For the beginning, let’s define what it actually is. Protein shakes are meal replacements consumed by dieters and athletes for efficient weight loss and muscle building. They are sold as pre-mixed and ready-to-drink products that you can instantly take along with fluids like water or milk. But are they safe to take? Below, Health Guide Reviews outlined these substances’ pros and cons for you.
Calculate the calories
According to the data provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the daily amount of protein should be approximately 46 grams for women 56 grams for men. How can you get those calories? For instance, 3 ounces of meat contain 21 grams of protein. Likewise, a cup of dry beans contains 16 grams. As for milk products, 1 cup of milk provides you with 8 grams and 1 cup of yogurt with 11 grams of protein. What is this all about? In fact, all this stuff gives you the required 56 grams of protein in a day. Thus, unless you have any medical conditions or eat only deep-fried foods, you don’t really need to add protein shakes to your ration as they will just increase your calorie intake.
Control your protein intake
To define whether you need to increase your protein intake by consuming any meal replacements, consult with your nutritionist or healthcare provider. Because if you already get the necessary amount of protein from whole foods, adding more proteins to your dietary may be harmful to your organism. Taking more protein than you need makes your liver and kidneys work harder, which may provoke certain worsening or even diseases. So you really need to take the certain number of factors into account before making any radical changes to your nutrition.
Measure the expenses
When it comes to pricing, you should take a look at the cost per serving first of all. Retail prices of protein powders and pre-mixed protein shakes vary from provider to provider so it’s not that convenient to base your calculation on those. Generally, powders are cheaper than ready-to-drink shakes yet they can’t provide you with needed amino acids. As a result, there’s another kind of expenses: you have to pay for milk or its substitutes, as well as for fruit and flavorings. So eating low-fat and high-protein meals may be several times more effective and economical.
Consider the taste
Indeed, protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes are normally available both in various flavors and unflavored, it’s not always possible to pick up your perfect sort. Numerous studies have proven that some of those flavors have truly unpredictable tastes. Of course, this problem can be easily solved by adding fruits and other flavorings to those substances.
