Is Shakeology overpriced?

Is Shakeology overpriced?

What prompted this post, was actually being linked to a Beachbody's coaches blog tackling this subject( (http://healthfitcoach.tumblr.com/post/13929747782/is-shakeology-expensive). As it would turn out, the post was kinda about me
(http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395149-shakeology?error_user_id=8103392&error_username=Acg67&page=5). Now the
coach was extremely disingenuous while doing her price comparison to the handful of products i threw out as not only better then ShakeO but cheaper, she mislisted all the serving counts or used the price of higher serving products to make it seem like ShakeO was a better deal. Also she shows a profound ignorance about vitamins and minerals as she scoffs at taking 4-6 multi vitamins a day (the reason why quality multis are multiple pills a day is that your body can only absorb a certain amount before it ends up excreting it, so you space out doses throughout the day to get the most out of your multi)

Keep in mind that forms of vitamins and minerals matter. For example cyanocobalmin is a synthetic form of B-12 that cannot be used by the body until the cyanide group is removed from it vs methylcobalamin which is one of the 2 coenzyeme forms that the body can use. Also we can take a look at Vitamin E, here are some studies showing supplemental alpha tocopherol lowering plasma levels of gamma tocopherol. (coincidentally lower CVD risk has been correlated with higher levels of gamma not alpha tocopherol)

Olmedilla B, Granado F, Southon S, et al. A European multicentre, placebo-controlled
supplementation study with alpha-tocopherol, carotene-rich palm oil, lutein or lycopene: analysis of
serum responses. Clin Sci (Lond). 2002 Apr;102(4):447-56.

Handelman GJ, Machlin LJ, Fitch K, et al. Oral alpha-tocopherol supplements decrease plasma
gamma-tocopherol levels in humans. J Nutr. 1985 Jun;115(6):807-13.

Handelman GJ, Epstein WL, Peerson J, et al. Human adipose alpha-tocopherol and gammatocopherol kinetics during and after 1 y of alpha-tocopherol supplementation. Am J Clin Nutr. 1994 May;59(5):1025-32.

Now for the comparison

Shakeology
$120/$4 serving $90/$3 serving if you become a coach


Here are the products I suggested off the top of my head, that i considered best in class and had much better profiles and was cheaper then ShakeO. I just used all BB.com prices since they are middle to higher then other online stores, if you were to shop around you'd get better prices on all the ones below.

AOR Ortho core
$45.99 for 30full servings $1.533/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/aor/orthocore.html


Green Vibrance (Look at the label no prop blends)
$66 for 60 servings $1.10/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/vibrant-health/green-viberance.html


Trutein (just a powder i like the taste of, but any quality protein would suffice)
$56.99 for 67 servings $.851/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/tru-nutrition/trutein.html


I also mentioned another quality multi, in case Ortho Core was too expensive

Source Naturals Life Force Multiple
$33.90 45 full servings $.753/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/source/life.html


So if you take the first 3 you'd get a cost of $3.48/serving and have at least a 2 month supply of everything but your multi. If you were to use the 10% off bb.com code, it'd bring it down to $3.14/serving. When you compare the profiles of these products to ShakeO, the difference should be apparent. And if you were to substituent Life Force for Orthro Core you'd get a price per serving $2.70/$2.43 with coupon.

Now let's say you don't really care about vitamin and mineral forms and wanted something comparable to ShakeO

Nature's Alive Alive! Multi
$29.99 for 60 servings $.50/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/nw/al.html


Optimum Gold Standard Whey
$52.99, 74 servings $.71/serving
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/whey.html


So we have a comparable profile to ShakeO at the fraction of the cost.

So to conclude, if you think you need to supplement with something like ShakeO, you can get much better products for cheaper. Thus ShakeO is indeed overpriced.

If anyone has issues with this,