A-list health at a hefty price

Elle Macpherson, who turned 50 earlier this year, has launched a designer supplement called The Super Elixir.

Elle Macpherson, who turned 50 earlier this year, has launched a designer supplement called The Super Elixir.

Published Jun 30, 2014

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London - What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Tea and toast? Coffee and cereal?

I don’t mean to sound smug, but here’s what I had: alfalfa, spinach, wheatgrass, pineapple, apple, goji berry, beetroot, broccoli, some “alkalising super greens”, and, er some maitake mushroom; all on top of my cereal.

Thankfully, I wasn’t chopping for hours: all these mega-healthy ingredients came in a magical powder form, ready for me to sprinkle on my Weetabix.

And although it might look like fermented pond scum, it tastes surprisingly sweet - not least because it promises to make me look and feel like a supermodel. Elle Macpherson to be exact.

The Australian model, who somehow turned 50 in March, launched this green powder - marketed as The Super Elixir - last month, with the help of Harley Street nutritionist Dr Simone Laubscher.

Containing 45 ingredients, it is meant to improve “inner fitness, support nutrition at a cellular level and optimise the functioning of all 11 systems of the body”.

Frankly, at this price - £96 (about R1 600) a jar, which should last just one month - I’d expect it to make me fly. But it seems the days of good old-fashioned multi-vitamins are long gone; today’s supplements are as A-list as the people raving about them - with price tags to match.

Earlier this month, Victoria Beckham tweeted a picture of her new favourite supplement: Bee Panacea, which combines raw honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly to boost energy, fight acne and help with indigestion, depression and high blood pressure. It also costs an eye-watering £35 (R600) for a small pot, which even its biggest fan would have to admit won’t last long.

Meanwhile, other celebrities such as Miranda Kerr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have been waxing lyrical about breakfast smoothies made with a bewildering number of new-age ingredients, including maca powder, chia seeds, blue algae, baobab powder, bee pollen, freeze-dried acai berry and lacuma powder.

Each one is supposed to be an ancient superfood, offering a vast array of benefits, from boosting your libido to warding off depression. But as they cost anything from £5 to £20 a pop, by my reckoning, you’d have to shell out £70 before you could get your blender out.

Even John Lewis sells Dr Perricone’s Total Skin and Body supplements - £78 for a month’s worth, or for those on the budget, Superberry powder with acai, at £53 for 30 days’ worth.

Just like jeans and handbags, vitamins, it seems, have gone designer. But are super-supplements worth their super prices? “Part of the allure of some of these products is the price tag. It’s like buying a Jo Malone candle or a pot of Creme de la Mer - you don’t need to spend £100 on a face cream, but some people want to and swear by it,” says nutritionist Ian Marber.

“Most of these new supplements are what’s known as ‘food state nutrients’, which are as similar to real food as possible. Because they are better absorbed by the gut, you could say you get more benefit from them, but then you could also benefit from eating a lot of vegetables,” says Marber.

Marber has a problem with the main claim of Elle Macpherson’s new product: that it alkalises the body.

The theory goes that modern diets create too much acid, leading to an over-production of fat cells to carry the excess away from vital organs; as well as exacerbating many common complaints such as arthritis and tiredness.

The idea is that eating certain foods or supplements can maintain the body’s ideal pH balance (acidity levels) to improve overall health.

“I’m not comfortable with the science,” says Marber. “There’s no robust research to show you change your body’s pH through food for more than a minute or two. We all like to think that there’s a health secret that we haven’t been let into — and Elle is sharing it with us.”

And what about the new array of products such as maca or lucuma powder?

“It’s funny, we embrace technology in every area of our lives but still think, health wise, that something from an ancient tribe is better,” says Marber.

“The specifics are fine - they contain concentrated forms of antioxidants and flavonoids, which are extremely useful, but we don’t know the long- term safety.

“Also, putting a spoon of this, a spoon of that into a smoothie is working on the assumption that the body is going to benefit from a mega dose of nutrients. Whereas we don’t know if our body is even able to absorb them all.”

Marber is, however, a fan of freshly made green vegetable juice - and says if we up our “five-a-day” to at least seven, we will be fine.

“I don’t like the idea that food isn’t enough,” he says. “A good diet of fruit and vegetables will be enough for the vast majority of us.

“And if you’re feeling below par, think: are you stressed? Are you drinking too much? Not sleeping enough? An expensive supplement isn’t the answer.”

Oh well, even if Elle’s power powder doesn’t give me the body of The Body, it has at least made me a few pounds lighter. In the wallet.

Maca powder: Made from a South African root, purported to boost energy and sex drive.

Baobab powder: The sub-Saharan superfood is said to increase energy.

Lucuma powder: Made from Peruvian lucuma fruit and aids digestion.

Bee pollen: Packed full of 22 amino acids, vitamins and minerals.

Acai berries: Rich in anti-oxidants; linked to weight loss.

Chia seeds: Meant to help dieters lose weight by making you feel fuller.

Chlorella/spirulina/kelp: Algaes packed with protein, vitamins and minerals, to boost energy and mood.

Wheatgrass powder: Rich in vitamin C and good for immune system

Daily Mail

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