Going vegan can be a game changer for overall health. But most vegan diets are plagued by various nutrient deficiencies. Luckily, vegan meal replacement shakes can fix this. And make your plant-based diet more solid.
Our guide will help you pick the vegan meal replacement shakes that work the best.
Vegan Meal Replacement Shakes: It Pays to Be a Vegan
Unlike regular meal replacements, plant-based shakes allow you to enjoy:
- A more natural source of nourishment No matter what the meat industry would like us to believe, we’re not designed to eat like carnivores. Made exclusively of plant-based ingredients, vegan meal replacement shakes are the most in tune with our innate physiology.
- Less toxicity for the entire body Vegan meal replacement shakes are among the least contaminated meal replacement supplements out there. Most of them give strong preference to organically sourced and all-natural ingredients. And use no harmful synthetic components.
- Boosting your energy quickly Being far more natural, plant-based ingredients are a lot easier for the body to digest than animal-sourced alternatives. And since they also come with less contaminants, they give your energy the nudge that’s timely and lasts.
- Contributing to a more caring world Using plant-based products, including vegan meal replacement shakes, boycotts the massive butchery of animals that goes on globally. As you reap all the other benefits of vegan meal replacement shakes, you help bring down this system.
Only the decent vegan meal replacement shakes provide these benefits, though.
Let us discover how to spot them.
How to Tell If a Vegan Meal Replacement Shake Is Worth It
High-quality vegan meal replacement shakes share certain things in common.
Namely:
- Protein content Insufficient protein intake is the most common nutrient deficiency that vegans develop. Most vegans would be wise to supplement it. On average, top-quality vegan meal replacement shakes contain no less than 15 grams of protein in every portion.
- Protein sources High-grade vegan meal replacement shakes derive protein from decent sources like pea, hemp, and brown rice. And they avoid such low-grade sources as soy. They also tend to use protein isolates over concentrates and hydrolysates, since they have less impurities.
- Fat content Fats are yet another common nutrient that vegans consume in less than adequate amounts. Supplementing them is wise as well. Vegan meal replacement shakes containing roughly as much fat as they do protein reign supreme for this purpose.
- Fat sources Best vegan meal replacement shakes use fats from premium sources. Among them are coconut oil and butter, MCT oil, avocado oil, nut butters, and flaxseed oil. Poor fat sources include palm, rapeseed, cottonseed, corn, peanut, canola, soybean, and hydrogenated oils.
- Micronutrients Plant-based diets often miss out on those micronutrients that animal-sourced foods are rich in. Vitamin B12, zinc, and magnesium are in particularly short supply in many vegan diets. Vegan meal replacement shakes with such micronutrients help fill the void.
- Dietary fiber When it comes to fiber, plant-based diets usually excel here. But getting more fiber doesn’t hurt, even with vegan meal replacement shakes. So long as it comes from decent sources, like acacia and tapioca. And not from the substandard ones like polydextrose.
Inferior vegan meal replacement shakes don’t match all of these standards.
What else gives them away?
How to Spot Low-Quality Vegan Meal Replacement Shakes
Lower-grade vegan meal replacement shakes may also include:
- Gluten If you don’t see a gluten-free label, chances are that this vegan meal replacement shake contains this allergen.
- High-glycemic components Cheap vegan meal replacement shakes may involve high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, and other high-glycemic ingredients that are unhealthy.
- Artificial ingredients Avoid vegan meal replacement shakes with aspartame, sucralose, and other artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, or other synthetic components.
- Contaminants Vegan meal replacement shakes without Non-GMO and Organic labels subject your body to a slew of harmful compounds.
By now, we’ve figured out what to look for and what to avoid in vegan meal replacement shakes.
Which ones can you count on?
Top Vegan Meal Replacement Shakes Worth Trying
These vegan meal replacement shakes meet many of our guide’s key criteria:
- Raw Organic Meal by Garden of Life.
- Plant-Based Meal Shake by Ample V.
- Vegan Powdered Meal by Huel.
- Gemini by Unico.
- Super Fuel by Super Body Fuel.
We hope our guide will help you buy the right vegan meal replacement shake for you. And save both time and money.