Blackmores Superfoods + Nature Boost

Product: Blackmores Superfoods + Nature Boost

 

Ad description: Ad opens showing oats and fruit falling into a jar, followed by broccoli and celery modelled as mobile toys. Voiceover says “food, an important part of our journey to wellbeing”. Watermelon cut into shape of a radio is shown, VO says “how do we get more from our food?”. VO “make our greens greener?” (showing range of zucchinis), “turn kale into KALE!?” (kale grows into larger brighter leaf),  VO "with black mores. The only superfoods plus nature boost, added vitamins and nutrients sourced from nature. So you can make stronger smoothies (smoothies shown), make salads with substance (salad jumps from bowl) and give your porridge more ‘roar’ (as porridge bowl turns into lion)”. VO “Get more from your food with blackmores superfoods plus nature boost. Blackmores. Be a well being”.

Ad claims:  You’ll get more (nutrition) from your food by adding this new product “Superfoods + Nature Boost”.

The facts: Superfoods + Nature Boost are a range of powdered vegetable and seed supplements with names such as “coconut + nature boost magnesium” and “single origin cacao + nature boost prebiotics and probiotics”. They are made from powdered vegetables, fruits and a range of other ingredients like cacao, coconut and matcha green tea. Because they are sold as food supplements rather than vitamin supplements we have a nutrition panel, but not a full list of the vitamins and minerals they contain. Energy content is low because the serving size is small. They are designed to be added to foods and drinks (rather than taken as a supplement tablet).

Cost: the retail price ranges from $12.99 - $22.99 depending on the type.

The result: There is a lot I could pick on for this ad (such as, if you regularly ate the real vegetables, fruit, salad and porridge shown you’d certainly have no need for this product, and why would you want your ‘kale turned into KALE!’) but I’ll stick to the product itself. 

The product is powdered fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts. Because the fibre and bulk has less benefit in this form it's basically a different way of taking a vitamin supplement. If you’re eating a range of foods every day you generally have no need for a supplement. For minerals check you are having some protein foods one or two times per day as well as dairy foods or a calcium fortified non-dairy alternative. For vitamins, eat as many colours as possible to get all the vitamins and minerals you need.

Our bodies are really good at regulating our vitamin and mineral levels, so instead of storing the vitamins in your body, if you’re taking a supplement, you’ll wee out what you don’t need – making expensive wee.

Some people do have low vitamin or mineral levels and need a supplement. Generally it’s best to see a doctor and find out what is lacking. Take that specific supplement until it’s back in the normal range. You really only need a multivitamin if your diet is very restricted (such as during or after illness or if you have severe food allergies, and sometimes in very fussy in children). In those cases a prepared multivitamin would be better than this product.

The cost outweighs any benefits of this one. You’re better off spending the money on fresh fruit and vegetables.