“I would love to hear your thoughts on the popular drinks Shakeology and Vega One. I really like drinking a smoothie on my way to work.  I usually put in things like hemp seed, flax seed, Greek yogurt, almond milk, and frozen fruit. But recently, a friend of mine was touting the benefits of Shakeology and telling me that I couldn’t possibly be getting the same nutrition in my morning smoothie as she gets from hers. What’s your take? Is Shakeology all it’s cracked up to be?”

I get three or four questions a week about Shakeology, which promises “a world of superfood nutrition in every glass.” You’ll pay about $5 a serving for this shake mix, which is a protein powder fortified with additional nutrients, herbs, and other goodies. “There’s nothing out there that can supply you with all the nutrients, vitamins, proteins, and minerals in these amounts,” they claim.

Your morning smoothie recipe sounds a lot like mine, Michelle.  We’re getting plenty of protein, fiber, probiotics, prebiotics, and a variety of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. But are we getting as many nutrients from our whole food smoothies as your friend is getting from her processed shake powder? Probably not.

The real question, however, is whether your friend is getting any additional benefit from those additional nutrients.

I’m sure she thinks she is—why else would she be spending $5 bucks a pop? And the website is over-flowing with testimonials from enthusiastic users. But there’s not a lot of solid evidence to back this up.

For one thing, there’s not a linear relationship between how much of a nutrient you take in and the benefit you get from it. Taking twice as much of a nutrient doesn’t necessarily do you twice as much good.

Secondly, nutritional supplements almost never provide the same benefits as getting your nutrition from whole foods.

See also: Can I Get My Vegetables in a Pill?

I’m not convinced that any proven benefits come close to justifying the hefty price tag. Personally, I think I’d rather spend that money on food!

This post originally appeared at Quickanddirtytips.com

Q. High cholesterol runs in my family. At 17, my cholesterol was high, and my doctor told me to cut back on saturated fat and foods that contain cholesterol (like eggs and shrimp). Sure enough, my cholesterol came down.  But I keep seeing articles arguing that the conventional wisdom on diet, cholesterol, and heart disease is all wrong. What’s the real consensus now?

A. That’s just it: There is no consensus.  The American Heart Association continues to tell folks that they should avoid saturated fat and cholesterol-containing foods in order to keep their cholesterol low and reduce the risk of heart disease. But, as you’ve discovered, there is a whole lot of research that seems to contradict this. In fact, virtually every link in the argument appears suspect.

First of all, the impact of dietary cholesterol on blood cholesterol is far less than expected.  More to the point, cholesterol levels are a very poor predictor of who will develop or die of heart disease.  Although reducing saturated fat intake can somewhat reliably reduce blood cholesterol, it doesn’t seem to reduce the risk of heart disease. In fact, lowering high cholesterol by any means doesn’t reduce deaths from heart disease.

Most of this data, however, is based on large population pools and doesn’t predict an individual’s experience.  For example, people with familial hypercholesteremia (genetic factors that affect how their bodies process cholesterol) have a dramatically increased risk of heart disease.  For these folks (unlike the population at large), reducing blood cholesterol can greatly reduce the risk of mortality–and reducing dietary cholesterol has a greater impact on blood cholesterol.

The fact that high cholesterol “runs in your family” does’t necessarily mean that you have familial hypercholestermia.  But the fact that you had high cholesterol at a very young age could be another tip-off. Your doctor can screen you for the genetic mutation so that she can tailor her advice to your particular situation.