Balance of Nature vs Garden of Life: Which is Best?

If you’re looking for a whole food supplement to boost your intake of greens, fruits, and even healthy fiber and other beneficial ingredients, you may have landed on  the very popular Balance of Nature, or Garden of Life, a popular Balance of Nature alternative.

Which one is better depends on your body’s needs as well as your shopping preferences and how you prefer to make healthy changes in your diet and lifestyle.

Main Differences Between Balance of Nature vs Garden of Life

The main differences between Balance of Nature vs Garden of Life are:

• Balance of Nature is limited to fruits, veggies, and fiber & spice, whereas Garden of Life has a wide range of products for a well-rounded approach to health with a variety to suit almost anyone’s needs.
• Balance of Nature keeps several types of ingredients separately, whereas Garden of Life combines them into one product.
• Balance of Nature offers fruits and veggies in a capsule form and powders that can be mixed with water, whereas Garden of Life has capsules, powders, and liquids.
• Balance of Nature products are more difficult to find, whereas Garden of Life’s products can easily be found on Amazon, in pharmacies, and on their official site.
• Balance of Nature offers a subscription option with lower prices, whereas Garden of Life does not. 

What to Look for in a Whole Foods Supplement or Balance of Nature Alternative

Once you’ve settled on how you want to get those extra fruits, veggies, and fiber into your diet (capsule, powder, meal replacement shake, etc.), you’ll still need to compare ingredients. There are other things to take into account, too:

• Are they all whole foods?
• Organic?
• GMO-free?
• Vegan (if that’s important to you)?
• Is it affordable and sustainable for your budget?
• How diverse are the ingredients?
• Are there fillers?
• Do you need or want energy boosters?
• What about sweeteners?
• Do you want to take multiple products or get it covered in one shot?

Greens Powder Comparison Chart

Let’s look at a side-by-side comparison of Balance of Nature vs. Garden of Life:

	Balance of Nature	Garden of Life
Products offered	Fruits & Veggies (separate products sold in pairs), Fiber & Spice, and Whole Health System (all three products in one set at a slight discount)	Greens, proteins, alkalizes/detoxers, magnesium, fish oil, essential oils, probiotics, collagen, meal replacements, CBD oil, vitamins (vitamin C, B vitamins, fatty acids, Vitamin E, folic acid, vitamin D, multivitamin, etc…), and herbal supplements
Overview of product claims	Doctor-formulated products that will help you “feel and be your best” (according to their main page), made from high-quality real food, all produce subject to 3rd party testing	Quality ingredients, whole foods, clean ingredients
How to use	Fruits: Swallow with water or chew them up; Veggies: Swallow or open and add to food/drink; Fiber & Spice: Mix 2 scoops with water or juice morning and evening	The Garden of Life products that are comparable to the Balance of Nature products are meant to be mixed with liquid
About the ingredients	All-natural whole foods, vegan, no GMOs, gluten, sugar, artificial sweeteners, synthetics, extracts, or fillers; does contain soy, but why that isn’t risky is addressed in the Balance of Nature FAQ section	Whole foods, vegan, GMO-free, gluten-free, kosher, NSF certified for sport
Price range	Around $50.00 to $160.00, depending on the product you choose and whether you’re a Preferred Member (subscriber) or not	Varies because there is such a range of products, but concerning the closest comparison to Balance of Nature products, pricing starts around $43.00
Where to shop	Balance of Nature website and Amazon	Garden of Life website, Amazon, vitamin shops, drugstores, health food stores, Walmart, Target
Additional offerings	Free health coaching for Preferred Members that covers physical, spiritual, and chemical health	General health and wellness information via blog posts and newsletter, plus recipes
Discounts available	Become a Preferred Member and save $20.00 on single products or $50.00 on the set	Subscribe and Save through Amazon
Servings per container	30	30
Pros	Free coaching option with subscription, not an overwhelming number of products, upselling isn’t an issue	No pressure to sign up for a subscription, choose what you want to use for your health needs without feeling locked into a system, shop almost anywhere supplements are sold
Cons	Not a lot of variety in products	The number of available products could be overwhelming, no coaching, fruits, and veggies aren’t in capsule form so you’ll have to take a drink each day

Nutritional and Ingredient Breakdown of Similar Products

Because Balance of Nature only has three products and Garden of Life has enough to overwhelm someone new to the supplement world, let’s remove the noise and zero in on a few specific products and look at how they stack up nutritionally.

Balance of Nature Veggies vs Garden of Life Perfect Food Super Green Formula vs. Perfect Food® Original Green Formula

There’s no perfect comparison between Balance of Nature’s Veggies formula and anything Garden of Life offers. Garden of Life tends to mix fruits, veggies (greens powder), and sprouted grains, legumes, and seeds, whereas Balance of Nature keeps them separate.

For the sake of this review, we’ll look at Veggies as it compares to two products from Garden of Life.

	Balance of Nature Veggies	Garden of Life Perfect Food Super Green Formula	Garden of Life Perfect Food® Original Green Formula
Ingredients	Broccoli, celery, soybeans, cabbage, garlic, spinach, carrots, kale, wheatgrass, cauliflower, onions, yams, cayenne peppers, shiitake mushrooms, zucchini	(All organic) barley grass juice, alfalfa grass juice, oat grass juice, wheatgrass juice, kamut® grass juice, apple, beet, broccoli, carrot, spinach, tomato, strawberry, tart cherry, blackberry, green bell pepper, brussels sprout, blueberry, ginger, garlic, green onion, raspberry, parsley, cauliflower, red cabbage, kale, cucumber, celery, asparagus, flax meal and sprout, amaranth sprout, quinoa sprout, millet sprout, buckwheat sprout, garbanzo bean sprout, lentil sprout, adzuki bean sprout, sunflower seed sprout, pumpkin seed sprout, chia seed sprout, sesame seed sprout, raw probiotic & enzyme blend, organic apple flavor, organic stevia extract	Barley  grass, alfalfa grass, wheatgrass, oat grass, rice bran extract, amaranth sprout, quinoa sprout, millet sprout, buckwheat sprout, garbanzo bean sprout, lentil sprout, adzuki bean sprout, flax seed sprout, sunflower seed sprout, pumpkin seed sprout, chia seed sprout, sesame seed sprout, protein mineral blend (spirulina, chlorella, kelp), alfalfa grass, beet, carrot, broccoli, tomato, cucumber, kale, spinach, parsley, green cabbage, celery, cauliflower, green bell pepper, asparagus, brussels sprouts, onion, garlic, ginger, HSO probiotic & enzyme blend, Ionic plant-based minerals
Additional information	Vegetarian, 8000+ phytonutrient combinations, it’s like having five servings of vegetables per dose	Designed to give you natural energy, support the immune system, help detox, keep metabolism healthy, and keep blood sugar in a normal range	Contains electrolytes from the coconut water, detoxifying herbs, digestive support
Pros	Vegetarian, easy to take because it’s in capsule form, convenient subscription option	Contains probiotics and digestive enzymes, wide variety of supplement ingredients	Vegan, soy-free, no preservatives, probiotics, digestive enzymes
Cons	Can’t be purchased in-store, doesn’t have the wide variety of ingredients the other options do, veggies only	The health claims mentioned above have not been evaluated by the FDA, alkalizing and detoxing may not be necessary	Experts disagree on whether we really need to alkalize or detox our bodies (because our bodies are designed to do that work anyway)

Balance of Nature Fruits vs. Garden of Life

There’s no product from Garden of Life that compares with Balance of Nature Fruits. Your best bet in the Garden of Life collection for a Balance of Nature alternative will be the Garden of Life Perfect Food® Berry Super Green Fruit & Veggie Formula (below).

Balance of Nature Fiber & Spice vs. Garden of Life Super Seed® Beyond Fiber

These are somewhat similar, but not quite interchangeable:

	Balance of Nature Fiber & Spice	Garden of Life Super Seed® Beyond Fiber
Spices	Cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, fennel, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg, mustard, coriander, and clove. (Some of these spices are good for inflammation, while others are good for digestion.)	Cinnamon
Nutritional information	9.3 carbohydrates, 7.2 soluble fiber, 2.9 insoluble fiber, 830 mg Omega 3s, 250 mg Omega 6s	9 carbohydrates, 1 soluble fiber, 4 insoluble fiber, 6 grams of protein, 66 mg calcium, 2 mg iron, 1.1 gram Omega 3s, 18 grams Perfect Fiber Blend, probiotics, and 1.5 g of Poten-Zyme® Fermented Whole Fiber Blend
Ingredients	Fiber blend: psyllium husk and flax, apple, spices	Fiber blend: flaxseed and chia seed, and Poten-Zyme® Fermented Whole Fiber Blend, a 14-ingredient blend organic seeds, beans, and grain sprouts, cinnamon, probiotics
Sweeteners	None	Stevia

What’s the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber?

According to Healthline, soluble fiber is good for digestion and blood sugar regulation, but insoluble is the one you’ll need to look at if you’re fighting constipation.

Balance of Nature Fruits & Veggies vs. Garden of Life Perfect Food® Berry Super Green Fruit & Veggie Formula vs. Garden of Life Raw Organic Perfect Food Alkalizer and Detoxifier

Here, we’ll compare the Balance of Nature Fruits & Veggies product to two different Garden of Life products:

	Balance of Nature Fruits & Veggies	Garden of Life Perfect Food® Berry Super Green Fruit & Veggie Formula	Garden of Life Raw Organic Perfect Food Alkalizer and Detoxifier
Ingredients	Veggies: Broccoli, celery, soy beans, cabbage, garlic, spinach, carrots, kale, wheat grass, cauliflower, onions, yams, cayenne peppers, shitake mushrooms, zucchini   Fruits: Aloe vera, cherries, lemons, pineapple, apples, cranberries, mango, raspberries, bananas, grapes, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, papaya, tomatoes	(All organic) barley grass, alfalfa grass, wheat grass, rice bran solubles, spirulina chlorella, calcified red algae, kelp, acerola cherry extract, strawberry, cherry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, citrus bioflavonoids, beet, carrot, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, kale, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, parsley, asparagus, brussels sprout, bell pepper, garlic, ginger, onion, barley. Grass, oat grass, amaranth sprout, quinoa sprout, millet sprout, buckwheat sprout, garbanzo bean sprout, lentil sprout, adzuki bean sprout, flax seed sprout, sunflower seed sprout, organic pumpkin seed sprout, chia seed sprout, sesame seed sprout, probiotic blend, tapioca maltodextrin, stevia	(All organic) barley grass juice, alfalfa grass juice, wheat grass juice, oat grass juice, kamut® grass juice, lemon juice, freeze dried coconut water, Algas calcareas, cracked wall chlorella, ginger, spinach, kale, fennel, dandelion, radish, yellow dock, burdock, turmeric, red clover, parsley, amla, strawberry, cherry, beet, carrot, blackberry, broccoli, tomato, blueberry, raspberry, red cabbage, brussels sprout, green bell pepper, cucumber, celery, garlic, ginger, green onion, cauliflower, asparagus, flax meal and sprout, amaranth sprout, quinoa sprout, buckwheat sprout, millet sprout, chia seed sprout, garbanzo bean sprout, lentil sprout, adzuki bean sprout, sunflower seed sprout, pumpkin seed sprout, sesame seed sprout, RAW probiotic & enzyme blend, organic lemon flavor, stevia extract
Additional information	No artificial sweeteners or stevia, can chew the fruit capsules or open the veggie capsules and add contents to food	Lots of antioxidants and phytonutrients	Lots of antioxidants, hydration, electrolytes, alkalizing properties, good for digestion
Pros	Capsules are easy, convenient, and you won’t have to taste much	One scoop per day	One scoop per day
Cons	You need to take three capsules per day, each	You mix it with liquid, so it’s less convenient and you’ll have to taste it	You mix it with liquid, so it’s less convenient and you’ll have to taste it

FAQs

Balance of Nature vs Garden of Life: The Verdict

I value the ease of walking into a store to purchase a product. Scheduling shipments is convenient, but it can feel like a hassle, too.

Subscriptions with automatic shipments aren’t for me, personally. I also like the idea of sticking with a brand I trust for a variety of health concerns, and Garden of Life offers that option. Plus, they offer a wider variety of ingredients in combinations that could allow me to purchase one product instead of two or three.

While coaching makes the Balance of Nature proprietary blend stand out and that will hold quite a bit of value for some, I prefer to do my own thing. Based on budget preferences, Garden of Life is the budget pick here, and is an amazing Balance of Nature alternative.

That said, Balance of Nature has a more focused greens supplement and targeted nutritional supplement, so it can often be a better option than a general product line like Garden of Life (Garden of Life HAS everything, but this doesn’t necessarily make each offering as effective as Balance of Nature).

Further Reading on Greens Powder, Dietary Supplement Options, and Meal Replacement Protein Powder:

• 5 Best Athletic Greens Supplements Alternatives for 2020
• Balance of Nature Review – All You Need to Know!
• Balance of Nature vs Athletic Greens: Which Should You Try?
• Balance of Nature vs Texas Superfood
• Balance of Nature vs Juice Plus
• Garden of Life Primal Defense Review: Will You Love It?
• Green Vibrance vs Organifi
• Green Vibrance vs Vitamineral Green
• Green Vibrance vs Amazing Grass
• Best Wheatgrass Powder Supplement Options