Every now and then I like to rip apart a Food Product that’s somehow attained a healthy status. We’ve all heard of “Ensure” and “Pediasure”. These products are actually recommended by doctors and passed out in hospitals, nursing homes, and cancer centers as if they contain Magical Properties. They don’t. They’re pure crap, a true “Looks Healthy But Isn’t”. Last night I saw a commercial for Ensure Protein that compared it with 4 eggs, and the Ensure came out on top. My head exploded – you’ve got to be kidding me! Is there NO truth in advertising at all? Let’s take apart the ingredients in Ensure, compare it with the nutrients in eggs, and then you all can decide if you’d ever give it to someone you care about.
The ingredients in Ensure Protein:
Water, Milk Protein Concentrate, Corn Maltodextrin. Less than 2% of the Following: Calcium Caseinate, Soy Protein Isolate, Sugar (Sucrose), Short-Chain , High Oleic Safflower Oil, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Magnesium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Ascorbate, Sodium Chloride, Carrageenan, Cellulose Gel, Gellan Gum, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Zinc Gluconate, dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Manganese Gluconate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Chloride Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Chromium Chloride, Folic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin D3, Biotin, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodide, Phytonadione, and Cyanocobalamin.
Ready?
Milk Protein Concentrate: This is milk that’s been ultra-filtered; that means all liquid and ALL MINERALS and several other nutrients, have been REMOVED. All of the MPC used in the U.S. ( and it’s in several processed foods) comes from OUT of the U.S.; New Zealand and China are the top suppliers. There’s very, very little regulation over this product, and because it’s cheaper for Big Food to buy it overseas, it’s having an ENORMOUSLY bad impact on American Dairy Farmers. You can read more about this here. By the way, it’s only 40% protein, no fat, no minerals, no vitamins, what’s the other 60%?
Corn Maltodextrin: this is highly refined, super cheap, corn sugar. It has an incredibly high glycemic index rating of 130. Table sugar’s rating is 65. What this means is this sugar is so highly processed and refined that once it’s in the gut it makes it into the blood stream in record time, skyrocketing blood sugar, and spiking insulin. (hello belly fat, heart disease, and diabetes)
Soy Protein Isolate: Ugh. Soy definitely got an undeserved reputation as a health food. It’s not. Soy protein is loaded with “phyto-estrogens”, that means plant compounds that mimic estrogen. Men don’t need more estrogen, and neither do women. Soy is “goitrogenic”. That means it disrupts Thyroid Function, who wants that? Soy is incredibly hard to digest and is highly allergenic. Soy Protein Isolate has had ALL nutrients removed, just like the Milk Protein Concentrate.
Sucralose: aka, Splenda. The links between Splenda/sucralose and CANCER are huge. Studies show it also destroys beneficial gut bacteria, and raises blood sugar – just like real sugar.
Cellulose Gel: This is not the same cellulose that’s in fiberous veggies. This is made in a lab from Wood Pulp. Always. It’s cheap, it’s gives good “mouth feel”, and like every other ingredient in this gross drink, it’s in soooo many foods.
Okay, see all those long words that are hard to pronounce? Like Pyridoxine Hydrochloride? All of those are SYNTHETIC VITAMINS. These are ADDED because there’s NO nutrients in these ingredients; they’re devoid of nutrients, literally. Synthetic vitamins are mostly made in CHINA, under incredibly lax and unregulated conditions. (PS, it’s important that vitamin supplements you take are made from “Whole Food Sources”) There is NOTHING remotely similar to God’s Vitamin’s that He put in actual Real Whole Food. Please, please, I’m begging you, click on the link below and read the ingredients that are used to make these SYNTHETIC VITAMINS. Here’s an example using the above mentioned vitamin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, (vitamin B6):
Natural Vitamin B6 – Like B1, pyridoxine is bound with phosphate in plants to make pyridoxal-phosphate. This is the biologically active form. Any other form of B6 must be converted into this phosphate combination before our body can use it.
Synthetic Vitamin B6 – Pyridoxine hydrochloride comes from petroleum ester, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde. It isn’t readily absorbed or converted and has been shown to actually inhibit the action of natural B6 in the body. It also has side effects not normally found with natural food sources of this vitamin.
You can learn more by clicking on this link.
What about the eggs? What nutrients are in eggs? The answer is really more like, what nutrients AREN’T in eggs? They’re one of natures perfect foods, and that whole cholesterol connection’s been more than put to rest. Our bodies NEED cholesterol for hormone production, Vitamin D production, cell function and formation, and brain health. Most of the cholesterol in our blood is from our LIVER, which MAKES cholesterol; actually, EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY MAKES CHOLESTEROL. It’s that important. Back to eggs!
Just to name a FEW of the nutrients that eggs contain: Vit. A, D, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin, B12, B6, Pantothenic Acid, Choline, Biotin, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Selenium, and if you want to see it all, check here.
My real point with this post: Processed foods are Poison Crap that destroy your body and mind and make you sick, and Real Whole Foods are Loaded with Nutrients that your body needs in forms that are highly “useable”. Even foods like Ensure, which have an Healthy Aura around them, are Crap.
It really, really matters what we put in our mouth. It matters what our kids put in their mouths. What we eat becomes US. What we eat gets broken down into nutrients that either our body uses to build and repair us, or ANTI-nutrients that harm us. There is no neutral food. Honestly.
Feeling overwhelmed because Processed Foods like cereal, frozen meals, and boxed crackers are so easy, fast, and normal seeming? The billions of advertising dollars spent by Big Food has just hypnotized you, it was supposed to! Look around though, 70% of the US is overweight and sick. ADD, ADHD, and Autism have literally infiltrated our children. Depression and Anxiety are the most common mental illness in the US, affecting at least 20% of the population. It’s The Food I Swear! Take control of your life, improve the lives of your children; eat Real Whole Food. Get in touch with me if you need help; it’s not as scary, or time consuming, or impossible as you think. Make the change today to being a whole new you.