6 Dangers of Meal Replacement Shakes

Hi, and welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. I'm Dr. Josh Axe. Today we got a great episode. I'm going to be talking about meal replacements and really how to create a smoothie or shake to help improve your health.

But also, I'll be talking about the dangers and a lot of these additives that are in meal replacement shakes that a lot of athletes are taking today, people in hospitals, a lot of kids and people that are just trying to lose weight as well. Unfortunately, It's not working. But hey, do me a favor right now.

We're going to be talking about how to use food as real medicine and get the poison out of your diet. So take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that love button. Let's spread the word that food should be medicine. All right, and we're going to talk about 6 unbelievable ingredients that people are adding into meal replacements today that are toxic for your health and your body.

And number 1 here, synthetic vitamins and minerals. Did you know, I wrote an article on this years ago. That a lot of our vitamins and supplements today actually come from mineral salts, they come from rock like limestone. In fact, calcium carbonate today and a lot of our calcium supplements are actually rocks or come from rocks extracted from salts and they're really not absorbable by our body.

In fact, did you know that taking certain forms of calcium can actually cause calcification of your arteries because your body isn't absorbing it? In fact, there are several medical studies published on PubMed showing that taking certain vitamins and supplements can actually be detrimental to your health. And the reason is, is they're not real, they're synthetic.

We should be getting our vitamins and minerals from fruits, from vegetables, organic meat, sprouted nuts and seeds, from real food, as well as you can get them from whole food-based certified organic vitamins. But today, a lot of people are just getting their vitamins and supplements at certain grocery stores or Yeah. Really not paying much, they're really just getting synthetic vitamins.

And what it's actually doing is there are side effects. It's very hard on the kidneys, it's very hard on the arterial walls, it can be very hard on the small intestine and the gut lining. And so you want to stay away from synthetic vitamins and minerals. But here's the truth, a lot of synthetic vitamins and minerals are added to meal replacements today. They are not healthy.

And by the way, I'd love to hear from you right now on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. If you are a person that takes whole food-based vitamins and supplements, certified organic, hey, let me know right now on Facebook Live here and YouTube Live. Here's another big thing that's added into a lot of these meal replacements today.

And listen, I'm not saying any specific brands here today, but whether it's one of those shake forms that you can drink down fast or it's a powder, again, a lot of these are not organic, they come with really junky ingredients, and one of the things that are added to these are sugar, okay? Sugar, we know, feeds yeast within the body and Candida.

We know sugar actually can feed cancer cells in certain instances. And sugar overall will zap your energy, increasing your risk of diabetes. So excess sugar, one of the most dangerous things you could consume on a daily basis. So you absolutely want to get sugar completely out of your diet. But listen, sugar is hidden everywhere. It's in chips, it's in pasta sauces, it's in sandwich meats.

It's all over, but it can be found in especially high amounts in meal replacement powders and even certain protein powders today. Now, here's another big one, artificial ingredients, especially aspartame and sucralose. So those are 2 you want to stay away from is aspartame and sucralose. These toxic artificial sweeteners may actually cause tumor growth within the body.

They may cause short-term memory loss. They may actually also cause weight gain. And sucralose, something a lot of people consume today and is found in a good majority of meal replacement powders and protein powders, sucralose actually has a chlorine attached onto it from a chemical standpoint. And when chlorine is attached, chlorine has antibacterial properties.

And so what it can do is actually kill off probiotics in the gut. In fact, there was a study done on sucralose saying that even though it's a no-calorie sweetener, because here's what people think, they think, okay, I'm drinking a diet soda or I'm drinking a protein powder or a meal replacement and hey, there's 0 grams of sugar but it still has some of that sweetness to it.

Especially that artificial sweetness and that aftertaste. Well, those artificial sweeteners we know today may actually affect your blood sugar levels. So doing them in large amounts can actually be detrimental to your body. So I would recommend staying away from all artificial sweeteners and artificial ingredients.

You know, there's a lot of pesticides and chemicals that from if you're doing certain grain protein powders such as a brown rice protein that's not certified organic and sprouted, well, that brown rice protein is typically very high in arsenic and other chemicals as well. But you want to stay away from any artificial ingredients.

Remember this, if you don't know what the word is, it's probably not healthy. You know, this morning I did a bone broth smoothie and I did some bone broth powdered protein, I did some other things. And when I flip over the back, it was a very simple ingredients list, it was like Bone broth powder, stevia, and cacao powder, and that was it. Monk fruit, I think, was another thing in there.

Very simple ingredient list. If you can't spell it or if it has numbers in front of it, don't drink it. All right. Number 4 here, low protein, high fiber. I think— or low protein, I mean low fiber, both low protein and low fiber. When you're consuming a meal replacement, here's what you want to look for.

You want to look for a good healthy amount of natural organic protein that comes from something like bone broth or nuts and seeds like hemp seeds or something like that. So you want a good amount of protein. You want some good healthy fiber from berries and seeds like flax and chia, maybe some green superfoods like spirulina, you know, things like that.

So you want to get— should be high protein, high fiber. Yeah. Maybe some healthy fat as well from things like coconut milk powder and coconut. And then antioxidants, herbs, things like that. Well, a lot of these meal replacements today, they're low protein and low fiber, maybe they just have one of the two.

When you're doing a meal replacement, you really want to be getting good quality protein and good quality fiber because if not, most of those other ingredients are going to imbalance your blood sugar level. Levels causing you to gain weight. So again, make sure it's got a good amount of protein and a healthy amount of fiber.

Typically, 10 grams of protein or more at least at the very, very minimum, ideally closer to 20 plus, and then at least 5 grams of fiber, but closer to 8 plus would be better there. All right, here's another big thing you'll see in these meal replacements today. And by the way, I'd love to hear from you. Do you know what I'm talking about? There are so many of these.

Meal replacements and protein powders and things like that that people are taking today for weight loss and they're not working. They're full of synthetic ingredients. Would love to hear from you if you know of any brands out there or people that are taking this stuff but you know they're toxic. And here's the thing you need to know as well.

By the way, if you're enjoying this live training on things not to consume in your meal replacement protein powder, take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that love button. There are so many people, especially people in the fitness industry, that are consuming this stuff and they think, hey, I'm looking good. I'm putting on some muscle, or, I'm toning out. I'm losing weight.

But they don't realize that these foods, these toxins are destroying their health. All right. Inflammatory ingredients. You know, inflammation is at the root cause of most disease today. You know, if you think about anything with an -itis, that's inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, even heart disease, you know, high cholesterol.

That's because you're having inflammation in your body. In fact, even most autoimmune disease starts with inflammation of the gut lining, then goes and affects other areas of the body. So autoimmune disease, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, ulcerative colitis, and digestive issues, they're all inflammation-related. Yeah.

Well, there's a lot of inflammatory ingredients and additives found in meal replacement powders today. And especially, you know, if you're looking at certain types of isolated white whey protein or hydrolyzed whey protein, those are very inflammatory. Oftentimes, especially if somebody has a food allergy to dairy, they don't do well with that.

If there's any type of gluten or wheat products or corn products, those are highly inflammatory. Most grains in general, especially if they're processed at all, are highly inflammatory. Yeah. Are going to be very inflammatory to the body. Sugar is inflammatory, bad fats, many artificial sweeteners are inflammatory, pesticides, and dairy products.

Those are inflammatory ingredients you want to stay away from in protein powders and meal replacements. And then hydrogenated oils. You know, it is shocking to see how often they sneak in soybean oil into protein powders. Meal replacement powders, and other ingredients.

You know, when you're looking at salad dressings that are supposedly healthy and other things, they sneak soybean oil and canola oil into a lot of products. Those are partially hydrogenated oils that are very inflammatory to the body. So you want to stay away from all hydrogenated oils and look for healthier oils instead, which I'm about to talk about here right now.

So let's talk about the better options of what you should be getting in your diet On a daily basis. And listen, these things I'm about to talk about, they're going to help you tone and lean out, they're going to help bring your energy through the roof, and they're going to help your body in naturally healing itself. So let's talk about number 1, green smoothies here.

Now, this is something when my mom was really ill, I mean, now she's doing fantastic, this was, you know, 10+ years ago. But when my mom was sick, she was diagnosed with issues with chronic fatigue and Hashimoto's thyroiditis and tumors. In her body and a number of other issues. And one of the things she started doing was juicing vegetables, but also she would do green smoothies.

So what we would do for breakfast is she would do green smoothies where she would like throw in like a cucumber, we would do like a big handful of spinach or kale, and then we would do like a pear in there.

And then we would add in like a big scoop of like organic, like a super green powder that had spirulina and chlorella and wheatgrass juice and— Vegetables, you know, one of those superfood powders that were greens, she would add that in powder form. But she would drink that almost every morning.

So again, for the most part, it was cucumbers and celery and maybe a little bit of ginger root and things like that. So it was a lot of things that were very green and then she would add in some of that green superfood powder and then maybe a little bit of fruit to sweeten it up like a pineapple or a pear or both. So just a little bit of like pineapple and pear. And— but it really tastes great.

Sometimes she throws some grapes in there as well. But a green smoothie in the morning, talk about naturally bringing your energy through the roof. It's packed with chlorophyll. It's lower in calories. And so doing a green smoothie is a great option. If you want to up the protein, you could do a bone broth powdered protein. You could do a sprouted brown rice protein.

You could also do like just add some hemp seeds in there as well. Is another option there to do, but green smoothies are a great option. By the way, I'd love to hear from you. Do you ever do green smoothies? I'd love to hear from you guys if you do green smoothies or have done them or juice vegetables and how it makes you feel. All right, pureed healthy soups.

Now, this is something I've had a lot of my patients do who have leaky gut syndrome, if a patient has Candida or any type of inflammatory bowel disease. You know, we tend to think of soup being maybe like a lunch thing. You know, you do soup during lunch, but I think you can do sort of healthy soups for breakfast.

And I love doing a healthy pumpkin soup or carrot soup for breakfast or for lunch or as a meal replacement. So one of the things I did recently is I do a warm pumpkin smoothie for breakfast, which is like a soup. I do about a cup of pumpkin, so just regular organic canned pumpkin. I'll add in about a cup of coconut milk.

I'll then add in some pumpkin pie spice like some cinnamon and ginger and cloves in there. And then I'll add in about a scoop of a bone broth powder and then a little bit of honey or maple syrup. And I drink that and it tastes amazing, but it's like a warm pumpkin smoothie or pumpkin soup. You can also do this with carrot.

You can do a carrot ginger soup and puree that and drink that down as a meal replacement. But that is another great option. In fact, pumpkin, many people don't realize this, pumpkin is actually good for drying up Candida and really good for healthy bowel movements. It is packed with fiber. So we talked about earlier in meal replacements, you want to get protein and fiber in those.

Pumpkin is a fiber powerhouse, as are carrots, full of beta-carotene and a lot of antioxidants that are great and incredible for your skin and your brain and for your gut. Yeah. Yeah. Bone broth powdered protein. So getting bone broth in your diet in powder form, this is the ultimate meal replacement. In fact, that's what I did this morning for breakfast.

I did some cinnamon apple protein powder that comes from bone broth and then I did a little bit of collagen, I did some oatmeal. So I did a cinnamon apple bone broth oatmeal smoothie for breakfast, it was absolutely delicious. But again, bone broth is loaded with Glucosamine and chondroitin and hyaluronic acid. It's loaded with proline, glycine, and glutamine.

And these nutrients are crucial for supporting your gut health and your joints and your skin, hair, and nails and your immune system and even detoxification. So bone broth, you know, adding— the great thing is you can add bone broth powdered protein to healthy soups, to green smoothies. You can add them to all these things. So it's a great natural meal replacement.

And doing a bone broth-based meal replacement is the best of the best when it comes to meal replacements. This is something that all young athletes should be doing, especially after workouts, because it's so good for the joints. And anybody that works out or anybody that is wanting to have more collagen in your diet, you know, collagen is like the glue that holds your body together.

Most of us are not getting near enough collagen in our diet, so make sure you're getting bone broth. You know, when I take care of patients, I prescribe them, I tell them they need to be drinking bone broth in powder form or in liquid form, either way, but getting bone broth or bone broth powder in their diet at least twice every single day or at least once first thing every single morning.

All right, next thing here, chia seeds. I mean, this is a great option for a meal replacement. And I actually like making sort of a chia seed bowl for breakfast or chia seed pudding. I do chia seeds. Sometimes I'll add like a chocolate protein powder from bone broth in there, some coconut milk.

And chia seeds are packed with fiber, they're packed with protein, and they're packed with omega-3 fatty acids. Really, chia seeds are one of nature's perfect superfoods. And I'd love to hear from you if you consume chia seeds. I know my wife Chelsea, she loves consuming kombucha with chia seeds in it. There's a brand she gets with kombucha and chia seeds. Yeah. And she loves that.

My buddy Jordan Rubin is always doing that as well. And I like adding these and actually making a chocolate chia seed pudding there for my dessert at night. So chia seeds, talk about one of nature's perfect superfoods. All right, let's talk about some other ingredients.

By the way, if you're enjoying this live training on what to do as a natural meal replacement and the 6 toxic things you've got to get out of your diet in terms of meal replacements, hey, do me a favor, help me spread this message. Punch that share button, click that like button.

There are so many people right now that are still drinking like skim milk or doing the processed meal replacements or protein powders with artificial sweeteners and they don't realize it is destroying their health. So thanks for sharing this, everybody who's on mission with me. Organic eggs. You know, raw eggs aren't just for Rocky, okay?

Raw eggs are the real deal and I add raw eggs to my smoothies. In the morning fairly frequently. And sometimes I do duck eggs, sometimes I do chicken eggs. I love it when I go to my farmer's market and I have duck eggs. In fact, if you cook up duck eggs, the yolk is much bigger, really rich.

So hey, if you shop at a local farmer's market and if any of you guys have tried duck eggs and love them, hey, let me know right now on Facebook Live and YouTube Live right now. But organic eggs are packed with protein. In fact, it's one of the best forms of protein for putting on muscle. Yeah.

Also, the yolk of eggs is packed with vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, choline, and other nutrients that actually support the brain. I mean, it is one of the brain's greatest superfoods are eggs. So again, getting organic eggs. And again, I go to my farmer's market or my local health food store, I get eggs and I put them raw in a smoothie. And I don't want everyone to freak out. Listen.

I will tell you that people have consumed raw eggs for thousands of years, okay? And so again, I'm not recommending, I probably should put a disclaimer here and say, you know, follow the— make sure to consult with a physician before following any advice heard on this program, so do that.

But I do raw eggs in my smoothie and I have a lot of especially, again, young athletes and people looking to get more protein and more healthy fats to support the brain. And the other thing too is I was at Jordan Rubin's house the other night and he made an ice cream with a lot of raw egg yolks and some fruit and some honey. It was really delicious.

But again, organic eggs, a great thing to add in for great quality nutrients. Organic kefir and yogurt. You know, these are really rich in probiotics and most people are completely deficient in probiotics. So if you want to get more probiotics in your diet, Kefir and yogurt are the best. I typically recommend goat's milk kefir or sheep's milk yogurt or things like that.

Most cow's milk today people have more sensitivities to in terms of allergies. So again, I would recommend in most cases organic kefir, organic yogurt, especially if you can get it at your local farmer's market. But again, these are packed with protein. These are also loaded with healthy saturated fats, and healthy saturated fats are really good for your skin.

They're also really good for not just your skin but also inside your cells and your colon. Natural sweeteners. You know, my 3 favorite natural sweeteners that I use on a regular basis are raw local honey, a little bit of stevia, and then also I'll use things like dates. I just use fruit, you know, dates are one I use as well. But again, honey is probably my favorite.

You know, you do need to be conscious of the amount of sugar you're getting in your diet. So again, honey is sugar or has sugar, but honey is a food as well. Honey is lower on the glycemic index. It's easier to digest. It also has a lot of microbes that can benefit the gut and the microbiome and the immune system. So again, I would say raw local honey.

Again, dates as a sweetener, a little bit of stevia can be good, monk fruit. As another option, a little bit of monk fruit. So that's what I would do as your natural sweeteners that you're using in your meal replacements, your shakes, your smoothies, your soups, things like that. Here are some other ingredients, coconut, nuts, and fruit.

Coconut contains medium-chain fatty acids which are great for your body to burn as kind of steady energy. So I add sometimes a tablespoon of coconut oil to a smoothie. A lot of times I'll add in coconut milk. Sometimes I'll add in coconut meat. You can actually buy that frozen at certain health food stores. But coconut, we know, is full of fiber and fat, okay?

Really high in fiber and really healthy fats. So that's a great option to add in your smoothies. And this is also a great thing to have as part of a ketogenic diet. In fact, if you're on a ketogenic diet, the best 2 things you could consume are probably coconut products as well as bone broth together. Nuts and seeds, you know, getting more flaxseeds and hemp seeds.

Other omega-3-rich nuts are great, adding in nut butters. And then an almond butter is great to add. And then fruit of all types can be good to add to a smoothie. Bananas are good if you want to add creaminess. Berries are probably the healthiest overall because of their high antioxidant level. And then here's one of the biggest ones I want to mention, add in lots of herbs and spices.

We do not get near enough herbs and spices in our diet. And listen, of all of the food categories from vegetables to fruit, fruits to wild organic meats and seeds, all of these things don't come even close in nutritional profile to herbs and spices. Here's a couple I would add in, cinnamon and ginger.

You know, cinnamon is great for blood sugar levels, it's great at reducing food cravings, it's a little bit sweet, you know, so I add this into a smoothie or a meal replacement all the time. Ginger, really powerful in terms of its anti-inflammatory properties. It's also really good for the gut and for the joints. So adding in ginger and a few other herbs, I love adding in turmeric.

You can add in a little bit of turmeric powder to certain recipes there as well. But these 2 really taste incredible and are really good options to bring your nutritional support in your smoothies and in your meal replacements to a whole other level. So let's break it down and remember these things. And by the way, Hey, help me spread the message, food is medicine.

More people need to know this info. Hey, press that share button right now. Let's help share this message. Here are some health threats that you're going to find in conventional meal replacements today. Synthetic vitamins and minerals that could plaque up your arteries. Excess sugar that feeds yeast in your body.

Artificial ingredients which have been linked to tumors and killing off probiotics in your gut. Low protein, low fiber, inflammatory ingredients, and excess calories. Instead, here are better options to add in your smoothies on a regular basis or smoothie replacements.

Green smoothies, pureed healthy soups, bone broth powder protein, chia seeds, organic eggs, probiotic-rich foods like kefir yogurt, natural sweeteners like honey, coconut nuts, fruits, and a lot of herbs like cinnamon and ginger. If you start doing this, It's going to really take your health to the next level.

And hey, don't forget to subscribe here if you're not subscribed here to our Facebook and YouTube channels for live video. We're always doing pop-ins and more live video. Guys, I hope you've enjoyed this training. This has been me, Dr. Josh Axe, talking about what not to put in a meal replacement and some healthy alternatives. Thanks, Josh.