These ‘clinically tested’ gummies may or may not help you poop | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersArchivesStoreVerge Product UpdatesSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.These ‘clinically tested’ gummies may or may not help you poopComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...ColumnCloseColumnPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ColumnScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceHealthCloseHealthPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All HealthThese ‘clinically tested’ gummies may or may not help you poopWho’s to say? Not Grüns’ clinical study.by Victoria SongCloseVictoria SongSenior Reviewer, Wearable TechPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Victoria SongPhotos by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeMar 27, 2026, 2:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Clinical testing is turning into a product of its own. | Image: Cath Virgina / The Verge, GrünsColumnCloseColumnPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ColumnScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceHealthCloseHealthPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All HealthThese ‘clinically tested’ gummies may or may not help you poopWho’s to say? Not Grüns’ clinical study.by Victoria SongCloseVictoria SongSenior Reviewer, Wearable TechPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Victoria SongPhotos by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeMar 27, 2026, 2:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Victoria SongCloseVictoria SongPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Victoria Song is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter. She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.Influencer after influencer says the same thing about Grüns. The gummy vitamins are delightful, chockful of whole organic ingredients, and much tastier than icky powders or pills. One of my most indelible childhood memories is the chalky, gritty, vaguely fruit-flavored taste of a Flintstones vitamin. I hated those cursed tablets so much, I learned how to swallow pills to avoid having to chew them. So I get the whole gummy supplement trend. Squishy, sweet, and infinitely more fun to eat, who wouldn’t want vitamins in a candied form?If a gummy bear married a green smoothie, you’d get a pack of Grüns. Chewable vitamins aren’t new, but Grüns’ success is thanks in part to its aggressive messaging on social media. I couldn’t help but notice the same buzzwords and phrases popping up over and over. “My kids love these.” “These taste way better than greens powders.” “Free from allergens, sugar-free, vegan, and 100 percent of your daily needs.” The most egregious were two influencers who each started their video saying, “Just because you get something for free doesn’t mean you have to give a good review.” Both proceeded to give the Grüns gummies good reviews, cycling through some of the familiar talking points. Recently, I’ve also seen ads for Grüns targeting GLP-1 users, claiming the gummies are “Ozempic’s new bestie,” as one pack daily will help you poop better.It’s easy to tell when an influencer is parroting a prewritten spiel for a brand deal. But see an ad enough times, and inevitably, a percentage of people will get curious. Again, does anyone really love the taste of green powder juices? What tired parent hasn’t worried about their picky child getting enough nutrients? I know no one jumps out of bed in the morning with a pep in their step to take a Centrum multivitamin. Throw in some cute packaging and science-washing, and welcome, friend, to the wellness Wild West.Wellness brands love putting their products on petri dishes in marketing. Screenshot: GrünsA few weeks ago, I asked Optimizer readers which popular wellness brands they’d like me to look into. Grüns was one of them. Moseying on over to the company’s site, it was also one of the few with a science marketing page. I was prepared for the usual science-washing tropes. Words like “clinically” or “scientifically backed.” Dubious graphs. Celebrity endorsements. A sprinkling of science-y words here and there to give a veneer of legitimacy. Check, check, double check.There’s a lot that I could nitpick about Grüns. For starters, experts have noted that gummy vitamins are often less effective than tablets or powders for a variety of reasons, including perishability. I could also get into how it uses a proprietary blend, meaning you don’t actually know how much of each organic, whole food ingredient is in the product. Or the fact that its top two ingredients are soluble fiber, leaving out insoluble forms. Not to mention, experts have long cautioned that while supplements like greens products — be they powdered or gummies — can help, they’re not magic substitutes for eating vegetables. But for this exercise, I’m going to zero in on whether Grüns’ clinical testing actually proves any of its marketing claims.Grüns’ science page has the word “clinically-tested” right up top. The lead image is a green gummy bear sitting in a petri dish — it’s highly reminiscent of the marketing on the science page for AG1, another viral greens powder product. Scroll down, and you’ll see a green bear mascot called Dr. Barry holding a clipboard next to words like “12 weeks,” “placebo-controlled,” “double-blind,” and “randomized.” There’s a paragraph explaining that Grüns ran blood tests to see whether folate and vitamin C levels increased in participants. (Unsurprisingly, the graphs say the gummies did.) You have to squint at a footnote to see that the clinical study involved 120 healthy adults aged 23 to 59.But nowhere is there a link to the actual study. Based on Grüns’ site alone, you’d have to just take their word for it.This is it. This is all we got for the results. Screenshot: CitruslabsThis is likely because this clinical study wasn’t peer-reviewed or published in a journal. That’s not inherently a crime. Peer-review is an expensive process, and technically, it can be overkill for smaller companies in the wellness space. Supplements aren’t regulated, and therefore, this kind of testing isn’t required. Even so, brands that do partake in any kind of research are usually keen to publicly link to any sort of “proof,” be it an internal white paper or citations to external studies that back up claims.Voluntarily testing products adds an air of legitimacy, but Grüns’ lack of source material is a bit of a red flag. Especially since further down on the page, Grüns has no problem linking to third-party testing certificates for pesticides, heavy metals, and other contaminants.Some internet sleuthing led me to Citruslabs, which ran the clinical study. It, too, had a page describing the Grüns study, in slightly more detail. Emphasis on slightly.On the one hand, you can see four bullet points that sort of clarify the study’s design and methodology. There’s a sentence that mentions that “the trial adhered to rigorous scientific standards.” As for the results, six bullet points say things like “significant increases” in folate compared to placebo, “improved biomarkers,” and “clinically shown to boost Vitamin C levels.” Nowhere is there a mention of the gummies helping study participants poop better. At the end of the page, there are three sentences about the benefits of clinical research and how Grüns “demonstrates transparency, scientific rigor, and a true commitment to consumer health” for having used Citruslabs’ services.That’s about it.I bought a box at Target for testing purposes. I’m not saying this clinical study doesn’t exist, or that the research wasn’t done. But the presentation leaves much to be desired. The generous read is that Grüns and Citruslabs have opted to make the study digestible. However, the reality is you’re being asked to take Citruslabs and Grüns’ word that they haven’t used marketing spin to exaggerate results. Case in point, AG1 also made claims about significant increases in certain biomarkers on its marketing page. When I reviewed the AG1 study’s data, it was a reminder that “significant” can be an incredibly subjective word.I couldn’t do that with this Grüns study. I reached out to the company to ask why it chose to present the study’s results in this way, but haven’t gotten a response.To me, the most interesting thing here is how clinical testing has not only become a marketing tactic, but a product in and of itself.Curious if a wellness brand is science washing?So far I’ve looked into AG1, Huel, and Grüns. If there are any others you’d like me to look into, hit me up at optimizer@theverge.com.Citruslabs, for example, is a contract research organization (CRO). Medical tech and pharmaceutical companies use them to outsource some aspects of clinical testing, often with the goal of reducing cost. The company’s site markets itself as a one-stop shop for consumer health brands that might want clinical research to back up their brands. That means everything from crafting study design and recruiting participants to securing ethical board review if applicable. It counts several well-known brands and companies among its client list across the wellness and cosmetics industries, including Blume, Mario Badescu, Hum, and Green Chef.Critically, clinical studies are not the only thing the company provides. They also conduct consumer perception studies. As in, consumers are asked to give their self-reported opinion of a product after using it. You can usually tell the difference in wording. In perception studies, you often see phrases like “80 percent of users said X condition improved after using Y product for Z weeks.” Self-reported data like this has many limitations, not least of which are bias and misremembered information. But, perusing Citruslabs’ client list, it’s very easy to assume every brand on there is doing rigorous scientific research on its products, when many are just getting a form of consumer feedback for marketing purposes.The actual product is a lot… firmer than what you’d expect a gummy bear to be.Blurring the lines between these two types of studies can lead to some confusion. Let’s go back to Grüns’ science page. Underneath its clinical study results, it lists statistics like “67 percent say their overall health and well-being have improved” while “44 percent report clearer thinking and better focus.” The survey claims 67 percent have reported “better, more regular digestion” but that could mean anything from less bloating to more pooping. Crucially, that data is not from its clinical study — it’s from a post-purchase consumer survey of 3,000 customers. While that’s disclosed in a footnote on the site, it’s not hard to see how laypeople might conflate the two types of “evidence.”Perusing LinkedIn, I saw a post from Grüns CEO Chad Janis deriding skeptics. “‘Gummy vitamins don’t work.’ (Spoiler: Grüns did a clinical study. The results are good.)” Janis goes on to paint criticisms of gummy vitamins as a “convenient myth” spread by pill and powder companies, and then launches into the consumer survey results. He’s using the wellness grifter playbook by saying: Science says it works, you can’t trust what the supplement establishment says about them, and here’s anecdotal proof to further validate their position.I can understand why wellness companies are turning to “clinical research” and CROs like Citruslabs. There’s a lot of snake oil in the unregulated supplement market. In essence, this is an attempt to stand out and earn consumer trust by “doing the science.” But that’s undermined when scientific and consumer studies are blurred together. Grüns’ clinical study only proves that compared to no vitamin supplementation, eating Grüns gummies will increase folate and vitamin C levels. It says nothing about how the gummies compare to greens powders or traditional multivitamins. Frankly, one would expect that taking a supplement increases certain nutrient levels. What consumers likely want to know is how the gummies compare to the products Grüns wants to replace. Based on the ads, GLP-1 users might want to know if these gummies will help with constipation. It might, or it might not. While 6g of fiber is a significant amount for a single product, that’s not a guarantee you’ll poop more efficiently. You might! You might also end up with gastrointestinal distress, depending on your current hydration and diet.The problem with this study is that it doesn’t answer these questions at all.This is my honest reaction to the Grüns texture. It’s not horrible, but the aftertaste and smell were not my cup of tea. Would anyone like my remaining 11 packets?My deep dive into Grüns wouldn’t be complete without trying the gummies. Especially since influencer after influencer raved about the taste, while several commenters called bullshit, noting the gummies were more akin to crumbly, grass pellets. One “honest” review I saw featured a woman gagging after trying a few. Online, hyperbole runs in both directions.My verdict: It’s generous to call Grüns gummy bears. Opening a packet, I was overwhelmed with a chemical-like smell. The gummies themselves are strangely firm, with a slight sandy grit when you bite into them and an odd, grassy aftertaste. They’re not horrible, but they’re more like compact bits of fruit leather than a gummy bear. Texturally, it’s a no for me. Would I choose them over the Flintstone vitamins of my youth? Honestly, I’d rather swallow a pill. Without a clear win on taste, the rest of Grüns’ pitch rings even more hollow.All-in-all, this was another excursion into the wellness Wild West that underscored how “clinically backed” is losing any sort of meaning. Instead, clinical testing is starting to feel like a side hustle of its own. A way for companies to imply trustworthiness, while actually skirting the actual questions consumers want answered.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Victoria SongCloseVictoria SongSenior Reviewer, Wearable TechPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Victoria SongColumnCloseColumnPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ColumnHealthCloseHealthPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All HealthOptimizerCloseOptimizerPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All OptimizerScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceMost PopularMost PopularMeta gets ready to launch two new Ray-Ban AI glassesThe United States router ban, explainedNetflix is raising prices againSony is raising PS5 prices by $100 in AprilApple’s Mac Pro is dead, apparently for good this timeThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. 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Grüns gummies, marketed as “clinically tested” aids for digestive health, present a complex case study in marketing within the wellness industry. Victoria Song’s investigation reveals a significant disconnect between the brand’s claims and the actual evidence supporting them. The core of the issue lies in the presentation of a clinical study conducted by Citruslabs, a contract research organization (CRO), utilized by Grüns to bolster its product’s legitimacy. While the study itself demonstrates an increase in folate and vitamin C levels in participants – a predictable outcome given the supplement’s ingredients – it fails to address the fundamental question of whether the gummies effectively solve the problem they’re purported to treat, namely, improved digestion.

The study’s design, involving 120 healthy adults aged 23 to 59, adheres to rigorous scientific standards, employing a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized protocol – hallmarks of legitimate research. However, Grüns strategically framed the results to emphasize specific data points, selectively highlighting increases in key biomarkers, and leveraging consumer surveys to support claims about overall wellness and “better, more regular digestion.” Crucially, the study’s findings weren’t published in a peer-reviewed journal, a significant omission that raises questions about transparency and the rigor of the research. The company’s reluctance to provide access to the full study materials contributes to a sense of skepticism and highlights a common tactic in the wellness industry – presenting selective data to create a perception of scientific validation.

Furthermore, Song’s analysis reveals a deliberate blurring of lines between clinical research and consumer perception studies. While the clinical study demonstrated an increase in certain nutrients, Grüns simultaneously presented data from a survey of 3,000 customers regarding their overall health and well-being, effectively layering anecdotal evidence onto the research findings. This tactic, combined with the company’s CEO’s dismissive commentary towards critics, exemplifies a widespread “wellness grifter” strategy – leveraging perceived scientific backing to create an illusion of trustworthiness. Grüns’ use of Citruslabs, a CRO specializing in consumer health brands, further complicates the issue, emphasizing the increasing trend of wellness companies outsourcing research to maintain a veneer of scientific credibility, while simultaneously raising questions about conflicts of interest and the potential for biased results.

The gummy’s texture itself—described as “crumbly, grass pellets”—contributes to the overall impression of questionable quality, contrasting with the brand’s aspirational marketing. It’s important to note that the clinical study, by its nature, only demonstrates that taking Grüns gummies increases folate and vitamin C levels, a predictable outcome that doesn't intrinsically address the consumer desire for improved digestive health. The reliance on marketing language around “clinically-tested” and “science-backed” creates a false expectation, particularly in a market saturated with unproven wellness products. The lack of a comprehensive report, linking the findings to the targeted health concerns, leaves consumers with incomplete information and ultimately, raises serious doubts about the efficacy of the product. The investigation underscores the increasingly sophisticated—and often manipulative—techniques employed by wellness brands to capitalize on consumer desires for health and well-being.