[00:00:00] Jenn Trepeck: Welcome to Salad with a side of Fries. I'm your host, Jen Tpic, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. We're here to clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science and marketing to teach you how to eat and how to cheat. Are you ready? I'm having salad with a side of Friess. This week we're talking about Arbonne's energy, fizz and green Synergy Elixir.

[00:00:30] Caitlin s thank you for submitting this one through Instagram. So she said, love your podcast. Just listen to the proto. Well, thank you, Caitlin. I am honored that you listen and that you wrote in. So then her message goes on to say, I'd love an episode on Arbonne's Fiz and Synergy Greens I've been using for a while, and from my research, it seems great.

[00:00:54] Thank you. Well, Caitlin, we aim to please over here. So here we go. [00:01:00] Now super quick, if you have an idea for a nutrition nugget or an episode, send it in. You can go to Instagram like Caitlin. I'm at Gen Tpic. J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is a salad with a side of fries.com. You can use the contact form on social media.

[00:01:17] It's at salad with a side of fries, pod, website, Instagram, where ever easy for you. Send it in. So Caitlyn's message sounded to me like it was all one product. Turns out it's not. So it's green Synergy elixir and energy fizz. So that explains why my search did not find them. I had to go back to Caitlyn and ask to send links because I couldn't find anything.

[00:01:45] So anyway, because this is two separate products, it is a lot to cover, therefore. This isn't going to be in, I guess, as much detail as we sometimes do going through [00:02:00] products. Now, the other piece as a precursor, are you familiar with Arbon, Cindy? I am not. Okay. So some people are familiar with it, some people are not.

[00:02:10] This is the company behind these products, and I know it's a network marketing company. I don't know if their compensation structure is multilevel or not. And that doesn't really matter. For the purposes of our conversation, what I want to urge everyone to understand and maybe to do is to not make decisions about a product based on their distribution.

[00:02:38] So there can be fantastic products and not so fantastic products from any company with any distribution model. Okay. Now in looking at these two, I focus solely on the product information on the website. Okay. Starting with the green Synergy Elixir, [00:03:00] the marketing says, helps reduce bloating, supports gut health, and boost skin radiance phytonutrient, blend of fruits and vegetables.

[00:03:09] Then it says Your green gut glow on the go. That is a tongue twister. It says, create synergy from the inside out with a drinkable, smart nutrition plus skincare routine that features your greens collagen builder and happy gut formula, all in one tasty citrus flavored shot. Green Synergy Elixir features 13 full spectrum digestive enzymes for less bloat, a blend of 36 fruits and vegetables for smart nutrition support and a vegan.

[00:03:38] Collagen builder for great looking, skin formulated without artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners formulated without high fructose corn syrup, dairy, or soy formulated without gluten. Okay, I like what they're saying is not in there. I'm not totally sold them. What they're saying is in there. By that I mean to address [00:04:00] bloat, I typically want digestive enzymes separate from many fruits or vegetables, and.

[00:04:08] In this, you're probably getting the nutrients, but not the fiber of the fruits and vegetables. So I'm sort of like, why not just call it a vitamin kind of a thing? I don't know that for sure. And then it says they're adding vegan collagen. From my research, our best sources of collagen are not vegan, and I'm not sure, but putting all of this together, I'm not sure that I would call this optimal.

[00:04:35] Like, do I want collagen with my digestive enzymes? I'm not sure I'm thinking about this in real time as I'm saying this with you, I just don't know about putting it all on one formula, right? Again, if I'm looking for the gut health support, there are other things besides collagen that I would be interested in as far as the lining of the gut.

[00:04:54] I digress. Right? I could sit here and pontificate, but let's move on. So then [00:05:00] they have these icons that say Wellness Boost, hydrate Gut Health. I honestly have no idea what Boost is supposed to mean. Going from their other paragraph above. Maybe that's the skin health thing. I don't know. Then they give us more icons.

[00:05:17] Certified B Corp. Vegan certified. Kosher Certified. Halal certified Non GMO verified. And while I like all of these things, I bet we're going to see all of this reflected in the price because all of these verifications cost a lot of money. So a lot of products might be these things, but not pay for the badge.

[00:05:39] Right. Okay. Looking at the ingredients without going through every single detail with you, because we wanna do the other product too. A couple things that I notice. I see some biotin and vitamin C, which I like. You know, on the collagen side, I don't actually see collagen in there. They keep calling it a [00:06:00] collagen builder, so I'm not really sure.

[00:06:02] The enzymes in the blend are pretty solid, and frankly, it's really gonna come down to, if you notice it working for you, then there are some ingredients here where. I guess I'm not sure why they're in there based on the claims that they're making about the product, like the Goda Cola, so that's an herb and sea buckthorn.

[00:06:27] Often in like skincare things, there's hyaluronic acid, which is also in there often for skincare things, also joint health. Then there's chail and ginger, so maybe you're getting some digestive support from those two. I don't really know the Phytonutrient blend. I mean, it's fine. Everything in there seems fine.

[00:06:51] I just go back to, I would prefer to eat fruits and vegetables and there is some algae and we have a whole episode [00:07:00] on algae that you can go back to. So there are pieces of this that I like. I think where I land on this is what are you taking it for? It feels like a lot of things thrown into one, and maybe you don't need all of it, or maybe you don't need all of it together.

[00:07:19] And the price, by the way, $121, which they say you can get discounted to 96 point 80. I don't know what you have to do or sign up for to get the discount, but that's for 30 stick packs. So for me, at over $3 a stick pack, I don't know. I have a digestive enzyme I like that's incredibly effective. It doesn't have some of the other stuff in there that this one has.

[00:07:48] But again, I don't know that I need that in my digestive enzymes and those are 28 95 for 40 servings. So it's just, you know, we're paying for a lot of these things that may or may [00:08:00] not be what you're looking for. Okay. Onto the energy fizz. So they call these ginseng fizz sticks. Caitlyn sent us the blackberry flavor, so that's what I'm looking at the marketing says with caffeine from green tea and guana helps boost energy levels.

[00:08:21] Okay, seems pretty straightforward. Then there are little marketing paragraphs says, get the natural boost you need to make it through the day, whether used as a replacement for your morning coffee or for a mid-afternoon, pick me up simply. Mix this vegan, low calorie effervescent dietary supplement with water designed to help increase energy levels while temporarily relieving fatigue, promoting alertness and enhancing cognitive performance.

[00:08:46] It's vegan blend of ginseng root. Antioxidant Coenzyme Q 10 chromium, and B vitamins including riboflavin. Niacin is joined by naturally derived caffeine from guana and green tea, available in a variety of [00:09:00] great tasting flavors. The dietary supplement helps boost energy levels formulated without artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners formulated without high fructose corn syrup, dairy, or soy formulated without gluten.

[00:09:10] Okay, super quick. We have to see how much of these ingredients are in there. I wouldn't necessarily use this as an afternoon. Pick me up if you have challenges with sleep. If you notice after you're taking this, that then you have less deep sleep, a harder time falling asleep, or a harder time staying asleep, it could be connected again.

[00:09:32] That's gonna kind of go back to when are you having this throughout the day, how much of these ingredients are in there? But you know, just worth noting. Then they say, good for energy, cognitive performance, endurance, reducing fatigue, and then their icons say caffeine, 30 day, I don't know what that means.

[00:09:52] Endurance energy. Then we get all those icons again with the certifications, the B corp, vegan, gluten-free, halal, and kosher. [00:10:00] Again, if those are important to you, fantastic. Okay. Then I think it's worth noting. They say enjoy two to three times per day. I know I just saw your face. You're like, whoa. So that seems like a lot to me.

[00:10:16] Right? Either way, maybe they want you to buy a bunch of them, or it's that the amount of the active ingredients is so low that such that you need that much to see a benefit. I don't know. The thing of that many a day is a little bit of a yellow flag to me. Then they just say, do not exceed three per day.

[00:10:36] So there's that. Okay. Oh, I suppose this is also worth mentioning, so it's 30 per package for $69. Same thing. You can get it discounted to 55, 20. Again, I don't know what you have to do to get that discount, but if we go with their recommendation of two to three per day, that package of 30 is lasting you 10 to 15 days.

[00:10:59] So a [00:11:00] month's supply is somewhere between 110 and $165 a month. If you're taking two to three a day, so again, not inexpensive, let's see if the ingredients stack up to make it worth it. Right. Okay. I like that there's more than just B12. I like that their source of B12 is methyl cobalamine, but it's not a true B complex.

[00:11:23] We're missing some of the B vitamins in the formula and. The dosing is a fraction of one that I take myself and recommend to my clients. So for example, their B12 of the methyl cobalamine, so I like the source, but their B12 has six micrograms. The one I use has 120 in a single dose, and frankly, all of the amounts on the B vitamins and this one seem kind of low to me.

[00:11:52] Even if you took it three times a day, it still seems kind of low. I think we could do better in terms of the quantity of [00:12:00] the ingredients and the pricing. There's chromium in there, which I like for blood sugar balance and may help with some mood a bit, but again, there's not that much in here, so I don't know.

[00:12:13] It's like then there's a lot of ginseng. Then 55 milligrams of caffeine from green tea leaf extract and guano seed extract. I wish they would tell us what kind of coq 10 they're using, because a lot of coq 10 is really difficult for the body to absorb. And then there's also a little bit of touring. So on this one, the energy fizz, any pick me up you're getting is really from the ginseng and the caffeine.

[00:12:39] They're small amounts of all the other ingredients. I wish I knew the source of some of them too. I wish it was a proper B complex versus just, you know, some of the bees, although at least it is more than just B12 and then they both have cane sugar, which is fine. We need some, you know, likely something to make it taste decent.

[00:12:59] The [00:13:00] energy one also has Steviol Glycosides, which is from Stevia. So for some people that's a deal breaker or can cause some GI upset. So. You do you on that one? So we did a lot between these two products in one nutrition nugget. I think with both the green synergy and the energy fizz, I kind of land on, if you like them, great on the first one.

[00:13:26] Consider what you're looking for from it. If you're focused on gut support, you could probably find that in another formula that's maybe a bit more targeted and less costly. Without a lot of other stuff in there, I think you could spend a lot less on both of these and get more powerful ingredients and quantities of those ingredients.

[00:13:48] So

[00:13:49] Cyndi: Cindy, that was a lot. Thoughts, questions. I agree, totally. I think the synergy wants to be two things at once and it's not hitting the mark for either. [00:14:00] And same with the tea. I mean, you could have a nice black tea. You can get a, the energy fiz, the

[00:14:06] Jenn Trepeck: gin thing with the, and it's green tea extract. So this is not even actually drinking a tea.

[00:14:13] It's just tea, you know, powder you're mixing into

[00:14:15] Cyndi: your water. Yeah. And the fact that they say you need two to three drinks to heal the effects that caffeine would have me up for days.

[00:14:24] Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. Yeah. So again, I think I always say this, you do you. If you're taking these and enjoy them, seeing benefits, fantastic for me.

[00:14:36] I'm gonna stick with others, but there you have it, Caitlin. That's the scoop, my friends. That is Arbonne's Green, synergy, elixir, and Energy. Fizz. Well, as always, everybody, I'm your host, gen Trek. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm at Gen Tre, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is a salad with the side of fries.com.[00:15:00]

[00:15:00] Consider this your personal invitation to join us in the Healthy Vibe tribe, and send a message. I love hearing from you, your takeaways, your ideas, your questions, whichever platform is easiest for you. That's the best way to learn more. Cindy, thank you again for joining us and sharing your story. Thank you for having me.

[00:15:19] Absolutely. And of course, if you are not already a member, I invite you to the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to a salad with a side of fries.com/membership. This shows your support for this podcast, this community, and most importantly, your health. On top of the 24 7, ask Me anything, the community chat, the discounts, and the curated content.

[00:15:37] You'll get this week's recipe for bourbon mustard steak kebabs. Well friends, that's it for today's episode of Salad for the Side of Fries.

[00:15:57] Congratulations for making yourself [00:16:00] and your health a priority. Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform. Share us with a friend and we'll be back next week. Always remember you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy, healthy.