Not sure why and how our shakes work? Want to know why so many customers see great results with our shakes? Take 2 minutes and give this a read!
Before getting to how our shakes work, let’s start from first principles - what exactly does ‘healthy’ eating mean?
To eat healthy, means to consume the right amounts of the right foods consistently, to keep our bodies functioning optimally, and minimise the odds of succumbing to diet-related illnesses. This starts with calories at the highest level, and then breaks down to macronutrients, micronutrients and phytonutrients.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommend that we get the following amounts of these nutrients:
Just as important as the amounts of nutrients we take in, is the type of foods we get these nutrients from. The experts at the frontier of nutrition science all converge to the same recommendation for this: go for whole foods, predominantly plant-based [1][2] .
This is important to note. Getting in our daily vitamin and mineral intakes from fruits, vegetables or animal produce is fine, while depending on a synthetic multivitamin blend is not so great. This is because many nutrients don’t get absorbed as well in their synthetic forms, and can be potentially harmful in excess [3].
In summary, to eat healthy means to get in the right amounts of the right nutrients, from predominantly plant-based whole foods.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE OVERCONSUMED
Going back to our table of recommended nutrient intakes, your next natural questions might be: ‘Are all those nutrients required? Which of those are the most important or good for you? Can we overconsume any of these nutrients?’
In our modern diets, we are very likely to overeat certain nutrients (e.g. carbohydrates, saturated fat) and undereat others (e.g. dietary fiber, vitamins). The things we often tend to overeat, get coined as the ‘bad’ stuff, and important nutrients we don’t get enough of get coined as the ‘good’ stuff:
Now that we have the basics down, it’s time for the important part:
HOW DO THE SHAKES FIT IN?
Our shakes are chock-full of the ‘good’ stuff, and low in the ‘bad’ stuff. Because of this, when you have them for a meal, you create a nutrition buffer. This nutrition buffer makes it easier for you to stay close to the recommended daily intakes for key nutrients, without having to drastically change your eating habits for the other meals. It's similar to how people say that they're having a small lunch, because they're 'saving their calories' for a big family dinner later.
Here’s an example of how this will work. Let’s say on your average day, you have the hallmarks of nutritious Singaporean meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner - Kaya butter toast with coffee for breakfast, minced pork noodles (bak chor mee) for lunch and a shared dinner with your spouse, family or friends for dinner.
Here's how the 'bad stuff'- the things we overconsume everyday, will look like against your daily requirements without Sustenance, and here's how Sustenance compensates for this overconsumption:
Here's how the 'good stuff'- the things we don't get enough of, will look like against your daily requirements without Sustenance, and here's how Sustenance tops up on these:
By having our shakes for one of your ‘functional’ meals – like one of your weekday lunches which are your ‘anything quick and healthy goes’ meals – you get in the right amounts of the right nutrients for the day, while still being able to eat your usual comfort foods for your other 2 meals. It’s a simple, painless and effective way to eat well or lose weight.
So, there you have it – that’s how the shakes work. They allow you to eat healthier while still keeping most of your existing eating habits, by creating nutrition buffers. By incorporating them into your life, you round out any deficiencies and excesses in your diet.
REFERENCES
[1] Craig, W. J., & Mangels, A. R. (2009). Position of the American Dietetic Association: vegetarian diets. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109(7), 1266-1282
[2] Lichtenstein, A. H., Appel, L. J., Brands, M., Carnethon, M., Daniels, S., Franch, H. A., . . . Wylie-Rosett, J. (2006). Summary of American Heart Association diet and Lifestyle recommendations revision 2006. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 26(10), 2186-2191. doi:10.1161/01.atv.0000238352.25222.5e
[3] Kamangar, F., & Emadi, A. (2012). Vitamin and mineral supplements: do we really need them?. International journal of preventive medicine, 3(3), 221–226.