Naturade Total Soy Strawberry Cream Meal Replacement (Food)

One of the unfortunate side effects of the Christmas holiday is weight gain. There is always so much good food to eat (and bad food too), that it’s almost impossible to escape the holiday season without gaining some weight. This year’s menu included rib roast, Italian style steak, Chinese food, pizza, banana bread, rum cake, assorted chocolates and many other dishes too numerous to mention. No, I didn’t eat these all at one meal. They were spread out throughout the holiday week so at any one time it didn’t seem like I was eating that much. But each item added up and when I stepped on the scale this weekend I found that they added up big time.

How come it takes forever to lose a pound, but you can gain a whole bunch of them in a week?

Anyway, it was time to pay the piper and I was determined that I would get the weight off fast. I decided to try something different this year. Years ago I tried out a diet that included meal replacement shakes. I bought a six pack of these pre-mixed things with the best of intentions, but after sampling the first one I decided it was not for me. It was pretty awful. The mixture kind of resembled a shake but was chalky and had a strange after taste that’s best described as a cross between sulfuric acid and Indian food (I might be being redundant here). It wasn’t in the least bit pleasant tasting and the remaining five cans of this stuff ended up in the trash.

Recently, I came across an article discussing the latest meal replacement powders and according to the author; they have come a long way. Not only do they taste better, they also contain better ingredients and are much healthier then the earlier versions.

This sounded encouraging so I decided that I would give one of the new shakes a try.

I headed over to Shaw’s and made my way to the health food section (an area of the store in which I don’t usually spend a lot of time). Examining the shelves I found that there were all sorts of options including whey based drinks, soy based drinks, and protein powders. Since I had no clue as to what I was looking for, I used the scientific approach; I picked the cheapest.

What I ended up with was one 17.88-ounce can of Naturade Total Soy Strawberry Cream Meal Replacement. Reading the back of the can, I learned that a single serving contained 150 calories and when mixed with the required 8 ounces of 2% low fat milk (130 calories), a meal of this stuff would only add up to 280 calories and would contain roughly one third of just about every nutrient that I would need in a day. Ah, the magic of engineered foods.

I purchased the can and headed home with growing anticipation of sampling my first artificial food.

When I got home, I opened the can and found it contained a powder resembling flour in texture and was tinted an off-white color. This kind of surprised me because I thought it would have a strawberry look like the mixture on the side of the can. I grabbed a measuring cup, poured out eight ounces of non-fat milk and added in two scoops of the soy mix. With a spoon I stirred like crazy for a couple of minutes because the last thing that I wanted was a lumpy shake and watched as the off-white colored powder mixed with milk magically turned into a pink colored strawberry shake.

I grabbed the milk carton, placed it back in the refrigerator and when I turned to consume my shake I found that my cat Neutrino had magically appeared and was chug-a-lugging my strawberry soy shake. He seemed to like it a lot. So much so, that when I poured it down the sink, he jumped in after it and started licking the sink basin.
I cleaned out my glass mixed another batch of the stuff and retired to the living room to watch Rachael Ray cook a thirty-minute meal, while I drank my sixty-second one.

So how was it?

Not bad. It had a rich creamy strawberry flavor (I guess that’s why they call it Strawberry Cream) and it left no aftertaste. Although it tasted quite good, the mix itself was very thin; very much like the low-fat milk from which it as made.

When I got to the bottom of the drink, I found that not all of the powder had gone into solution and a creamy gel was sitting on the bottom of the glass. Since it looked a lot like ice cream, I decided I would taste a spoonful of it. Bad move. It tasted like strawberry but had the consistency of Styrofoam packing peanuts. Learning my lesson, I added some additional milk to the gel and finished off the drink.

Overall, it was enjoyable and satisfying and I think that it will make a decent substitute supper for a short period of time. Honestly, I would prefer to have a cheeseburger or a plate of lasagna, but until I drop a few pounds that’s no longer an option.

7 out of 10 Stars

Posted by Al on 01/11/10 at 06:17 PM in Other