Ensure is mostly junkfood

I've noticed that Ensure has been mentioned a few times on this board. I haven't paid too much attention, since I don't use it and never saw it for sale here in Taiwan - until recently.

I can understand it's value to a patient in the hospital recovering from a bowel resection and thus unable to stand any solid food. But as a nutrition supplement - well, read the ingredient label:

Water, sugar (sucrose), corn syrup, maltodextrin (corn), calcium caseinate, high-oleic safflower oil, canola oil, soy protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, corn oil, calcium phosphate tribasic, potassium citrate, magnesium phosphate dibasic, natural and artificial flavor, soy lecithin, sodium citrate, magnesium chloride, salt (sodium chloride), carrageenan, choline chloride, potassium chloride, ascorbic acid, ferrous sulfate, alpha-tocopheryl acetate, zinc sulfate, niacinamide, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, cupric sulfate, vitamin A palmitate, thiamine chloride hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, chromium chloride, biotin, sodium molybdate, sodium selenate, potassium iodide, phylloquinone, vitamin D3 and cyanocobalamin

Nothing wrong with the first ingredient (water), but look at the next three which make up the bulk of this product: sugar, corn syrup and maltodextrin. Basically, it's coffee creamer. It's only when we get down to the 5th ingredient, calcium caseinate (milk protein) that we're talking about something with nutritional value. However, you can buy milk protein powder for far less money than Ensure, and not get all the sugar and corn starch junk. There are a few vitamins in Ensure, but much less than you'll get from taking just one multi-vitamin pill per day.

In short, I would say that if you're looking to supplement your diet, you'd be better off with milk protein powder (note: this is not whey protein power, which really tastes terrible), or maybe soy protein powder if you prefer its taste, plus a vitamin pill. Unlike Ensure, protein powder by itself isn't sweet, so you'd have to either add sugar or an artificial sweetener (or stevia, which is what I use) to give it flavor. I do add protein powder to my oatmeal (along with stevia and cinnamon) to give it more nutrition. I cannot drink milk, since I'm very lactose intolerant (pure milk protein does not have lactose, and soy protein definitely doesn't either).

Of course, if you drink coffee, you could use Ensure as an expensive and slightly more nutritious alternative to coffee creamer. Otherwise, I'd give it a miss.

Just my opinion.

best regards,
Robert

I won't argue that Ensure is basically Yoohoo with vitamins pumped in it, but I drink it mostly for the vitamins and nutrients.  I particularly like it for its 9 grams of protein per serving.  Being a vegetarian with Crohn's, it's pretty easy to get low on protein and slip into malnutrition.  Plus, it was a nice high-calorie drink for weight gain when I was down to 105 lbs.  I haven't had Ensure for a while, but mainly because it's a bit pricey for a college student to drink regularly.

All in all, it's low in cholesterol and saturated fat and high in protein and calcium (I mean, how many of us are on calcium supplements right now?) so it's fine in my book.  As long as you have a generally healthy diet, I don't see it hurting you that much.

I drink it mostly for the calories. I drink the Plus version with 350 calories per can just to try to maintain my weight and maintain a soft diet during flares.

its like condensed milk with vitamins..my little brother got a prescription for a drink called Citrisource..and that helped him alot..

After reading this article....

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136879.php

You might want to make sure you avoid corn syrup all together, besides which along with molasses and refined sugar they can really exacerbate IBD symptoms, and if you happen to have IBS as well, even more reason to avoid the above.

:)

know solids can be tough to handle when things get bad but all the sugar and starches in that ensure would be sooo bad for your gut! Think of all the bacteria it is feeding! It is feeding the crohn’s!

Maybe blending foods and sipping that would be a better option? That way you would still get vitamins, minerals, protein etc….. all your nutrients in blended form, like baby food…. Just a suggestion

Yeah, I've started avoiding Boost/Ensure because of the HFCS, etc., too.

My nutritionist recommended Benecalorie for those who need to get extra calories in.  I gave it a try.  It doesn't really taste like anything, it's meant to be mixed into foods/beverages (or you could down it like a shot, but I'm a bit leery of trying that).  It's 330 calories in 1.5 oz.  How do they pack so many calories into such a tiny package?  It's almost entirely fat (33g fat, 7g protein, no carbohydrates).  My only complaint is that it contains sucralose (Splenda), though it's the last ingredient and this didn't taste sweet to me.  I have a feeling that something so calorie-dense is probably prone to spoilage/contamination, and would be even more so if it contained sugar.  It does have preservatives/anti-bacterial agents in it.

Anyway, I mixed it into some fortified soymilk and gave it a try.  No trouble digesting it, but it gave me a food coma (all that fat) and it did make me a tad nauseated (probably too much for my stomach to handle for breakfast).  It definitely sated any hunger I had, and I can see it preventing me from losing any more weight (I've been on a liquid diet due to a partial obstruction).

Though I wish there were something better.  I may go back to my protein smoothies (kefir, protein powder, and frozen fruit) and just omit the fruit (seeds) for now...

Thanks so much everyone for your suggestions. I will give them a try. The Syntha -6 sounds quite good. I'm wary of the one with so much fat because I don't absorb fat well at all, but who knows. If for any reason it was fat that's easier to digest, it would be great. Making my own smoothies would be the best probably if I weren't so darn lazy and often so uninterested in food.

My GI doc mentioned a kind of oil that is absorbed somewhere other than the terminal ileum, and says that it might be good for me to use, but hasn't prescribed it yet or told me where I can get it.

I've really been struggling to keep weight on and love hearing what other people are doing. Thanks!

@ Sloth - That much fat will slow down peristalsis once it hits the small intestine. If there is anything else in the meal that takes digesting, you could promote acid reflux. Fat also tends to weaken the sphincter at the top of the stomach, making reflux even more likely. The slowed peristalsis could also allow bacteria to multiply in the small intestine if you used it more than once a day. The small intestine is only able to handle 6 - 7 grams of fat per hour. So 33 grams of fat would take 5 to 6 hours to pass through. That is about three or four times the normal lag time for transit of the small intestine. That is not so terrible by itself, but if there is any other compromise of passage in the small intestine - like a stricture or inflammation - it is trouble.

Now that I have said the above, I have to qualify it. If the fat is in the form of free fatty acids, it is already digested and does not cause the same problems. However, dietary fats are not in that form, so I am supposing that they will require digestion.