What are these shakes made from?
Although these shakes are different for many reasons, they are all made up from a similar formula.
I will give a breakdown of the good and bad ingredients that make up these shakes.
The Good
The websites of herbalife, juice plus (as an example) give you the details of the miraculous shakes and all the vitamins they provide to you.
Herbalife for instance give a breakdown of their products (http://www.herbalifeww.com/ca/pdf/news_more_info_items/fs_inner_nut_07_en_112707-rev1.pdf)
Very good...
However you will notice that the nutritional values are very specifically picked to give the ultimate 'wow' factor that these products are the bomb for you! (excellent marketing!)
So... yes the shake has an 'amount' of the vitamins/minerals and other nutrients you need, but what else is there? (we'll come to that!)
Juice plus similarly shows you all the best bits! (kinda)
(http://www.juiceplus.com/content/JuicePlus/en/what-is-juice-plus/ingredients1.html)
As you can see information is limited but limited to 'it's all good, buy from us!'
And again yes, it does provide you with dehydrated fruits and veg minerals and vitamins, so points there!
The Bad
So what are they not wanting you to know?
The extra ingredients:
Soy protein isolate - to make the shake 'like a milkshake' when you add fluid - This is a genetically modified organism (GMO) and can not be traced what is in it.
Corn Bran - A GMO of corn and again is used to thicken up the shake when added to fluid
Artificial flavours - Ahh yes because it's natural for your fruit and veg to taste of cookies and cream? (no such luck I'm afraid!)
-- Colouring (Red, Blue, Green, Pink etc...) - for that appealing colour we associate with fruit and veg.
-- Sucralose - man made sweeter that can not be metabolised by the body (why put it in there then?!)
-- Soy Lecithin - eh? - an infuser of flavours that is actually toxic for the colon (the digestive system)
Canola Oil - processed rape seed oil, a few studies found that this oil can cause nerve damage in the brain and lead to forgetfulness and reduced motor function (say WHAT?!)
Carrageenan - another highly toxic substance for the body, again proven to be linked to destroying human cell and in some rare cases promoting cancerous cells (are you serious?!). Furthermore they ruin the immune system and allow bacteria to thrive.
Most of that I had to check with the nutritional journal to make sure it was real!
So how do they get away with it?
Although the products are 'FDA' approved, the testing can be quite slack and as long as 'in normal dosage' does not affect life conditions, it can be approved.
GMO products however can vary from test to test... as there is no quality control over the processing procedure!
