Primal Greens is a green powder supplement from a brand called Primal Harvest. The brand claims that their product "makes getting your daily serving of energy-supporting nutrients both convenient and enjoyable."
But what's actually in Primal Greens and is it healthy? Does the brand use any questionable additive ingredients? How does the price compare to other popular green powder supplements? And how do real customers rate and describe its effects?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Primal Greens to give our take on whether or not it's a healthy choice.
We'll compare the price and healthiness of Primal Greens to other popular green powder products, and feature unsponsored customer reviews of the brand.
Ingredient Analysis
The vitamins and minerals in Primal Greens are shown above.
Primal Harvest adds vitamins and minerals to their green powder (like cyanocobalamin and DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate).
We prefer green powders without added vitamins and minerals. The greens are already nutrient-dense and we consider this practice to be unnecessary and potentially harmful.
Vitamin E supplementation, for instance, may have a pro-aging effect according to a medical review published in the Gerontology journal.
The remaining active ingredients in Primal Greens are shown below:
The blend of botanical ingredients (the first two sections) has a total dose over 7 grams (g) per serving, which is relatively high, and is a good thing.
Many of the fruit and vegetable ingredients in the first two blends have been shown in research studies to support optimal health.
Wheat grass has medical uses according to a 2015 medical review, including the potential to prevent cancer and even to support cancer treatment.
Chlorella is clinically shown to be one of the most nutrient-dense plant foods available, as we documented in our Field of Greens reviews article.
Blackberry was described as having "antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, antiviral, and cardiovascular properties" in a 2023 medical review.
There are no additive ingredients in this formulation we consider to be unhealthy.
However, there are two active ingredients that we have questions about.
Cinnamon bark is included, but the brand fails to document which type of cinnamon is used.
Cassia cinnamon (the cheaper type) is clinically shown to be much higher in a toxin called coumarin than Ceylon cinnamon, which is why we only recommend products containing the latter.
Fungal amylase is an ingredient that we can't find much long-term safety data in humans to support taking regularly.
Overall, we consider Primal Greens somewhat likely to improve health given its relatively high dose of botanical ingredients.
However, we don't currently recommend this green powder due to the inclusion of vitamin and mineral additives, cinnamon bark of an undocumented type and fungal amylase.
Real People Try Primal Greens
A TikTok creator named Eric Michael Taylor did a taste test of Primal Greens:
@_emtmusic What has my life become #primalgreens #greens #fitness #countryfitness #funny ♬ original sound - Eric Michael Taylor
A TikTok creator named "alyssakayschmidt" shared her experience after using Primal Greens for a week:
@alyssakayschmidt Full review on @primalharvest Primal Greens!! Definitely go check them out! :) #primalharvest #primalharvestpartner #selfcaresunday #healthylifestyle #goodhabits #fyp ♬ original sound - alyssa
Is Primal Greens Overpriced?
It can be challenging to compare the true cost of green powders, because they come in so many serving sizes.
Below we've compared the price of Primal Greens to some other popular green powders by standardizing to price per 5 g of greens, at the time of publishing this article:
L'Evate You: $3.38
Bloom Nutrition: $2.57
Athletic Greens: $1.63
Primal Greens: $1.17
Of the four brands, Primal Greens currently provides the best value by a significant margin.
We consider Athletic Greens to be the healthiest of the four brands, for reasons detailed in our AG1 review article, but we don't currently recommend any of the four brands on a purely nutritional basis.
Our Clean Green Powder Picks
Complement Daily Greens is our top green powder pick, and costs under $45 for a one-time purchase at the time of publishing this article
This greens powder is extremely nutrient-dense without any added vitamins, providing 50% of the Daily Value (DV) for iron, 46% of the chromium DV and 35% of the vitamin A DV in one serving.
This powder uses organic stevia leaf extract and organic natural flavors, which meets a higher standard of ingredient safety in our opinion than natural flavors or artificial flavors, according to USDA flavoring guidelines.
Green tea is a nutritionally-rich green powder that's shown in a 2006 medical review to have a number of health benefits, including:
"anti-hypertensive effect, body weight control, antibacterial and antivirasic activity, solar ultraviolet protection, bone mineral density increase, anti-fibrotic properties, and neuroprotective power."
Pique Japanese Sencha Green Tea is our top brand pick, because it only has one ingredient (organic green tea), is packaged in a crystallized form that's much more convenient than tea bags, and only costs $16 at the time of publishing this article.
Customers Rate Primal Greens
Amazon is a better resource for honest customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.
At the time of publishing this article, Primal Greens has been reviewed over 2,500 times on Amazon, and has an average customer review rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars.
A top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "Janae Smith" who gave the product a 5/5 rating, and claims it tastes better than other green powders:
"After trying every one I could find, there’s finally a greens powder I can drink plain with water without gagging, or mix with my protein shake and not taste it. This stuff is do-able if you don’t want getting your greens to feel like something you have to endure. I’m fussy. This has minimal taste..."
A top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "S/s" who gave the product a 1/5 rating, and disliked both the taste and mixability:
"It does not mix well, has an awful taste. Does not make you feel better, more like you want to throw up. No wonder there is no refund offered."
Primal Greens currently has a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on Google.
Primal Harvest currently has a 3.67 out of 5 star rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, and the brand has responded to all customer complaints in an attempt to resolve the issue, which is a sign of a high-quality brand.
Dietitian Rates Green Powders
A dietitian and YouTube creator named Kat Benson rated popular green powders (including Primal Greens) in a video with over 45,000 views:
Primal Greens Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Primal Greens in our opinion:
Pros:
- High dose of produce
- No unhealthy additives
- Great price-per-serving
- May support optimal health
- Mostly positive online customer reviews
Cons:
- Contains vitamin and mineral additives
- Unclear what type of cinnamon is used
- Contains fungal amylase
