Spring Valley Probiotic Review: Cheap for a Reason?

Spring Valley Probiotic Review: Cheap for a Reason?


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Spring Valley is Walmart’s supplement brand, and they sell one of the most affordable probiotics on the market. This probiotic also contains digestive enzymes, and the company suggests that it can support digestive health.

But does Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme Probiotic contain research-backed ingredients for digestive health, or is it a waste of money? Does the supplement contain any questionable additives? How do real users rate and describe its effects? And which retailer sells this supplement for the best price?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Spring Valley’s probiotic based on medical studies to give our take on whether or not it’s likely to be effective for digestive support.

We’ll also feature unsponsored customer reviews and provide a cost comparison to show which retailer sells it for the best price.

This article will share a video from a clinical nutritionist who discusses how he healed his gut naturally.

Ingredient Analysis

Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme Probiotic ingredients 1

Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme probiotic contains a large number of active ingredients, so we’ll break our ingredient analysis into two sections.

The first section of ingredients is shown above.

Betaine hydrochloride is a strange ingredient choice for a general health maintenance supplement in our opinion. It’s typically used in patients with low stomach acid, but we haven’t come across any clinical evidence that it provides health benefits in otherwise healthy individuals.

A 2021 meta-study found that betaine supplementation increases total cholesterol levels.

Pancreatin and amylase are examples of digestive enzymes, and while digestive enzymes are clinically shown to help improve gut health in individuals with gastrointestinal diseases, we haven’t come across any clinical evidence that they’re necessary or useful in individuals without gastrointestinal issues (nor does Spring Valley cite any on its product page).

Calcium is included, and as we documented in our Orgain Protein Powder review article, supplemental calcium has been shown in some medical studies to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The second section of ingredients in this supplement are shown below:

Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme Probiotic ingredients 2

Lactobacillus acidophilus La-14 is the only probiotic ingredient out of the 11 total active ingredients, which is somewhat strange for a probiotic supplement.

This probiotic species was shown to be a critical factor in many important biological processes like regulation of cholesterol levels, in a medical review published in the Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology.

The dose of this probiotic at only 500 million colony-forming units (CFU) is relatively low. A Fact Sheet on probiotics published by the National Institutes of Health suggests that most probiotic supplements provide between 1 billion CFU and 10 billion CFU per dose.

Overall, we consider Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme Probiotic potentially likely to support gut health given its probiotic ingredient, however we consider this to be one of the worst probiotic formulations we’ve reviewed to date, given that we can only find research backing for 1 of 11 active ingredients.

But how do real users rate and describe the effects of this supplement? We’ll feature some unsponsored user reviews in the next section of this article.

Real People Try Spring Valley Probiotic

A TikTok creator named Steph shares her experience using Spring Valley’s probiotic, and discusses whether or not it can be effective for weight loss:

@stephy.says #greenscreen #springvalleyvitamins #springvalleyprobiotic #weightloss #fyp #fypシ ♬ Cupid – Twin Ver. (FIFTY FIFTY) – Sped Up Version - sped up 8282

A TikTok creator named Christina suggests that this probiotic is effective for bloating:

@christinasvlog 🫣 MY RESULTS ON THE PROBIOTIC- PART 2 #springvalleyvitamins #fitmom #fitnessmotivation #results #vlog #fypシ #healthylifestyle #youthful #livelonger #eathealthy ♬ Enjoy That - Akon

Our Clean Probiotic Picks

Ritual Synbiotic+ is our top value probiotic pick.

It contains prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics, and costs under $1.50 per serving at the time of updating this article.

Probiotics "can improve in the immune, gastrointestinal...health systems in healthy adults" according to a 2019 medical review.

VSL#3 is our top premium probiotic pick.

This probiotic supplement has been studied in 25 clinical trials, and a 2020 meta-study on VSL#3 concluded the following:

"...many studies demonstrated that VSL#3 has a beneficial effect on obesity and diabetes, allergic diseases, nervous systemic diseases, AS, bone diseases, and female reproductive systemic diseases."

MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ is our top prebiotic fiber pick.

MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ contains 100% soluble fiber, which was described as "one of the most important nutrients for the gut microbiota" in a clinical review published in the Molecules journal.

All of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.

How a Nutritionist Fixed His Digestion

A clinical nutritionist and YouTube creator named Simnett Nutrition has a video discussing how he healed his digestion naturally that has over 1 million views.

We do not necessarily agree with all of his approaches, but figured this may be an engaging and informative video for consumers considering Spring Valley's probiotic:

Where to Get the Best Price

Spring Valley Probiotic is (somewhat surprisingly) sold at a variety of online retailers, even though it's officially a Walmart brand.

Here's a price breakdown at the time of publishing this article:

EveryMarket: $31.98 (link)

Amazon: $19.99 (free shipping, third-party seller, link)

Walmart: $12.98 (plus shipping, link)

This probiotic is more than 50% cheaper on Walmart than on EveryMarket.

Pros and Cons of Spring Valley Probiotic

Here are the pros and cons of Spring Valley Probiotic in our opinion:

Pros:

  • Affordable
  • Contains a research-backed probiotic species
  • No unhealthy additives
  • Mostly positive online customer reviews

Cons:

  • We can't find any proof that digestive enzymes help people without gastrointestinal disease
  • Relatively low probiotic dose
  • Contains supplemental calcium
Stay up-to-date on our research reviews

Conclusion

We do not currently recommend Spring Valley Multi-Enzyme Probiotic, even for the cheap price.

While this supplement is free of any unhealthy additives, we can’t find any clinical evidence suggesting that 10 of its 11 ingredients are a good gut support choice for otherwise healthy individuals.

The one probiotic strain in this supplement is included at a relatively low dose.

Online customer reviews of this product are mostly favorable, but it seems like many people are using this supplement for weight loss, which it is not indicated for, and which there is no proof it’s effective for.

Walmart has the best prices on this supplement currently.