The WoW Style

Meal replacement shakes abound. And there’s no shortage of delicious flavors to select from. The lion’s share of them, however, make you pay for their amazing taste with your health.

Let us uncover why. And find out how to pick the best tasting meal replacement shakes that don’t endanger health.

Why Can’t You Choose Any Flavor You Like?

When most people think of flavor, they consider a variety of tastes like chocolate or vanilla. And there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, taste is an important satisfaction factor – meal replacement shakes that taste amazing are easier to enjoy.

But is taste the only factor worth considering?

As you chase the taste, it may be tempting to ignore the ingredients that make up the flavor. And it’s exactly what so many meal replacement manufacturers abuse. Tinkering with artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and other synthetic compounds, they make their products taste irresistible.

All at the cost of your health, though.

The problem is that nearly all of these substances are harmful in one way or another. And many of them also act as toxins. Thus, meal replacement shakes that contain them taste good but intoxicate your body with every serving.

Let us get to know these compounds to avoid such delicious but inferior meal replacement shakes.

Tasty Meal Replacement Shakes That Aren’t Worth Taking

Meal replacement shakes with artificial sweeteners may have a very pleasing taste.

But their regular consumption has detrimental effects on your health.

These artificial sweeteners are some of the most heavily used:

• Aspartame This artificial sweetener is among the most dangerous. It has neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects, increasing oxidative stress on the nervous system and the body. Its intake sparks a chain of symptoms from dizziness and migraines to mood and cognitive disorders.
• Acesulfame potassium Besides being impossible for the body to break down, this artificial sweetener contains methylene chloride – a known carcinogen. As such, it increases the risk of cancer, disrupts metabolism, triggers nausea, and suppresses the function of liver and kidneys.
• Sucralose Like other artificial sweeteners, sucralose is an excitotoxin that overstimulates neuron receptors. Being over 500 times sweeter than sugar, it fosters addiction to sweets. Its intake is linked to a higher risk of leukemia, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases.
• Saccharin Despite its vast inclusion in medications, this artificial sweetener is toxic and associated with a number of serious health problems. Among them are cancer, tachycardia, sun allergy, and gastrointestinal upset with many symptoms of its own, from nausea to diarrhea.

This list provides a nice insight into how toxic meal replacement shakes with artificial sweeteners are.

Sadly, artificial sweeteners aren’t the only culprit when it comes to flavors.

Even More Toxic Flavor Ingredients to Watch For

These components are just as damaging to your health as artificial sweeteners:

• Sugar alcohols Xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, erythritol, and maltitol are some of the most common sugar alcohols. Since the body doesn’t absorb them well, sugar alcohols tend to act as allergens and cause upset stomach. Poorly researched, they may pose other risks to health too.
• High-fructose corn syrup Ranking high on the glycemic scale, high-fructose corn syrup can send insulin levels through the roof. As a result, its consumption leads to metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes. And since it comes from GMO corn, it’s also packed with toxins.
• Processed sugars While they’re derived from naturally occurring sugars, refined sugars are toxic to the body as well. Causing a spike in insulin and blood glucose levels, processed sugars increase inflammation and oxidative stress. As such, they contribute to many chronic illnesses.
• Fructose Due to its low-glycemic index, fructose is often advertised as a safe sweetening ingredient. But fructose is far from being healthy for the body. Its regular intake increases the levels of uric acid and bad cholesterol, fostering various cardiovascular and joint conditions.

As you can tell, delicious flavors may often come with a slew of uninvited harmful ingredients.

How do you spot the meal replacement shakes that are both safe and tasty?

What Do Tasty and Safe Meal Replacement Shakes Look Like?

Luckily, many meal replacement shakes out there are both flavorful and nontoxic.

To spot them, look for such healthy natural sweeteners inside them as:

• Stevia.
• Cane sugar.
• Coconut sugar.
• Brown rice syrup.
• Maple syrup.
• Agave syrup.
• Monk fruit.
• Raw honey.

And all the better if these natural sweeteners come from organic sources.

Besides this, it pays to check if all the other ingredients making up the flavor are also natural. If the flavor says strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla, the contents must include natural strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla respectively.

Finally, analyzing all the logos on the supplement label can be helpful.

Look for such claims by the manufacturer as:

• No artificial sweeteners.
• No artificial flavors.
• Naturally sweetened.
• Naturally flavored.
• Made with all-natural ingredients.
• 100% natural.
• 100% organic.
• Natural flavors.

Staying tuned for these fine details helps find the supplements that are both tasty and decent.

Let us look at some of them below.

Best Tasting Meal Replacement Shakes That Are Safe to Try

These meal replacement shakes match many of the standards in our guide:

• Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal With delicious Chocolate Cacao, Vanilla, Vanilla Spiced Chai, and Lightly Sweet flavors.
• Orgain Organic Nutrition All-in-One Nutritional Shake With tasty Creamy Chocolate Fudge, Sweet Vanilla Bean, Iced Cafe Mocha, and Strawberries & Cream grass-fed flavors. And Smooth Chocolate and Vanilla Bean plant-based flavors.
• Team Beachbody Shakeology With mouth-watering Greenberry, Strawberry, Cafe Latte, Vanilla, and Chocolate whey flavors. And Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate, Vanilla, Cafe Latte, and Tropical Strawberry plant-based flavors.
• Nutrisystem Turbo Shake With flavorful Chocolate, Vanilla, and Chocolate & Vanilla flavors available.

All of them make for nice go-to options. And if you have the time to expand your search, we hope our guide has been of help.