Adam the founder of the LifeHacker Guy.

I have a First Class Honours degree in Sports Science from Brighton University, specialising in exercise physiology and nutrition. In my youth I was a competitive Triathlete and long-distance runner placing top 10 in most triathlon races I completed.

Since suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I moved into web development, after a couple of years I then moved onto developing a number of online businesses. I've recently taken a sabbatical and I'm now looking to make big changes in my life, hopefully this may resonate with you - join me in my journey!

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