Ensure Drink: Sugary Fake Food Pseudo-Wonder Tonic by Vicodin Maker

Meet Ensure "nutrition shakes," one of the most spectacularly selling fake foods in America. $1 billion in sales in 2009, and growing. 

Bought by seniors in the millions as meal replacements. Used to supplement the diets of picky children. Hawked as a solution to build muscles, meet nutritional needs, fortify calcium, restore vigor, aid recovery from illness and surgery. 

The sapphire-and-navy plastic 8-oz bottle of vanilla Ensure Nutrition Shake (which retails for an exorbitant $1.33 per bottle!) here on my desk lures on the label:

• complete, balanced nutrition
• to help get strong on the inside
• #1 doctor recommended brand

"Ready to take charge of your health? Check out how Ensure ready-to-drink shakes and drinks can help you reach your goal," exhorts Abbott Nutrition, part of Big Pharma corporate giant Abbott Laboratories on their website. (Abbott Labs, the maker of addictive painkiller Vicodin and dozens of other highly profitable drugs...)

Problem is...
Ensure is mainly sugar and water, spiked with innumerable chemicals. Laced with preservatives, additives, and artificial flavorings and colors. And salt. Ensure is not real food, but is the quintessential fake food, manufactured by a modern industrial conglomerate. (Read ingredients list HERE for vanilla Ensure.)

And at 250 to 300 calories per bottle... same as a Snickers candy bar... one serving is not an adequate meal replacement for most adults or children. 

Writes DietSpotlight.com in its product review of Ensure:

"Ensure claims to contain nutritional ingredients which aid a person’s normal diet, but the ingredients contained are mostly synthetic or chemical substances with little proven benefits for dieters.

"The actual nutrients — namely, Vitamin A and Vitamin D3 — are also listed in the lower half on the ingredient list, indicating it is used in smaller doses in comparison to the rest of the ingredients. These ingredients, if used in larger doses, may have provided nutritional benefits to dieters who are not able to eat a sensible plan, but the lower dosage may lessen these benefits.

"Furthermore, any diet-related benefits could not be located. It appears Ensure may match the caloric content of an average meal (say, 300 calories or so) but as a nutritional supplement, may not contain the amount dieters may desire for optimum nutrition."

Mike Adams, Editor of NaturalNews.com, extols in Ensure is Primarily Sugar Water, Marketed with Misleading Statements that Deceive Consumers:

"... the top two ingredients in Ensure are almost identical to the top two ingredients in soft drinks! ... the top four ingredients (are): water, sugar, corn syrup and maltodextrin. That's basically three sweeteners and water. So if you were trying to be funny, you could call this product 'sugar-sugar-sugar-water,' because that is primarily what it's made of, according to the ingredients label... So essentially, what you have here with Ensure, is a predominantly sugar-water product that has been fortified with a few vitamins and minerals. 

"The phrase, 'Complete, balanced, nutrition,' in my personal opinion, is an outright lie. This product has nothing resembling complete, balanced nutrition...

"This is one of a line of products that includes items like Slimfast and other meal replacement products that are primarily nothing but sugar-water and yet are promoted as healthy products that either provide optimum nutrition or promote weight loss... 

"Products like Ensure or SlimFast seem to imply that they are serious products for optimum nutrition, but in fact, an honest analysis of these products reveals that they offer extremely poor nutrition and they probably do far more harm than good to people who choose to consume them on a regular basis, as any good nutritionist will tell you."

And cyclist Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong.com health and fitness website cautions about Ensure drinks:

"Common adverse conditions include constipation, diarrhea, vomiting and nausea. These conditions are generally mild and typically abate once your body adjusts. Improper usage, on the other hand, can lead to more serious medical problems such as seizures, irregular heartbeat, changes in mood or mental status, weak pulse, muscle cramps, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing."   and...

 "A major concern for anyone taking medication is the possibility of an adverse interaction with the ingredients in Ensure drinks. This includes prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs or supplements. Such interactions might weaken or heighten the effects of your medication. Interactions also can cause damage to the body or disrupt its functioning in some way."

Real foods  don't cause such symptoms, health complications, and adverse reactions. Chemicals and drugs do.

Ensure is a complex chemical concoction manufactured by a big Pharma corporation, dunked in sugar and water, and aggressively marketed as a wonder tonic for health. 

A better, healthier solution than drinking an 8-oz bottle of Ensure? 

Eat a banana, and take a daily, natural multi-vitamin. Skip the chemical-laced sugar water.