10 BEST MEAL REPLACEMENTS SHAKES OF THIS YEAR
Here’s a list of meal replacements with proven health benefits in 2023, meal replacements shipping to your country.
Of course, not all meal replacements are made equal. What we have here are the best meal replacement options of the year. We’ve put together a list of the meal replacement shakes that are nutritionally complete and are easily incorporated into your diet plans.
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Soylent
Founded in 2013 by software engineers in Silicon valley, Soylent has been producing ready-to-consume meal replacements for almost a decade now. Soylent thrives on soy protein as a key ingredient of their meal replacement food solutions and is constantly innovating to provide better meal replacement nutrition for less.
Their food replacement options include ready-to-drink meal replacement shakes, meal replacement powders and meal bars. All these meal replacements are good enough for consumption anywhere and anytime.
Other benefits of soylent meal replacement shakes include vitamins and minerals. The soylents also have only plant-based proteins and slow burning carbs.
Price range – Drinks ranging from $ 37 ($ 3.09 per meal).
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Vitaminfood
Founded in The Netherlands in 2016 by a youthful couple, Vitaminfood has the sole aim of providing complete nutrition meal replacements. Vitaminfood ready-to-consume meal replacement are 100% nutritionally complete and based on pea protein as the major protein source and is famed for its innovation in natural tastes.
Vitaminfood meal replacement options contain no added sugar, artificial flavor additives or preservatives but has great natural flavors owing to the tremendous nutrition research carried out in the Netherlands.
Product range for these meal replacement manufacturers include vegan protein powder isolate, complete nutrition meal replacement powder and meal shakes, sports nutrition supplements including CLA, BCAA, collagen and sleep tablets.
Vitaminfood also has an experience café in the heart of Rotterdam, Netherlands which satisfactorily caters to the needs of vegan customers and those who’d like to enjoy a tasty vegan meal.
Price range – powder package $ 27 ($ 1.7 per meal).
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Huel
Started by Julian Hearn in 2015, Huel (Human + Fuel) is nutritionally complete food. This means every Huel meal contains a balance of all 27 essential vitamins and minerals, protein, essential fats, carbs, fiber and phytonutrients in a single product.
Huel is made from plant-based sustainable ingredients like oats, peas, rice, flaxseed, coconut, and sunflower, and it is available in a range of six products: Powder, Black Edition, Complete Protein, Hot & Savory, Ready-to-drink, and Bars.
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WelleCo Nourishing Plant Protein
Formulated by nutritional doctors (so you know it’s legit), this plant-based vegan protein powder features organic sprouted brown rice and pea protein to provide nine essential amino acids that help your body recover, promoting elevated levels of energy and endurance. The best bit? It’s really delicious and will take your smoothie to the next level.
Price range : $ 36
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Proganics Organic Plant Protein Plus In Choc Peanut
Sweetened with monk fruit extract and packed full of probiotics and digestive enzymes, this Australian-made vegan protein powder is one of the best we’ve tried. Formulated with sprouted and fermented pea and rice proteins to provide all of the essential amino acids, each serve contains over 21g of protein and is fortified with 100% of your RDI of vitamin B12 and zinc and over 50% RDI iron.
Price range - $44.99
A healthy meal replacement equals a healthy diet. A healthy meal shake is one which:
- Protects against malnutrition- the diet should contain all nutrients vital for body development and have enough of those to sustain the bodily requirement.
Malnutrition will occur if the food is nutritionally incomplete. This includes all nutrients – calories, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals.
In the third world and developing nations which are often hunger – stricken, the cause is inadequacy of complete nutrition. While in the developed nations covering mostly Europe, North America, Australia and some parts of Asia, the cause is having too much processed foods with less nutrients. There is too much food that provides too little of certain nutrients and too much of the macro nutrients. Vitaminfood meal replacements provide just enough of everything.
- Protects against non-communicable diseases - NCDs are diseases which arise from within the body and therefore develop overtime.
They indicate a malfunction of certain organs or systems. Healthy meal replacement diets prevent such malfunctions and naturally correct these issues. These meal replacements effectively keep off the chronic lifestyle diseases which arise due to a lack of fine tuning of the body.
A body just like an automobile thrives on good fuel.
- Intake of nutrients is in balance with the expenditure- too much of something is harmful.
Balanced foods leave enough space for complementary types of nutrients. As we eat we rarely take too much of a specific type of nutrient except in ignorance. Most of the excess is taken in because we do not realize that the limit has been exceeded.
Take for instance your sodium intake, which is supposed to be maintained at a maximum of 5g/ day. You get some from your morning cereal, then some more from your fries at lunch and a lot more from your steak at dinner. You lost count with the cereal and might have exceeded it at lunch or dinner.
Such a diet is unhealthy and makes it important to have knowledge of the approximate amount for the balance to be maintained.
Healthy meal replacements are those with the necessary ingredients and without the excesses per serving. It is such that meet the accepted standard of healthy diets rivaling fruits and vegetables. With their amounts on the nutritional factsheets, the approximation should tally with the recommended intake limits.
Factors to consider when determining the health rank of a meal replacement.
Having established what a healthy meal replacement should achieve, let us move to the factors determining whether the goals will indeed be achieved or will the health be compromised.
- Nutritional profile.
The best meal replacements are nutritionally complete. The nutrients include all the macros and micro nutrients:
*Carbohydrates- the calories served should range between 200-400 per serving or between 1400 – 2000 daily intakes. This amount in meal replacement shakes is sufficient to get you through your day.
The amounts should also provide room for adjustment and variation according to your weight goals. A 200 calorie meal replacement feels more like a snack but is suitable for those looking to lose weight.
Other factors to note in meal replacement soylents are:
Quality of the carbohydrates – high quality carbs come with a wide range of nutrients, including phytonutrients.
The highest quality is the least processed and unmodified one. Sources derived from fruits and vegetables are even higher quality for the rich nutritional accompaniment.
Quality is greater than the quantity…as it is often said; better little worth much than much worth little.
Dietary fibre - Fiber helps to slow the digestion of sugars and starches, thus preventing large spikes in blood sugar and insulin associated with diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain.
Fiber also helps move food along the gut by increasing its bulk. A healthy choice for meal shakes is one with at least 7g dietary fiber included.
*Protein- A good amount of protein is 25g per serving. So 25+ is good to go.
This supplies you enough for muscle growth, repair and development. Body builders and physically active persons may need more protein to maintain their muscle mass and get a muscle advantage.
Other factors to note on the protein include:
Protein source – common sources are whey and vegan/ plant protein which includes pea protein(what Vitaminfood uses), soy, rice protein.
The source is directly related to what effects it will have on you. Some sources like soy have serious long term side effects beside their many health benefits and cost advantages.
For Vitaminfood, pea protein is a universally beneficial protein source with no serious or long term side effects.
Protein profile – this is the number of amino acids present.
Plants have an incomplete profile often lacking in one or two essential amino acids. Choose a plant-based meal replacement with a higher number of essential amino acids; at least 9 out of the 10, and find a good supplement for that one which is deficient.
Common whole grain like wheat and quinoa resolves the methionine deficiency of peas.
A good choice also has a high number of Branched chain amino acids(BCAAs). BCAAs are useful in building muscle thickness and fro metabolism enzymes.
Digestibility and Absorption rate
These are measures of the ease of digestion and absorption by our bodies. The higher the ranking the better. How beneficial they will be for the body depend s on these two factors.
Are you looking for a healthy, quick meal? You will be pleased with our dinner shakes. The dinner shakes of Vitaminfood are full quality meals that you can prepare in seconds. Our dinner shakes contain no less than 27 types of vitamins and proteins, healthy carbohydrates, unsaturated fats and other nutrients. This way you get everything you need to end the day with a healthy and quick meal.
A healthy, quick meal? Vitaminfood!
References:
- https://www.nebraskamed.com/weight-loss/do-meal-replacement-shakes-work-what-you-need-to-know
- https://theconversation.com/weight-loss-advice-from-gps-really-can-help-people-slim-down-and-stay-that-way-new-research-184022
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/shop-now/health-and-beauty/readytodrink-meal-replacement-shakes-can-help-you-in-weight-loss-journey-101643792555345.html
- https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/sports-nutrition/new-ingredients-research-boost-sports-nutrition
- https://www.theurbanlist.com/a-list/the-best-vegan-protein-powder
- https://soylent.com/blogs/news/tagged/nutrition
- https://huel.com/pages/about-us
- https://vitaminfood.com/blogs/magazine/27-vitamins-and-minerals-essential-for-our-bodies