Is Ensure Good For You? 7 Facts You Should Know About Ensure Active Protein Shakes
Is Ensure good for you?
That depends on what your definition of healthy is.
If you aren’t sure what Ensure protein shakes are all about keep reading to learn more. The truth is that they aren’t nearly as “healthy” as you’ve been led to believe.
Below are 7 facts you should know about Ensure™ protein shakes before you run out to the store and stock up on more of them than you may want.
1) Ensure Active Protein shakes have 18 grams of sugar per bottle
That is about 4.5 teaspoons of sugar in one 10oz bottle, and is about 75% of the amount of sugar that the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association recommend that you consume in a whole day. Let’s look at it this way. One bottle of Ensure Active Protein contains about as much sugar as a serving of chocolate ice cream. Does this sound like a health food to you?
There may be a lot of things that cause obesity, but I can tell you from personal experience that the second you cut a ton of sugar out of your life you will see dramatic weight loss. Sugar is something you can not only live without, but will thrive without if you ever give your body the chance to function without much of it.
2) Ensure Active Protein is fat free (Is that a good thing?)
One of the biggest mistakes in our society is that dietary fat causes obesity. We are all so concerned with avoiding fat in our diet that most all foods in the store have a fat free or low fat option. At the same time obesity is at an all time high and is not showing any signs of slowing down. So does it make sense to avoid fat in your diet anymore?
The truth is that dietary fat is essential to life and our body needs that fat. What is important when it comes to fat is what kind of fat you are consuming. It’s not that one or the other causes obesity, but that some types of fat are really not good for your health. The fat in an avocado is so healthy for you that it would be crazy to avoid it for any reason, and the fat in those deep fried french fries are just the opposite of that.
The biggest point about fat is that it’s filling. Eating foods with fat makes you feel fuller, longer. When you’re full you aren’t obsessed with snacking. And when you aren’t looking for a snack you are less likely to eat fast food or some other junk food.
3) Ensure Active Nutrition Shake has 20 vitamins and minerals
So what! There are lots of foods on the market that have been “fortified” with vitamins and minerals, but that’s about all they are. Think about drinking this shake for a second.
You get some vitamins and minerals just like you would in a multi-vitamin, but you also get a bunch of sugar you don’t need and are missing the fat that you do need. But just for fun, let’s take a look at some of these vitamins and minerals and see if we could get them some other way.
Vitamin A – If you are looking to get more vitamin A in your diet, you can do that by consuming foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, tuna or red peppers. The best thing about foods like these is that they have no added sugar and do not have the healthy fat stripped out of them and are definitely not made in a factory.
Vitamin E – Vitamin E is another important vitamin for our body, and it can be found in a lot of really healthy places. Foods like spinach, nuts, sunflower seeds, avocados, trout, broccoli and olive oil all have vitamin e and once again are not loaded with a bunch of sugar.
Thiamine (B1) – Again, if you eat foods like fish, nuts, green peas and squash are all great sources of thiamine that will not contribute to diabetes or obesity, and also they taste great which isn’t always the case for a shake.
4) Ensure Active Protein has 8 grams of protein
Again, so what! You can find the same amount of protein in about 1/3 of a cup of quinoa, and in case you can’t predict what I’m about to say – you can do this without a single gram of added sugar. Did you know that you can have too much protein just like you can have not enough protein?
The truth is, that everything you put into your body can make you sick if you get too much of it. Too much water drank too quickly can cause hyponatremia which is a low amount of sodium in your body, and can kill you.
The CDC recommends no more than 46 grams of protein a day for women and 56 grams a day for men in total daily protein. While protein is one of the most important things you can put into your body, there is no need to be drinking sugary shakes to get your daily allowance.
In fact, it is very possible to get more than enough protein without doing anything special in your diet at all. You can stop paying attention to how much protein is in your food and you likely won’t notice anything different in your life.
In short…most people don’t need to obsess over how much protein they’re getting.
5) Ensure Active Protein has 0 grams of fiber
This is not cool! People talk about fiber and thought it was for “old people”. The truth is that fiber plays a very important part in your overall health, so it is essential to get enough. Fiber helps your body to cleanse various ingredients and pieces of foods that you no longer need and get rid of them.
Fiber also slows the absorption of sugar when you eat fruit. This is why you have my permission to walk away from somebody who says that you should not eat fruit because it has fructose (sugar).
6) Ensure Active Protein contains 180 calories
Here is another selling point the Ensure people make that does not matter one bit. I know every expert on the face of the planet says that weight loss is all about eating less calories, but they really don’t have it right. If counting calories was the best way to lose weight, wouldn’t we have less obesity and disease and more healthy people? We have low calorie foods in every part of the grocery store, but still somehow people are getting fatter and sicker.
Let’s take a look at why I hate calories so much. Let’s say you believe the experts and the only thing you care about are calories. You could have two choices, a soda or an avocado. The soda has about 180 calories, just like Ensure Active Protein™ has. The avocado has about 300 calories depending on how big it is. So if you pick the lower calorie option what are you getting?
You will get about 40 grams of sugar, which is about 10 teaspoons. You will get no vitamins, minerals or anything that your body can use in any healthful way. If you pick the avocado you get a ton of vitamins and minerals, and also some healthy fats that are missing from foods like Ensure protein shakes these days.
I know it is scary to read this and not know what to do, but just try eating real food instead of counting calories and watch your weigh drop and your health improve. Your neighbor and your friends are all counting calories, and they are miserable – you don’t have to be like them!
7) Ensure Active Protein is not a product that will make you healthier
You can survive without products like Ensure Protein drinks. It doesn’t do much for your good health, and since it has a ton of added sugars it is likely going to harm you if you drink too many of them.
You can get protein, vitamins and minerals from a million other healthy foods that don’t have a bunch of added sugars in them. If you need a boost of protein you can get some great vegetable based protein and mix it with some almond milk, bananas, dates and carrot juice for a protein smoothie that tastes better than you can imagine.
There are a million products out there waiting for you to come along and buy them. Some are great and some are terrible for your health. The only way that you can know which is which is to read every single label for every single food you eat. If you see any, or a lot of added sugar then you already know that is not a food you want. In fact, if you buy foods without any label you will be much better off.
Eating can be fun, healthy and easy to do once you learn a few simple things.
Cheers, and happy eating!