Meal replacements rant

I am going to rant!

It’s as simple as that.

For the third time this week I have been contacted by a rather well known ‘health food’ company asking whether I would like to try their products. Now I am going to get on my soap box and have a proper rant!

Today’s blog is about diet again but not about what foods to eat. Rather it’s more about meal replacement products

Now I’m sorry, I know for many of you out there, meal replacement products seem to be the answer to all your problems.

They take the thinking out of a diet for you and are nutritionally sound right? ….

WRONG

These products are not nutritionally sound. Yeah sure, you could live off them but they are not sound.

I’m not going to name this company because that would be unfair but what I am going to do is explain why I think this kind of ‘dieting’ in my opinion, is wrong.

As I have said before in previous blogs, the common misconception for the word diet is lack of eating.

Meal replacement gets people into very bad habits in regard to eating. Plus what happens when you go back to eating ‘normal’ food?

So here is the Dictionary definition of the word Diet and not the restriction of food and drink intake to lose weight definition

Diet; One’s daily normal food and drink …. BOOM!!!

This is going to be the basis of my rant. Diet should be your daily NORMAL food and drink intake. Everything you base your eating and drinking habits on should have this thought firmly in mind. It has to be sustainable for the rest of your life.

This is partially why ‘diets’ don’t work. Yeah they’re great for that initial weight loss but seriously, how many of you serial dieters actually give thought to or plan your post diet strategy?....

I’m going to let you have a moment to let that thought sink in.

Now I have explained about how weight loss diets can affect the body before but if meal replacements are supposed to be good, then surely that won’t be an issue?

Well I’m going to have to have some foundation or evidence for my argument so let’s have a look at two meal replacement shakes. These are by two different companies. One is a company that prides itself producing ‘healthy’ products. The other is a leading brand in ‘diet’ products.

I’m going to list the first 10 ingredients of each shake

SHAKE 1                                                        SHAKE 2

Soy protein isolate                                          Skimmed milk powder

Fructose                                                          Sugar

Cellulose powder                                            Maltodextrin

Corn bran                                                        Vegetable Oil

Artificial French vanilla flavour                      Inulin

Guar Gum                                                       Thickeners (Gum Arabic, Xanthan Gum, Potassium chloride                                                           Guar Gum)

Calcium caseinate                                            Lactose

Casein                                                             Cellulose

Calcium phosphate                                         Milk Protein

Stabilisers (Sodium Carboxy Methyl Cellulose, Dipotassium Phosphate)

Already just by looking at these ingredients you can see where I’m going to go with this.

Ingredient No 1

If you read yesterdays blog (should we eat soy), you will already know my opinion on unfermented soya products and this is the No 1 ingredient of our first shake.

The second shake uses skimmed milk powder. The nutritional benefits of skimmed milk are minimal. You may as well drink water. If you want the calcium eat more calcium rich foods or take calcium supplements. Otherwise full fat milk all the way.

So, on our first ingredient we have a fail on both counts.

Ingredient No 2

Shake 1: Fructose or fruit sugar. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a good sugar. It’s still sugar, pure and simple.  

Shake 2: Sugar

Really, in a health food or diet shake? What the hell?

This isn’t looking good already

Maltodextrin is also a form of sugar as is inulin. Cellulose powder, corn bran and the various types of gums are all used as thickening and bulking agents to make you feel full.

Lactose is a milk sugar

Potassium chloride is a salt, so it does have nutritional benefits but most people have far too much salt in their diet already.

At last we have found a ‘good’ ingredient, kind of.

Casein is a dairy derived protein so actually, unless you have a dairy intolerance, this is the first ingredient in this list that we have that has a nutritional benefit

Calcium Phosphate is a mineral salt that is beneficial to the digestive system, including the assimilation of food

So That’s it! In the first 10 ingredients we have only two that have any nutritional benefit. Ironically they are both in the first shake, which consists mostly of Soya protein isolate

In fairness I will mention that both these shakes have various vitamins, minerals and trace elements that are very good for you but lets face it, you can get those from multi vit & mineral tablets.

Or try this…. How about from your diet?

I know shakes are easier than planning out food but once you get into the habit and learn about the nutritional values of food its easy. Plus, its lifetime sustainable.

So have a think about your weight loss in a sensible manner. Eat clean & by that I mean minimal processed foods. If it comes in a packet & has ingredients its processed). Be careful of health and diet foods and have a look at the ingredients. If the list is longer that 5 ( other than vitamins & minerals) and any of them are sugar, it is not a health food. It is processed junk.

Above all think more about what you put in your body. Food manufacturers will mislead you with phrases like low fat or low calorie. It doesn’t mean its good for you.

HAPPY HEALTHY EATING MY FRIENDS