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Healthy Diet Shakes--The pros and cons

Healthy diet shakes can be a great way to boost your intake of valuable fruits, vegetables, and many other beneficial ingredients. However, if you're not careful you could end up spending too much time in preparation, getting ingredients you don't want, and/or paying too much.

One thing I recently experimented with was making up a large batch to freeze some individual servings to save time. I was worried that it might get gloppy or gross. It worked really well actually. So that's one easy way to overcome time constraints.

While I rarely have a shake myself, I have done a lot of research into the various mixes because my husband likes to have them as extra meals. He's one of those sickening people that consistently works out so hard that he actually has to worry about getting enough calories and protein.

As you may guess, I am not a proponent of most of the so-called healthy diet shake products on the market that are supposed to be all inclusive and you can conveniently throw a scoop in liquid, stir, and drink. Most of them have an inordinate amount of sugar and worse, preservatives that will inhibit the likelihood of weight loss.

However, I have found a few products that I feel comfortable recommending. One that's high on my list is from Garden of Life. They actually have several different mixes and I think they are all pretty good for you. Then, the downside, of course, is they don't taste so great. If you include a lot of fresh fruit, that will help the flavor and aid you in getting several servings at once.

Hemp protein is another one that I've found to be healthy. But again, it's green and gritty, so, same issues as before. You do grow accustomed to this, though. It's not that big of a deal.

I've recently found another company, Jay Robbs, that offers a more natural version of a "Muscle Milk" style shake mix. He's got natural sweeteners and avoids several bad ingredients. Jay Robbs' does cost slightly more than the others, I think. My one issue with Jay Robbs mix is that it's an isolated protein, not a "whole food" supplement. I prefer a whole food because I just think that's how our body was set up to absorb nutrients, but if you can't stomach the super-green mixes, this would be a good alternative.

The nice thing about these healthy diet shake mixes is you are getting a lot of other very healthful components for weight loss and overall wellness that your diet may otherwise lack. The Garden of Life varieties usually have some little known seeds that have a lot of healthy fats as well as a number of greens of which you doubtless would not normally partake. The hemp proteins generally have a number of healthful amino acids, which may be hard to come by unless you use Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Bragg's tastes like soy sauce except that it's actually good for you. Look for it in your grocery store's health food section. I use it as a substitute for salt in a lot of meals.

To purchase healthy diet shake mixes, you can check out your local health food store, or even a GNC may carry them. I usually get mine online for convenience and price checking. I've found www.vitacost.com to have the best prices on many health items I use often.

I do hope this helps enlighten you somewhat regarding healthy diet shakes. As always, I caution you to read labels.