Portable health: real nutrition you can pocket

Better Nutrition, April, 2004 by Kimberly Lord Stewart

In their early years, meal replacement bars and drinks were designed to fit in the back pockets of long-distance cyclists and runners. Today, these nutrition-packed foods are just as likely to be tucked away in the glove compartments of busy motorists for healthful, quick meals.

With sales for nutrition bars and drinks increasing by more than 20 percent per year, new flavors, such as pecan pie and chocolate caramel, mean you don't have to give up taste for convenience in the bar category. And drinks are no longer limited to only chocolate and vanilla; instead, look for shakes in tropical and berry fruit flavors.

Insoluble and soluble fiber are common ingredients for bars and drinks. As researchers learn more about fiber's role in immune function, digestive health, and cholesterol and blood sugar levels, meal replacement bars and drinks are being introduced that contain disease-fighting fibrous substances derived from oats, flax, quinoa, chicory tool, fruits and vegetables. Nutrient boosters such as echinacea, ginkgo and probiotics, which are commonly found on smoothie bar menus, are also finding their way into meal replacement products. Some contain ingredients found only in dietary supplements, and therefore are sold as such. For this reason, read the labels carefully, especially before offering bars and shakes to children.

The number of choices are so vast that selecting the right one for the right purpose--whether for weight loss, athletic performance or just a healthful snack--can be daunting. The trick is to know which ones fit your specific needs.

Nutrients

Meal replacement products may look like candy bars and milk shakes, but they're actually a unique delivery system for nutrients--proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. When eaten periodically, they offer a healthful alternative when a conventional meal isn't available, says Susan Kundrat, RD, a dietitian at the University of Illinois and Strawberry Fields Natural Food Store in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

Many people don't think about how nutritionally dense these products are. For instance, one meal replacement bar or drink may contain anywhere from 35 percent to 100 percent of the recommended daily intakes (RDI) of vitamins and minerals. If you eat a bar in addition to taking a daily multivitamin, you may exceed the RDI's for some vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, which can be harmful. Kundrat advises consumers to read labels and keep track of how many bars or drinks they consume.

Proteins and Fats

The cornerstone of meal replacement drinks is protein, typically whey or soy, as well as allergen-flee and vegan protein sources from rice and peas. Bars also include protein blends of whey, soy and casein. Most contain 15-18 grams of protein, the equivalent of just less than a cup of tofu or 2 ounces of a roasted chicken breast. Since the announcement that soy proteins help prevent heart disease, the bar and drink market has wasted no time in packing as much soy as possible into its products. It's now possible to get a day's worth of the recommended amount of soy protein--25 grams--from one bar and a drink.

But as with other nutrients, soy intake can go too far. For instance, one of Kundrat's male clients drank two soy shakes and ate a couple of bars daily. He backed off when Kundrat told him his total soy intake exceeded 60 grams per day. "We don't yet have enough studies to know what exceeding [high quantities] of these nutrients will do," she says.

And to make sure you're getting healthful fats in your bar or drink, read labels carefully and compare products (see "Nutrition Bar Comparison Chart," p. 44). Otherwise you may be eating unwanted hydrogenated fats. Many bars and drinks now include heart-healthy essential fatty acids from nuts, seeds and fish oils.

Calories and Weight Loss

Meal replacement bars and drinks are just that--a meal not a snack. Because of the high calorie content--anywhere from 200 to 400 per bar or shake--many people with good intentions sabotage their diets by eating bars as snacks instead of as meals. "It's important for people to understand how many calories they need in a day," Kundrat says. "An extra 200 calories a day can add up over a period of time and cause a setback in weight-loss goals."

Bars and drinks designed for women or for weight loss are generally lower in calories than those designed for body building and athletic performance. Kundrat recommends eating fruit and yogurt along with a bar or shake to balance the nutrients and fiber and provide a little more staying power. Bars and shakes are easily digested; therefore, when you cat them alone, they may not satisfy your hunger for very long.

For obese individuals, especially those who have difficulty making wise food selections, meal replacement bars and drinks have evolved into useful tools because they offer a nutritious balance of carbohydrates, protein and fats in a calorie-finite meal. A year-long study reported in the March 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that women who followed a 1,200-calorie-per-day diet made up of meal replacement drinks along with fruits and vegetables were able to maintain their weight loss more successfully than those who followed a self-planned whole-foods diet. And a Columbia University study published in the July 2003 issue of the International Journal of Obesity Related Metabolic Disorders examined half a dozen similar cases and found that study participants who used meal replacement drinks lost on average 5 more pounds than people on conventional diets.