You know if you're making health claims and you run your ad often enough, I'll probably get around to checking up on it.
Today's ridiculousness?
Boost. It's made by Nestle Nutrition and they've been advertising like crazy these days with that ad up above being plastered all over multiple Canadian medical journals.
The ad claims the silly dressed up guy in the frog glasses is
"totally serious about complete nutrition",and that ad suggests that for said "complete nutrition" I should recommend Boost for my patients.
So do I?
Lord no.
Why?
First take a moment to peek at Boost's ingredient list:
And now let me ask you, if a beverage starts out with a 237ml glass of water and added to that are 7 teaspoons of sugar and corn syrup, would there be any concoction of vitamins or minerals that you could stir into that glass that would have you believe it'd be a smart choice?I didn't think so, and yet with 28g of sugar, and sugar and corn syrup being the 2nd and 3rd ingredients after water, that's exactly what you get with Boost, with added sugar accounting for a whopping 47% of Boost's total calories.
So I guess the morale of the story here is that you shouldn't take nutritional recommendations from a clown....or at the very least not from Nestle Nutrition.
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Out of curiosity, I decided to look up the "nutrition" found in Ensure on http://abbottnutrition.com/products/ensure-plus
ReplyDeleteWith maltodextrin as the #2 ingredient, and sugar taking the #3 spot, it's not surprising that a 237ml serving size contains a whopping 50g carbohydrate count.
That's almost double the sugars found in regular grocery store chocolate milk and pop!
It is the same thing when my clients are on 100% tube feedings - I try to get them to at least add Compleat if homemade tube feedings aren't possible.
ReplyDeleteI really am put off when they advertise for healthy people (same for Pediasure etc.) for these products.
Nothing like REAL food!!
Ahhh, just like mama used to make!
ReplyDeleteIt makes you wonder why they didn't name it Jolt(TM). Oh right, that was taken.
This makes me so angry. Unfortunately, many doctors ARE telling their elderly patients to take Boost and Ensure. I encourage everyone to check their parent's cupboards and have a heart to heart with their loved ones about what they are really drinking - then send this article to their doctors and ask tehm to take a course in nutrition.
ReplyDeleteAlso made by Nestle, but not for mass market, is Optifast. Though sugar isn't on list (aspartame instead) canola oil and soybean oil are the fourth and fifth ingredients.
ReplyDeleteAh...a topic near and dear to me this morning, Dr Freedhoff.
ReplyDeleteHere in the US, the term "complete" is not defined by the FDA for food or dietary supplement labeling, so the use is often very liberal. (I am unsure about the NHPD but I emailed this AM to ask). This means we can have products like the One A Day® VitaCraves™ Complete Adult Multivitamin Gummies that only actually have 11 nutrients in them (infused into 3 grams of glucose syrup). Still, because they say "complete" in the name, we see post-op bariatric surgery patients taking them assuming they are getting everything they need in to sweet little candies per day.
While I do suspect that "complete" will be defined one day, it is not likely to be a definition that includes quality, but rather one that focuses on micronutrient content.
For quality, at the moment, what we have on this side of the border is a very loose definition of "healthy" that defines levels of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium - but not sugar.
I guess we can all agree that we have a long way to go.
Kindest Regards,
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Jacques, ND
Agreed - "healthy, active" people should be eating REAL food. But marketing it as "better than nothing if you're not able to eat" probably wasn't selling!
ReplyDeleteAs an oncology dietitian I am a bit concerned about this post. For some esophageal cancer patients liquid nutrition supplements are covered and necessary. Asking my patients to come home from chemo or radiation and blenderize up a liquid meal is asking more than they can give. And before you judge - some don't have families to do it for them or the families are so overwhelmed dealing with the cancer that there is nothing else we can ask of them.
ReplyDeleteFor healthy individuals of course it is ridiculous to take Boost.
For some though it - it's keeping them alive. Have a little compassion for those dealing with horrifying diagnoses and unpleasant treatments.
This post disappoints me.
@ anonymous oncology dietician: I'm curious why you wouldn't prefer to offer liquid foods containing no sugar at all to your patients with liquid diet requirements?
ReplyDeleteI recently had weight loss surgery and one of the requirements post surgery was that I use diabetic boost.
ReplyDeleteWhile in hospital for five days following surgery, boost, apple juice and tea were the staples of my diet. I could not wrap my head around the fact that after all the surgeons, nurses, dietitians and research that goes into the Bariatric program, that this is the best they could come up with.
As soon as I got home I got rid of the boost I was told to purchase by the program dietitian and started making my own protein drinks making sure to keep protein intake high while keeping carbohydrate and natural sugars down. I was shocked when at my 2 week post-op appointment that the dietitian told me that she would prefer that I get back on the boost drinks since that would provide “all my nutritional needs” – she offered this advice without taking the time to see what I had been making at home. I had the exact ingredients as well as the nutritional breakdown of my homemade whole-food shakes, and yet she was not interested. Needless to say, I completely ignored her advice and was left thinking that Nestle must have quite the sweet deal with Ontario Hospitals these days.
Boost is the official drink of the current Ontario Bariatric Programs!
I worked Oncology for 8+ years and you are correct sometimes these products are needed for our patients. But these products are being marketed for the general public PLUS our children who are healthy.
ReplyDeleteI made multiple handouts for my oncology patients including one titled "Baby Food - Not Just for Babies Anymore" especially geared towards those patients with dysphagia
I had a lot of complaints with these products causing diarrhea. This included tube feeding products such as Jevity, etc. but a more food based TF, Compleat, was replaced with good results.
I share Anonymous' disappointment here. I think we can all agree that Boost and Ensure really aren't appropriate for the general population.
ReplyDeleteAnd no surprise that you wouldn't recommend it to your patients Yoni given the population you work with.
But I do see these products providing some benefit to specific groups, such as in an oncology setting or in my case, with malnourished and underweight clients struggling with addiction and mental health.
Just my 2 cents.
Could you also analyze the Boost for Diabetics and Glucerna?? I'd really appreciate your views on those.....
ReplyDeleteI was put on ensure in an eating disorders program while I was on weight gain. I collected them at home and ate frozen yogurt instead. less sugar and at least its tasty. I was a nutrition student at the time and was grossed out at the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteI do understand these products for those who cannot prepare their own meals, those on low income who get these products provided to them, or people like my grandma with esophageal cancer.
I really dislike that these are advertised as a way to get your daily nutrition in when you are on the go. Carnation instant breakfast bothers me too.
http://whitneyhills.blogspot.com/
@Whitney. When I was in recovery, I made my own smoothies! Honestly, I was pretty appalled at the suggestions made by the dietician. Even after most people in the program had reached their healthy weights --- huge assumption on my part since I didn't know #s, but I'm assuming based on what I saw -- the junkiest crap was recommended to them. They kept being encouraged out of their "comfort zone" to eat things like chips and hot dogs.
ReplyDeleteGuess who was considered still disordered when she said she preferred fruits and veg over hot dogs? Yours truly!
Could somebody recommend a product for somebody who has ovarian cancer/severe endometriosis and cannot eat food without pain?
ReplyDeleteA member of my family has told me she plans to begin buying Boost so she can choke down something at least, as she is losing weight like crazy from not eating.
She was at a normal weight before, (5'8" and 135 or so) and I am quite worried about her losing muscle mass and nutrients.
I suggested she at least get the diabetic or high protein Boost, ads I was well aware that the regular stuff was pure sugar (my husband had a heart transplant and had his share of liquid food too).
She is a busy mom of two, and I cannot picture her spending too much time blending up things that are complicated.
Could something like whey protein with PB and banana work? She can't take multivitamins due to a really bad gag reflex.
Since there are no dates I can find on these replys, I hope my information will still be of help. There is an egg protein powder made by Highlands Labs in Calif. It is not on their website, but can be purchased if you call. It is supplied to clinics and nutritional conscious hospitals. My Brother, who is well versed in nutrition having worked with a nutritional DR for over 30 years, has talked to their chemist and is happy with the way the product is produced so as to keep the nutrients in tact. There is NO SUGAR, NO CORN SYRUP, etc. It is 22 gm of protien per scoop as I recall and has a slightly vanilla taste. It can be blended with many liquids and fruit, mixed with oatmeal and so on. After checking about 20 varities of protien suppliment products this was by FAR the best. It contains about 20 amino acids as well. It isn't cheap, but worth every penny in my opinion. BTW DR's only get one 3 unit course in nutrition in 12 years of school! They know practically NOTHING about nutrition, unfortunately and what they and the dietitions learn is mostly what the large pharmacy Co.s and the government who is lobbied by them want people to know - manily buy our drugs and "nutritional" products!!! Good Luck! In addition if someone cannot take supplements by mouth there are many Naturapath DR's who can give vit/min shots, I know cause I have that problem now that I am 70!
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