GREEN DRINK REPLACEMENT
Greens powder out. Engineered soup in.
A documented self-experiment in quantified nutrition: hypothesis, data, verdict. One premium greens supplement replaced by a rotating breakfast soup — with the full label math and the trade-offs left in.
Kris Racette × Deschamps (nutrition systems) · 21 Sep 2026 · Brisbane
Hypothesis
A food-first breakfast — built from real vegetables, bone broth, tofu, and fermented sides — can replace a premium greens powder for about a third of the monthly cost, while delivering more protein, more fibre, and more actual vegetables per serve.
The test: run both systems' numbers side by side — product labels against receipts — then eat the replacement daily, track it, and report honestly. This page is the record.
The Replaced Product
Label facts per serve: 24 vitamins and minerals at 75–900% RDI, 8 billion CFU encapsulated probiotics, ~4g dried plant powders per 10g serve, 33 kcal. To be clear: this is a well-made product. The experiment is a cost-and-density trade-off, not a hit piece.
The Replacement — Rotating Breakfast Soup
Two variants share the same vegetable chassis and rotate through the week. Both are batch-prepped, portioned, and reheated. Every macro below is verified against product labels and receipts.
Variant A — Miso Bone Broth & Tofu
- - 500ml bone broth base
- - Broccoli, cap mushroom, spinach & kale
- - Brown onion, garlic, olive oil
- - 150g tofu · bone broth concentrate
- - White miso — stirred in OFF heat
- - Kimchi / sauerkraut side (cold)
Role: carries the food-first probiotics
Variant B — Laksa Tofu
- - Same vegetable chassis as Variant A
- - Laksa paste bloomed in the batch
- - 150g tofu · bone broth concentrate
- - Dried wakame strip — iodine
- - Kimchi / sauerkraut side (cold)
Role: covers the iodine the greens drink used to do
Daily_Version_Macros (2 tbsp oil)
The oil dial matters: as-written in the recipe book (4 tbsp) this is a training-day breakfast at ~826 kcal. The daily version caps oil at 1–2 tbsp → ~456–578 kcal. Both versions ship in the recipe book.
Probiotic Method — Food-First
The greens drink's 8B CFU are encapsulated. The replacement gets its cultures from food, two ways:
- 1. Miso stirred in OFF heat — boiling miso kills its live cultures. Stirred in at serving temperature, they stay alive.
- 2. 15–30g kimchi or sauerkraut on the side, daily, kept cold.
Reasoning, per published research: the Stanford fermented-food trial (Cell, 2021) found a diet high in fermented foods increased microbiome diversity and steadied immune markers, while the fibre-only arm and capsule-based supplements showed weaker, more variable effects. Food-first was the read.
That study describes its trial participants — not this experiment. No claims are being made here about what this stack does for anyone else.
Micronutrient Insurance
The greens powder's 24 vitamins/minerals at 75–900% RDI don't get hand-waved away — they get replaced deliberately:
- → Basic multivitamin, ~$5–8/month — covers B12, D3, zinc, selenium.
- → Dried wakame in the laksa variant — iodine, the other job the greens drink was doing.
The Budget — AUD / Month
Before — With Greens Drink
After — Replacement Stack
≈ $30/month back — ≈ $360/year
Net saving of the replacement, at verified label prices
Per-Serve Comparison
Per breakfast: the daily soup delivers 35.7g protein, ~7–8g fibre and ~385g of real vegetables. The greens-powder serve it replaces: ~4g of dried plant powders in a 10g scoop at 33 kcal. The multipliers compare those two serves; the raw numbers above are the record.
Verdict
Kept. The replacement holds on every axis the experiment set: cheaper, denser in protein/fibre/vegetables, and the two jobs the greens drink did best — probiotics and iodine — are covered deliberately, not by accident.
The rotation is the system: Variant A (miso) carries the cultures, Variant B (laksa + wakame) carries the iodine, and the oil dial switches the same chassis between a ~456–578 kcal daily breakfast and an ~826 kcal training-day feed.
Tracked, like everything else in the Lab, via Gym Tracker — with Deschamps, the training-history agent, reading the same data as the system grows.
Honest Limits
- ▸n=1. One person, self-tracked. This is a documented self-experiment, not a clinical trial.
- ▸Label math, not lab assays. Every figure is verified against product labels and receipts — arithmetic, not laboratory testing.
- ▸Not medical advice. Nothing on this page claims to treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Individual results vary — talk to a qualified professional before changing your diet.
The Performance Lab — Recipe Book
Every recipe in this case study — and the rest of the rotation — in one free download. 7 recipes, macro-verified against product labels, growing weekly.
A single self-contained HTML file. Works offline, no account, no telemetry. Drops straight into the Gym Tracker + Deschamps macro-tracking regimen.
Built by Deschamps · joining the coaching team soon · agent bundling in progress · always open source, always free
Performance Lab is a series now
Case Study 01: Green Drink Replacement — nutrition systems under the same lens as everything else in the Lab: record, analyse, optimise. More systems under the knife soon.