L’Evate You is Steve Harvey’s nutrition brand that primarily sells green powder. The brand suggests that just one scoop a day can support “Total-body health and wellness,” and that the product contains 30 “superfoods.”
But does L’Evate You contain research-backed ingredients at effective doses? Are there any unhealthy ingredients? What was our honest experience purchasing and testing it for a month? And is L'Evate You better or worse than popular nutritional shakes like Ka'Chava?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in L’Evate You to give our take on whether or not it's healthy.
We’ll also feature our Product Tester's experience trying this product for a month, and compare L'Evate You to other popular nutritional powders to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Some nutritious veggie ingredients
- Very low doses of some active ingredients like blueberry
- We do not currently recommend L'Evate You
Ingredient Analysis
L’Evate You contains a large number of active ingredients, so we’ll break down our ingredient analysis into sections.
The green blend and digestive blend are shown below:
image source: https://levateyou.com/
Organic wheat grass powder and organic barley grass powder are some of the whole food, nutritious ingredients in this blend.
We don’t have any issues with the ingredients in the Greens Blend, but the total greens dose is much lower than most green powder products we’ve reviewed on Illuminate Health.
The greens blend totals only 1,711 milligrams (mg), or 1.7 grams (g).
According to the USDA, one tablespoon of wheatgrass powder equals 8 g, so the dose of the entire green powder blend in L’Evate You is less than 25% of the dose in one tablespoon of wheatgrass powder.
The Digestive Enzyme & Probiotic blend has nearly as high of a dose as the Greens Blend, and we haven’t come across any evidence that otherwise healthy individuals benefit from digestive enzyme supplementation (nor does the brand’s product page cite any).
The ingredients in the Power, Energy & Longevity Blend and the Antioxidant Blend are shown below:
image source: https://levateyou.com/
Again, we’re unsure if the individual ingredient doses here are high enough to provide any benefit. The average ingredient dose in the Antioxidant Blend is 21 mg.
According to the USDA, one single blueberry has a dose of 2,000 mg.
This means that one single blueberry has a dose 95x higher than the average ingredient dose in this Antioxidant Blend.
Whole fruit is mostly water, but even if you subtract the water you end up with a dose for one blueberry of 320 mg, or more than 10x the average ingredient dose in L’Evate You’s blend.
The remaining ingredients in this supplement are shown below:
image source: https://levateyou.com/
The Mushroom Blend has the same issue as the previous blends in our opinion.
The average ingredient dose is only 21 mg, and we haven’t come across any medical studies suggesting raw, unextracted mushroom powder has health benefits at such a low dose.
Nor does the brand cite any.
Natural flavors is included as an inactive ingredient, and as we discussed in our review of Katy Perry’s drink brand De Soi, at least one medical review suggests that some flavoring additives may be harmful to human health.
Overall, we do not currently recommend L'Evate You due to our concerns about active ingredient dosing.
We Tried L'Evate You Ourselves
One of our product testers named Jodie Steinberg tried the Chocolate flavor of L'Evate You for a month.
Here's her experience:
The packaging was a soft pouch and when I opened it, some of the chocolate powder spilled out.
A hard container would be better. I think the packaging is a bit cheap and the powder gets around the seal so it’s hard to seal it back up properly.
Mixability was good. This product blended into water without any issues.
I am not a fan of the taste.
I bought the chocolate flavored one and it tastes like Yoo-Hoo mixed in with green vegetable flavor. The chocolate does not mask the green vegetable taste at all and simply combines with it making a taste that is odd and off putting.
I didn't experience any side effects of otherwise unexpected effects while using this product.
As far as product effects, I didn’t find it increased my energy, helped me exercise harder or made me feel different at all.
Overall, I would rate L'Evate You 2/10 and do not plan to purchase it in the future.
L’Evate You vs. Superfood Powders
Here's how L'Evate You compares to other popular "superfood" nutritional powders in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:
Ka'Chava
This blend has a superior macronutrient ratio, with 25 g of protein and nearly 10 g of fiber, which is clinically shown to be associated with weight loss.
We consider Ka'Chava to have a (slight) advantage in regard to potential efficacy, given its superior dosing.
Winner: Ka'Chava
AG1
There are two inactive ingredients in AG1 that we consider (mildly) unhealthy.
However, the total green powder dose is substantially higher, as we documented in our AG1 reviews article.
We give AG1 the advantage from a potential efficacy perspective.
Winner: AG1
Happy Viking
Contains a sweetener which is associated with increased risk of stroke.
We consider L'Evate You to be the healthier choice.
Winner: L'Evate You
Does L’Evate You Cause Side Effects?
L’Evate You doesn’t appear to have been studied in any clinical trials, which makes it challenging to say whether or not a supplement is likely to cause side effects.
However, we can make an educated guess based on the stated ingredients.
Maca is the only ingredient of note in regard to potential side effects.
As we detailed in our Oats Overnight reviews article, maca is an indigestible plant fiber much like potato, so it can irritate the digestive system.
We don’t consider this ingredient to be dangerous, but we prefer gelatinized maca.
Overall, we consider L’Evate You unlikely to cause side effects in otherwise healthy adults (but it’s always best to clear use of a supplement with a doctor).
There is no mention of side effects from use of this supplement on the L’Evate You website.
Our Clean Green Powder Pick
Starwest Botanicals Organic Green Powder is our top overall green powder pick.
All of its ingredients are organic and nutrient-dense, and it contains ingredients like wheat grass and moringa leaf that the average consumer probably doesn't get in their diet.
This supplement is entirely free of ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.
L’Evate You Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Contains many whole food ingredients
- Good mix of plant ingredients
- Contains probiotics
-
Unlikely to cause side effects
Cons:
- Doesn’t appear to be clinically tested
- Low overall green powder dose
- Contains flavoring additives
- Contains raw maca
- Less healthy than some competitors
- Our Product Tester disliked the packaging
- Our Product Tester disliked the product effects
- Our Product Tester disliked the taste
