Over the last ten years, green superfood powders have exploded in popularity, promising to cover all of your daily nutrient requirements and more. The first time I’d personally heard of a green superfood powder was around four years ago when I found a YouTuber promoting Athletic Greens or AG1 pouches. I was instantly intrigued about how these could be incorporated into a healthy routine and so I began to do some research into the best superfood powders and what they can realistically do for your mood and health in general. Are they just a fad or are they actually useful?
I realised that Rheal and Athletic Greens were arguably considered the best green superfood powders out there, or at least the most popular, and so I decided to do a comparison of Rheal VS Athletic Greens. After all, they look very similar on the surface so what are the key differences?
Rheal comes in all different flavours so for the sake of this comparison, I’ll be referring to their standard Clean Green 150g product and will compare it to Athletic Greens standard 360g pouch.
Quick note: This is not a sponsored post.
What are green superfood powders?
First, however, let’s determine what ‘green superfood powders’ are.
Green superfood powders are generally natural blends of vegetables and fruit extracts that are rich in minerals, and vitamins and are usually vegan-friendly. Rheal and Athletic Greens are indeed vegan-friendly and also gluten-free. Green superfood powders are rich in things like fibre, protein and iron.
They are marketed as being the perfect supplements to cover all of your daily dietary micro-nutrient needs. Simply add them to water and mix and you’re good to go.
Rheal VS Athletic Greens: How To Use
Rheal: Rheal advises that you put a tablespoon full of Rheal into your water. They say you can also add your powder to salads and smoothies.
Athletic Greens: Athletic Greens is best served by using the scoop provided. Simply put a scoop in 250ml of water and stir for a couple of seconds. You can also add your powder to juices, milk and smoothies.
Both of these green powders taste earthy, almost grass-like with a hint of sweetness. They are an acquired taste to be blunt. However, it’s likely you’ll get used to them, especially if you add them to other drinks like fruity smoothies.
Rheal VS Athletic Greens: Overview
| Rheal | Athletic Greens | |
| One time price | £21.25 | £97 |
| Serving size | 5g | 12g |
| micro-nutrients | limited | comprehensive |
| taste | earthy | earthy |
| Subscription available | YES | YES |
Rheal: Rheal was started in the UK in 2015 by the founder Charlotte after finding herself suffering from an autoimmune condition that left her feeling fatigued and fed up. The only way to manage her condition was through a gluten-free diet. Charlotte and her co-founder Sean experimented with ‘superfoods’ at university and found a blend of ingredients that helped with Charlotte’s condition. In 2021 the pair appeared on Dragon’s Den and managed to get the backing of the dragons. Rheal has gone on to create a variety of different powders and drinks.
Athletic Greens: Owner Chris found himself having gut health issues and could never find a doctor that could resolve them. However, it wasn’t until he went to a specialist that he found that his gut was having trouble absorbing nutrients. After using various supplements and rejecting the doctor’s advice of taking 50-60 pills a day to resolve his problem, he took matters into his own hands and began to create his own blends of superfoods to heal himself. After spending a lot of time with formulators and doctors he finally perfected his final formula, the one that solved his gut health issues; Athletic Greens, a blend of essential nutrients we could all do with on a daily basis.
Rheal benefits
Here’s what Rheal claims;
- improves immunity
- better focus
- increases energy
- supports skin health
- supports gut health
- aids fitness goals
Athletic Greens benefits
Here’s what Athletic Greens claims;
- Improves gut health
- increases energy
- aids digestion
- helps recovery
- supports immunity
Green superfood powders are not meant to be used as meal replacements. They could however be used to replace multivitamins, for example.
Rheal VS Athletic Greens: Ingredients
Rheal: Baobab powder, barley grass powder, chlorella powder, moringa powder, pineapple powder, wheatgrass powder, spirulina powder, Camu Camu powder.
Athletic Greens: Organic spirulina, lecithin, organic apple powder, inulin, organic wheatgrass juice powder, organic alfalfa powder, organic chlorella powder, organic barley leaf powder, acerola fruit juice powder extract, broccoli flower powder, papaya powder, pineapple fresh fruit concentrate, bilberry fruit extract, beetroot powder, rosehip fruit powder, carrot root powder, spinach leaf powder, cocoa bean polyphenol extract, grapeseed extract, green tea leaf extract, liquorice root powder, Lycium berry fruit extract, ginger rhizome powder, slippery elm bark powder, kelp whole plant powder. Nutrient-Dense Natural Extracts, Herbs, and Antioxidants: Alkaline pea protein isolate, citrus bioflavonoids extract, artichoke extract, citric acid, Rhodiola Rosea root dry extract, Eleuthero root extract, Gotu kola extract, rosemary leaf extract, milk thistle seed extract, R, S alpha-lipoic acid, ashwagandha root extract, dandelion root dry extract, hawthorn berry root extract, beta-glucans, policosanol, co-enzyme Q-10, stevia rebaudiana leaf powder, astragalus root extract, bromelain, burdock root powder, reishi mushroom powder, shiitake mushroom powder, stevia. Athletic Greens also boosts its health claims by including 38mg of dairy-free probiotics from Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Bifidobacterium Bifidum.
As you can see, Athletic Greens is superior when it comes to the vast amount of nourishing ingredients that are included.
Rheal VS Athletic Greens: Nutrition
The nutritional value of these two green powders is the really important part. Below I have compared the nutritional values to see where each might be lacking.
It’s important to point out that the serving size of Rheal is 5g whereas the serving size for Athletic Greens is 12g, therefore, you may wish to double the serving size of Rheal to get a more comparable conclusion from the below.
Rheal’s Clean Green comes in 150g boxes. Athletic Green’s standard pouch comes in at 360g. Both of these products claim to have 30 servings meaning they should last you at least one month.
| Nutrition per serving | Rheal (5g) | Athletic Greens (12g) |
| Calories | 14.45 | 50 |
| Carbs | 3g | 6g |
| Fibre | 1.73g | 2g |
| Sugars | .87g | 1g |
| Protein | 1.27g | 2g |
| Vitamin A | 555mcg | |
| Vitamin C | 22.25mcg | 420mg |
| Vitamin E | 83mg | |
| Thiamin | 3mg | |
| Riboflavin | 2mg | |
| Folate | 650mg | |
| Vitamin B12 | 22mcg | |
| Biotin | 330mcg | |
| Pantothenic Acid | 4mg | |
| Calcium | 22.05mcg | 118mg |
| Phosphorus | 130mg | |
| Magnesium | 26mg | |
| Zinc | 15mg | |
| Selenium | 20mcg | |
| Copper | 195mcg | |
| Manganese | 400mcg | |
| Chromium | 25mcg | |
| Sodium | 45mg | |
| Potassium | 300mg | |
| Iron | 1.6mg |
Rheal: Rheal’s nutritional label has a good array of essential nutrients including protein and iron and a healthy amount of fibre. However, the range of essential minerals and vitamins does lack compared to Athletic Greens.
Athletic Greens: Athletic Greens packs a powerful punch of essential minerals and vitamins coming from the sheer amount of plant extracts that make up AG1. It’s clear you’ll be covering pretty much all of your micro-nutrient bases by using Athletic Greens on a daily basis.
Athletic Greens has so many different micro-nutrients that it’s hard to make a case for Rheal when it comes to making a nutritional comparison. It is however worth pointing out that Rheal has a variety of different products that do vary in nutritional value.
Price comparison
Both Rheal and Athletic Greens offer one-time purchases so you can try the products. However, if you want to make green superfood powers a habit, they also have subscriptions which work out cheaper.
Rheal: Rheal offers a one-off price of £25 ($30.54) for a 150g tub. However, if you choose to subscribe you can get your tubs for £21.50 ($25.97). These are delivered monthly.
Rheal offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and free UK shipping if your order is over £30 and you can cancel your subscription at any time.
Athletic Greens: A one-off purchase of the 360g pouch will set you back £97 (118.57). However, if you choose to subscribe you can get your pouches for £79 ($96.56). Subscriptions allow for monthly delivery. Another thing to note is that if you subscribe, you get a cool shaker and AG1 jar.
Athletic Greens offers a 90-day money-back guarantee and you can cancel your subscription anytime you like if you’re not satisfied.
Are they weight loss aids?
No. Superfood powders are not meant to be weight loss aids. In a world where almost every supplement is designed to help you lose weight, these products are instead designed to aid digestion, give you more energy, boost your immune system and support good gut health.
My conclusion
When it comes to Rheal VS Athletic Greens, it’s hard to deny that Athletic Greens stands out as the more appealing product. It’s been around much longer than Rheal and so it has had time to perfect its ingredients. When you visit the Athletic Greens website there’s a whole load of information explaining the benefits of the product and information about how it is manufactured. You get the feeling that they truly care about the standard of the product. Of course, this means that it comes with a heavier price tag than Rheal Clean Greens.
Therefore, Athletic Greens is essentially a premium product and as a result, it’s not going to be for everyone. If you subscribe to get a pouch delivered each month you’ll need to ask yourself if you can really afford £79 every 30 days.
On the flip side of this, Rheal is a much more accessible product that is far cheaper. At only £21.25 a month, you’ll still get a convenient way to get essential vitamins and minerals in your diet, however, the product is rather underwhelming compared to the nutrition that Athletic Greens can off you.
I think that these green powders are a great way to get more vitamins minerals and fibre in your diet and they could give you more energy throughout the day. However, it’s hard to tell if you wouldn’t just get the same or similar effect by simply introducing more fruit and vegetables into your diet at a far cheaper cost.
Either way, both of these products have really positive reviews and so if you want to try them you can buy one 30-day supply of each as a one-off.
You can visit Rheal here or Athletic Greens here.
Sean C is a writer, passionate about improving one’s self by maintaining healthy habits and doing the things that make life more meaningful.