Live culture supplements and greens powders are two of the noisiest categories in the shop. Both are sold on big numbers — billions of this, forty ingredients of that. Here is what those numbers do and do not tell you.
On live cultures
First, a labelling point that catches people out. In the UK, probiotic is treated as a health claim, and it is not an authorised one. That is why compliant products in this country say “live cultures” or name the strains instead. If a UK page leans hard on the word, that page is not compliant — it is a labelling tell worth noticing.
What CFU counts mean
CFU stands for colony-forming units — how many viable organisms are in a serving. Products advertise 10 billion, 50 billion, 200 billion.
Bigger is not automatically better. The research in this area is strain-specific: a given strain studied at a given dose. A very high total of unspecified strains is not the same thing as a meaningful dose of a studied one.
The more useful questions are which strains are in there, and whether the count is guaranteed to end of shelf life or merely at time of manufacture. Those two figures can differ substantially, and only the first tells you what you will actually get.
On greens
Greens blends are usually built around spirulina, chlorella and similar, often with a long supporting cast.
Long ingredient lists are a marketing device as much as a formulation one. Forty ingredients in a small serving means most are present in amounts too small to matter — a phenomenon sometimes called label dressing. Five ingredients at real doses will generally serve you better than forty at token ones.
Where a blend total is given rather than a per-ingredient breakdown, you cannot tell which it is.
What greens are not
Greens products attract detox and alkalising language more than almost any other category. Neither claim is authorised in Great Britain, for any ingredient, and the alkalising premise does not reflect how blood pH is regulated.
A greens supplement is a convenient way to get some vegetable-derived material into a day that did not contain many vegetables. That is a reasonable thing to want. It is not a cleanse.
Storage
Live cultures are living organisms and viability falls with heat and moisture. Keep them cool, dry and sealed, and check whether yours needs refrigerating after opening.
Before you start
Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle. Not suitable for children. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking any medication, under medical supervision or immunocompromised, speak to your doctor or pharmacist before use.