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Medifast Shake Review

Thinking of trying Medifast Shakes to help you reach a healthier weight? The diet shakes are a meal option designed to be used on Medifast personalized weight loss plans. As a company, Medifast provides “doctor-developed programs” that help you “lose weight fast” with nutritionally-balanced meals containing protein, vitamins and minerals.*

If you’re thinking of trying one of the Medifast weight loss plans or simply meal replacement shakes in general, you may be wondering if Medifast Shakes might work for you. This in-depth Medifast Review will break down the nutrient label for you, showing you how these shakes match up to other highly-revered shakes on the market.

Are Medifast Shakes your best choice for healthy protein shakes that can help you meet your weight loss goals?* Read on to find out…

FLAVORS 

If you’re looking to add some variety to your daily meals, Medifast Shakes come in appealing flavors. The flavor line-up includes French Vanilla, Strawberry, Orange Cream, Pineapple Mango, Dark Chocolate Antioxidant, Dutch Chocolate and Mocha.

First off, we’re pretty impressed by this flavor line-up – especially since so many shake brands come in just Vanilla and Chocolate. But the most important question is, how do the shakes taste?

TASTE

Unfortunately, Medifast Reviews were mixed 50/50 on these shakes, with some people really enjoying them and others being quite disappointed. Let’s see what the reviewers had to say about the shakes…

Negative reviews:

• All the flavors are grainy (I’ve mixed with water, milk, fruit, ice)
• Bad-tasting and too thin
• Vanilla flavor is just ok, not great

Positive reviews:

• Love them blended up with ice
• Shakes taste great
• One of the best-tasting flavors (Vanilla)

While the reviews may be divided on how the shakes taste, another important question is, how good are the shakes for you? Let’s take a look at the nutrient label to find out…

NUTRITION FACTS

MEDIFAST INGREDIENTS:

Soy protein isolate, fructose, dextrin, whey protein concentrate, modified food starch, soy lecithin, salt, cellulose gum, natural and artificial flavors, acesulfame potassium, corn syrup, xanthan gum, carrageenan, caramel color.

Contains: Soy and milk.

For the purpose of this review, we’re going to look at the Medifast French Vanilla Shake and dig into whether we approve of the ingredients or not…

CALORIES  

With only 110 calories per shake serving, that’s definitely a good amount to help you lose weight. We highly recommend that a meal replacement shake be around 100 calories per serving for weight loss.

The reason is because in order to meet your weight loss goal, you need to stick closely to a daily calorie goal (check out this free calorie calculator to find yours). On the Medifast Weight Loss Plans, you’ll be eating every few hours (meals and snacks). Therefore, you need to keep those meals and snacks low-calorie in order to stay within your designated calorie goal.

You can also add healthy ingredients into your smoothies such as bananas, berries, avocado, chia seeds and Greek yogurt to boost the calorie count up if you have a higher goal.

PROTEIN AMOUNT

There’s 14g of protein in every Medifast Shake serving. Although this is sufficient, we typically recommend that a diet shake have 15-20g of protein, in order to help you meet your daily protein goals for weight loss.

As for the protein you should have at each meal, that all depends on your protein goals for the day, which will be different for each person. As an average, most experts recommend devoting about 25-30% of your daily calories to protein food sources. This has been shown in studies to help boost metabolism by up to 80-100 calories per day (compared to diets with lesser protein).

Want to see what this looks like for you? You can calculate your personalized macronutrient levels for weight loss, just like you find out your calorie goal by using this macronutrient calculator.

PROTEIN TYPE (USES SOY PROTEIN)

As for the type of protein used in these shakes, unfortunately, we aren’t a fan. Whereas we fully stand-behind shakes that use plant-based proteins and various whey protein powders, we have quite a few problems with soy protein isolate.

The thing about soy is that if it’s organic, fermented soy, then it can actually be good for you. But the processed soy products that we’re accustomed to today in the US are not that type of soy.

Here are the two main issues we have with soy protein isolate…

Contains phytoestrogens– The phytoestrogens in soy actually mimic the hormone, estrogen, in your body, following consumption. Obviously, you can see how it might be a problem to have excess estrogen in your body (for both males and females). Though research is ongoing, it’s been shown that excess estrogen may increase your risk for hormone-balance disorders, as well as other diseases in your body.

Genetically-modified– Next up, around 90 percent of the soy used today is genetically-modified. Why do we care? Because it’s been shown that genetically modified (or GM) foods, are linked to potential health problems. Must notably, it may destroy the healthy bacteria in your gut, and mess up your digestive system. If you’ve read our article on Probiotic Benefits, you know how important healthy bacteria is to your total body health!*

When there are so many other types of proteins used in diet shakes, why use soy? Although there are two sides to this equation, and many people believe soy is healthy, many studies show the opposite.

If you’re a vegan or vegetarian and need a plant-based protein powder, we recommend hemp, brown rice and pea as the top three choices… And you can find all three in our top-rated protein powder, 310 Shake. 

FIBER

Moving onto the fiber in each shake, there’s 4g per shake serving – again a good amount, just slightly behind what we usually recommend. We typically suggest that you choose a shake with 5-10g of fiber per serving for your optimal health and weight loss goals.

Fiber keeps you full and satisfied, helps ensure your digestive processes run optimally, assists with waste and toxin removal in the body, and helps balance healthy cholesterol levels. To learn more about the irreplaceable role of fiber in your body, check out this article on Fiber Benefits.

CARBOHYDRATES 

If you’re on the keto dietor another low-carb diet, you may be very interested in the carb content of Medifast Shakes. At 13g of total carbs per shake serving, this shake has a moderate amount of carbs – but definitely not as low as many other meal replacement shakes on this review site.

As for net carbs (total carbs minus the fiber), there are 9g per serving. Again, if you wanted to drink this shake on a low-carb diet you could, but there are also better choices that will allow you to eat additional carb sources throughout your day.

Now, looking at the types of carbs, you can easily see that there’s quite a bit of sugar in these shakes, which is what we’re going to talk about next….

SUGAR (CONTAINS FRUCTOSE)

Medifast Shakes contain 7g of sugar per serving; That means in just two shakes per day, you’ll already be consuming 14g of sugar! You may not think this is a lot, but the American Heart Association recommends you eat amaximumamount of 25g of added sugar per day (for women) and 37.5 grams (for men).

As for the type of sugar, that’s another problem, as the second ingredient on the label is fructose. This sugar naturally comes from fruit, but consuming it in this pure form isn’t a problem – since the fibers and nutrients within the fruit negate any negative effects.

The trouble comes when fructose is extracted for use in manufactured food items. One of the main concerns with this type of sugar (which is much sweeter than regular sugar), happens when people consume it in excess. To sum it up, the stress of breaking down fructose falls completely on the liver, which studies show may lead to health problems with your liver and other areas of your body.

Here are some of the main concerns with excess fructose…

• Creates inflammation in the body which could lead to disease and imbalance
• May lead to an increased development of fat
• May contribute to a greater risk of obesity
• May lead to people eating more because they don’t feel as full

Since Medifast Shake is a drink that you’ll be having in place of 1-2 meals per day, that’s a lot of fructose to consume. Especially because fructose also exists in many other food items, so you have to real food labels and be careful.

Plus, that’s not all this shake contains…

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

Along with fructose, Medifast Shakes also contain artificial flavors and acesulfame potassium (Ace K), an artificial sweetener.

In general, “artificial” or chemically-created ingredients aren’t your best option for your body or your health. And there are also studies linking the long-term use of artificial sweeteners to potential health problems.

Although the FDA has approved Acesulfame K for use in products, there is controversy regarding lack of additional testing and long-term studies. Of the studies they do have, there’s concern over potential serious side effects of use (such as links to certain diseases). There’s also concern over low-term exposure causing headaches, depression and nausea among other negative effects.

The bottom line is, we don’t think that any artificial sweetener, especially Ace K, should be in a meal replacement shake you’ll be drinking daily.

CARRAGEENAN

Finally, there’s also an ingredient in Medifast Shakes called carrageenan. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a food additive used in many products – but some people have found that it causes digestive distress after consumption. For those people that are sensitive, it may cause digestive problems, gas, bloating and potentially even digestive diseases with continued use.

So, why is it still being used in food products? Although studies have shown a link between carrageenan and GI upset in animals, there’s not yet a study that shows the same effect in humans – yet, there are plenty of testimonials.

VITAMINS/MINERALS

There are 24 vitamins and minerals in Medifast Protein Shakes (all at 20% of the daily recommended value). For all of the ingredients we don’t recommend in these shakes, we commend the addition of this nutrient blend.

Some of the nutrients included are Vitamins A, C, D and E, and minerals magnesium, iron, iodine, zinc and copper.

What the shakes don’t have, however, is any type of superfoods or probiotics (healthy bacteria) for gut and digestive health.

MEDIFAST PRICE

The price of Medifast Protein Shakes is $20.50 for 7 servings (or $2.93 per shake serving). Although this price isn’t horrible, it’s also higher than many meal replacement shakes on our site that contain much cleaner, more health-promoting ingredients. 

COMPANY INFO

Medifast is a weight loss company offering Medifast Meals (including Medifast Lean And Green Meals) and snacks that line up with their weight loss plans. On their website, you can purchase Medifast food items and meal plans separately. Medifast Shakes, which we examine in this review, is a Medifast meal option on all the plans.

CONCLUSION

Still interested in trying Medifast Shakes as your meal replacement drink of choice? This Medifast Review article reveals that there are definitely some things to think about before you make your final decision…

To recap, the shakes are high in sugar (fructose), and contain an artificial sweetener (Ace K), along with a highly controversial food additive (carrageenan). While fructose and Ace are both linked to potential health problems with regular, long-term use, carrageenan has been shown in animal studies to cause serious GI problems in some.

In addition, Medifast Shakes contain soy as their source of protein. Soy has been linked to potential health issues due to the phytoestrogens it contains and high-likelihood of it being a genetically-modified product.

Although the shakes do contain a good amount of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, Medifast reviews were mixed on the taste of these shakes. And although they are a decent price, there are much healthier shakes on our review site that will cost you less per serving.

Before you make your final decision, be sure to read more of the in-depth meal replacement shake reviews on this site – especially for our top-3 rated shakes right now. We hope this information helps you find the best protein shake for you!

Sources:

https://www.amazon.com/Medifast-French-Vanilla-Shake-Servings/product-reviews/B009E8HNAY/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_prev_1?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1

https://www.amazon.com/Medifast-Dutch-Chocolate-Shake-Meals/dp/B008TS3DCW/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=medifast+French+vanilla+shake&qid=1565103132&s=gateway&sr=8-3

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323818.php

https://draxe.com/nutrition/article/artificial-sweeteners/

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/carrageenan#side-effects