Best Meal Replacement Shakes in 2019: Buyer’s Guide & Reviews

The best way to start the day is over a slow, healthy breakfast. But, what if you don’t have time to do this? Other people often miss out on lunch or struggle to prepare healthy balanced meals as regularly as they should. If you’ve never thought about it, a meal replacement supplement drink might be the way to go. The best meal replacement shake for you really depends on what you need.

There are specially formulated meal replacement powders for weight gain as well as weight loss, while others aid digestion or cut down food cravings. To achieve this, they are formulated to provide complete nutritional needs including required calories, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals as well as fiber and probiotics.

Who Really Benefits From Meal Replacement Drinks?

1. People who are trying to lose weight – unbalanced diets are a major cause of being overweight, but undernourished. If you are missing vital nutrients, you never really feel properly satiated. A meal replacement, especially with added protein and extra fibre, will keep you feeling full for longer and help to reduce food cravings. Also, the full spectrum of essential vitamins and minerals helps to rebalance your body. 
2. People who are trying to gain weight – for weight gainers, protein based MRs high in calories, but low in sugars are the best. Weight gain and muscle gain go hand in hand and protein is essential for maintaining muscle bulk. Overloading on bad foods is not a good idea. MRs can be very healthy when properly formulated and you can also boost your shake with avocado, banana, peanut butter and/or coconut milk. 
3. Busy people who eat on the fly – more and more people are realizing that a high protein breakfast is the best way to start the day, but how many of us have time, or make the time in the mornings? Some people do, and that’s great. Furthermore, just grabbing a sandwich, fast food or a burger for lunch isn’t going to cut it everyday, especially as we get older. Other times, we have to work through our breaks, and a meal replacement shake at work could really get you through the day. 
4. People who don’t know how to plan meals correctly – most people understand they should eat protein and healthy fats everyday, plenty of veggies, some fruit and try to lay off too many carbs and sugar. All well and good, but it’s a pretty hit and miss strategy for getting all the nutrients at the levels many people need. Traditional kitchen fair probably got it right, but homemakers today have a lot of conflicting choices and landmines to dodge. A good quality meal replacement once a day, especially for breakfast, will give you at least a third of DV or RDA daily requirements.
5. People who have health or medical conditions – most studies of MRs concern the obesity epidemic and the numerous diseased conditions that result from being chronically overweight. If you have a chronic health condition or are in recovery, always consult your health provider before taking any kind of dietary supplementation. 

Studies over the years confirm that weight loss programs using one meal replacement per day for type 2 diabetes and obesity are more than twice as effective as those programs that do not. 

What A Meal Replacement Shake Is Not

A meal replacement shake is not your new regular diet plan. In the ideal world, we should not be needing things like MRs. They are extremely useful though for short term repair, recovery and reform. They can get us to where we need to be faster– so while you are interested, don’t forget you have to do the hard work creating better eating habits and a healthier lifestyle. 

You can’t have a riveting conversation over a meal replacement. Food not only sustains life, but is the most important social bedrock. Families who eat together, stay together. After a good night out or eating too much with family, why not give yourself a break with a good meal replacement?

As good as meal replacements are, they cannot provide you with the extra enzymes, antioxidants, fibre and good fats you get from regular meals. Chewing food with stimulating flavors, and mixing in saliva is all part of a natural, holistic body process which doesn’t compare to gulping down a meal replacement. 

Meal Replacement Buyer’s Guide

In the US at least, there are no regulatory restrictions as to what can be sold as a meal replacement. As for what the general nutritional content should be, there are various opinions, so we respect the fact that your opinion may differ on this: 

• 200-400 calories (1/3 from protein)
• At least 15g of protein
• 6 or more grams of fiber 
• 6-15g mono-unsaturated or saturated fat
• All 9 essential aminos plus added BCAAs
• 25-33% (or more) of DV vitamins and minerals
• Keep you fully satiated for at least 3 hours

Keep this in mind, and before you commit to any meal replacement shake product, always check the following three things: nutritional content, ingredients, flavoring and sweeteners. 

While a meal replacement can be used as a protein shake, if you just want a protein shake then go to The 7 Best Protein Shakes in 2019.

Nutrition

The first thing you’ll notice usually at the top of any label is the serving information. This is really important. Servings per container are how many times you should use the product which is usually a number between 1 and 30 (once a day for a month). The serving size is what you measure, usually with the spoon provided, when you want to take your supplement mixed with water, milk, juice or a smoothie. 

All the percentages you see are the baseline Daily Values (DV) as set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The label percentages shows what percent of each nutrient you are getting with one serving. These are always based on a standard requirement of 2000 calories per day.

“The % DVs are based on the Daily Values for key nutrients, which are the amounts (in grams, milligrams, or micrograms) of nutrients recommended per day for Americans 4 years of age and older.” – you can access the official FDA label explanation PDF here.

This is a general low average and the safest one size fits all recommendation. In order to get a better understanding of your daily nutritional requirements, it’s always useful to look at your daily nutrient recommendations based on Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). 

By entering your height, weight, age, and activity level, you can generate a report on your estimated daily calorie needs in addition to the recommended intakes of macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

For example, the basic macronutrients for the average American female—32yrs, 5ft 3in, 168.5lbs and who is low active—are 2237kcal, 364g carbohydrates, 25g fiber, 61g protein, 87g fat and 2.7 L (11 cups) of water. So, putting a little extra meal replacement powder into your drink is quite safe and probably the better thing to do. 

Ingredients

The ingredients are the raw materials that the powder is made from. They are actually just as important as the nutritional information. Pay attention, especially if ingredients are in very fine print, as they may not be organic or they may include synthetic or artificial compounds! 

For example, do you want your whey protein coming from an antibiotic, growth hormone-injected, corn-fed cow somewhere? Or, do you want your whey protein coming from organic grass fed cows that get to graze in the sunlight? Of course, the latter is more expensive and that kind of information is usually boasted loud and clear. The same applies to vitamins, flavoring and other extracts that make up the final product. 

Also, if you have special dietary requirements, you probably know how to check for these. A lot of people need products that are completely vegan or plant based, lactose free, gluten free, soy free or GMO free. These are usually key marketing points so they tend to be labeled quite prominently. 

Flavors

A good-tasting meal replacement shake can be a major deciding factor to whether or not you will continue with the product. Understandably, some people want completely natural flavoring, but this can be limiting and sometimes deceptive. 

According to strict FDA labeling codes, natural, non-artificial flavoring must be derived from spices, roots, leaves, produce or animal products, and must match the label description. So, a natural strawberry flavor must be an extract from real strawberries. 

Anything else is ‘artificial flavoring’ even if it’s an imitation vanilla derived from wood pulp, or a maple flavor derived from fenugreek seeds. The point is, artificial doesn’t necessarily mean chemically synthesized. 

Sweeteners

Protein and vegetable powders may not always be appetizing by themselves and adding a sweet flavor is one way to overcome this. The organic shakes profiled here don’t have this issue because they use natural sweeteners.

Although many high-intensity, non-nutritive approved sweeteners such as Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose / Splenda, Acesulfame Potassium (Ace-K), Neotame and Advantame have FDA approved, it is better to avoid them altogether if you’re 100% health conscious. 

Many supplements also use alcohol derived sugars such as xylitol or any ‘—itol’, but these are also not ideal as some people may experience bloating, cramps or even diarrhea, though erythritol appears to be the best choice with the least side effects. There are also issues with certain types of stevia, so make sure the product you choose is 95 percent steviol glycoside to avoid counterfeit ingredients. It’s also best to avoid maltodextrin because it may cause sudden spikes in blood sugar and insulin. 

If you want to your meal replacement shake more palatable, try mixing it into a smoothie adding fruits, avocado, peanut butter, coconut milk or whatever you see fit. You can add your own natural sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, stevia or monk fruit. 

Reviews Of The Best Meal Replacement Shakes 2019

Here are our picks of the Best Meal Replacement Shakes in 2019:

1. Garden of Life Organic Meal Replacement Shake – Best To Buy In 2019
2. Garden of Life Raw Organic Fit Meal Replacement – Best For Weight Loss
3. Keto Logic Meal Replacement Shake – Best Keto Meal Replacement
4. Healthy Skoop All-In-One Breakfast – Best Meal Replacement For Men
5. Vegan Smart All-In-One Nutritional Shake – Best Vegan Meal Replacement
6. Vega Essential Nutritional Meal Replacement Shake – Best For Digestion

Here are our reviews of carefully selected products. We thought these categories would be useful in helping you make the best decision. They are all healthy, quality choices and we explain their merits clearly. The final choice is yours, and after reading our reviews, we’d love to hear your comments or suggestions too.

1. Garden Of Life’s Organic Meal Replacement Shake – Best To Buy In 2019

Garden Of Life is the brand we recommended in our other review of the Best Protein Shakes in 2019. Here’s why we fell in love with the brand:

Garden of Life really meets the definition of ‘natural meal replacement’ because their ingredients come from 100% organic, clean, non-GMO plants cultivated on their own farms. Also, they are one of the few manufacturers that use green energy to make their products, and we happen to be big fans of green energy.

While taking a look on their website, we spotted Garden Of Life’s Meal Replacement. 

Made from 44 superfoods, this product contains no artificial sweeteners, flavors or chemicals. What also caught our attention is the balance of 20 grams of protein to only 1.5 grams of fat, and 7 out of 8 grams of carbs are fibers. Sugar is less than 1g. This product is great for people wanting to either maintain a healthy figure, or to lose some weight– both of which are the main reasons for investing in meal replacements. 

Because it’s a blend of organic plants with no additives or artificial flavor, some people might find the texture and taste to be a little unpleasant. We advise you to blend this with a fruit smoothie to enhance the flavor if you find this to be the case. 

It has a more than sufficient nutritional profile and the most essential vitamins are 50% DV, which is really good because Daily Value is the lowest, safest baseline and most people need more than that.

With B12 at 100% DV, this product is an excellent choice for vegans and vegetarians. It also has an impressive enzyme and probiotic blend, so your gut is well taken care of too. Above all, this is a high-trust brand. 

Garden Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement comes in 4 flavors: chocolate, vanilla, vanilla chai and lightly sweet. It also comes in one meal convenient sachets for people on the go. 

 2. Garden of Life Raw Organic Fit Meal Replacement Shake – Best For Weight Loss

In the broadest sense, there are four key factors to easier weight loss: calorie control, good protein intake, enough fiber and key nutrients, and of course don’t forget to exercise! It would be great if one product could do all these, but Raw Organic Fit takes a few steps for you in the right direction.

The first key to weight loss is to lower your calorie, or energy intake. It’s important to realize where calories come from.

• 1g of fat gives 9 calories
• 1g of protein gives 4 calories
• 1g of carbs gives 4 calories

It’s better to get your calorie count from a balance of protein, quality, fibrous carbohydrates and fat rather than from simple carbohydrates and sugar. Protein burns a lot of calories while being metabolized, so it’s also essential for weight control. Additionally, protein triggers the brain to make you feel satiated, or not hungry anymore. 

Why Raw Organic Fit?

There are a number of other key reasons why we chose Raw Organic Fit. It has a relatively low calorie count (170), fats only 2g, and there is 0g added sugar. Two key macronutrients that help keep you satiated, protein and fiber, are nicely balanced at 28g (38% DV) and 8g (29% DV) respectively. It also has a blend of probiotics and enzymes.

In terms of micronutrients that are important for weight loss, vitamin E is 15mg (100% DV): 

A recent study suggests that people with metabolic syndrome face a complex problem with vitamin E. They need more because their weight and other problems are causing increased oxidative stress, but at the same time, these problems inhibit the effective use of vitamin E, one of the body’s main antioxidants – read the full report here. 

Although micronutrients are all plant-based and come from natural sources, this product lacks enough micronutrients for a true meal replacement. For better weight loss and control, it needs more B-vitamins, magnesium and iron, in correct amounts and from beneficial sources. Vitamin D, however, has a sufficient value of 125% DV.

If you are doing weight control or weight loss through alternative means such as a Keto diet, the next product will interest you.

Raw Organic Fit Meal Replacement Shake also comes in handy sachets if you need to take a few to work, for a lunch replacement or a road trip. 

3. Ancient Nutrition Keto Feast Powder – Best Keto Meal Replacement

Essentially, a Keto diet is a weight loss or weight control diet and is also used to manage certain diseases. The main aim is to limit the intake of carbohydrates and sugars and to get necessary calories via proteins, but primarily fats. Deprived of simple, easy carbs, your body will start to break down stored and dietary fats and this process is called ketosis.

For Keto diets, protein should be about 20% of calorie intake. Because the energy you consume is used up quickly, this kind of diet also results in low insulin secretion. 

The Keto diet is not without its merits, but a lot more research is needed. The increasingly popular paleo diet is similar, except it allows carbs from whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and unrefined sweeteners.

For our product selection we have chosen Ancient Nutrition Keto Feast Powder.

In order to get non-carbohydrate nutrients, foods such as meat, fish, poultry and dairy is a key component to Keto diets. The companion supplement are the increasingly popular bone broth powders.

Why Keto Feast Power? 

Keto Feast uses chicken broth powder, with other fats and proteins coming from egg, chia, tiger nuts and coconut milk. 

All its ingredients are organic including flavors, sweeteners (monk fruit) with added probiotics and enzymes. The Calorie count is 270, fat 20g (31% DV), cholesterol 105mg (35% DV), but protein is only 17g (34% DV). Micronutrients are not as high as other products, but Vitamin D and B12 are 100% DV. 

While Keto Feast is the best comprehensive bone broth product on the market in terms of being a ‘meal replacement’, some people find the taste a little difficult to handle. If you would like a Keto supplement that is tastier, we highly recommend Garden of Life Keto Meal Shake. The protein (16g) and fat (22g) come from organically derived butter and whey. 

4. Healthy Skoop All-in-One Breakfast – Best Meal Replacement Shake For Men

A protein rich breakfast is the way to go– regardless if you’re following an intermittent fasting regimen and waiting a few hours. If you’re a busy man on the go, you might want to get out the door a little faster. If you like to sleep a little later than your man, or, if you’re just as busy and ‘breakfast handicapped’, Healthy Skoop might just be for you (both). 

This product is USDA Organic approved, so it’s as natural as it gets with no artificial or synthesized ingredients. The label say Breakfast Protein, but in actual fact it’s a good meal replacement shake with 20g of protein– what you should expect from a good meal replacement anytime of the day. 

The nutritional profile, derived from organic ingredients and freeze-dried processing, covers all the essential vitamins at 50% DV– except for calcium (derived from seaweed) at 20% DV. This ensures that most essential vitamins needed by men (and women) are well taken care of. 

Why else did we choose Healthy Skoop?

Perhaps this is more important for men because, although it seems obvious enough, research indicates that men’s food preferences have a bias towards meat and poultry and women towards vegetables and fruits. With Healthy Skoop, busy men, or just men being men, can rest assured that a good part of their nutritional mission will be done by breakfast time.

The mineral profile is iron (45% DV) for energy and focus, zinc (50% DV) for reproductive health and immunity, magnesium (15% DV) for bone and heart health, and chromium (50% DV) for synthesis of fats and sugar– all a plus for men. This product also has a blend of digestive enzymes with added and a whopping 10g (36% DV) of dietary fiber. Many people reviewing the product say that it keeps them feeling full with energy and focus all the way up until lunch time.

5. Vegan Smart All-In-One Nutritional Shake – Best For Vegans

Although two out of five products previously reviewed are plant-based, we still decided to include Vegan Smart All-In-One because of its protein blend and excellent amino acid profile.

Meat, eggs, fish and dairy are the best sources of complete proteins. These proteins contain all 9 of the essential amino acids out of the 21 amino acids found in the human body. Not many plants have complete amino profiles and therefore need to be combined effectively. 

Why Vegan Smart? 

Vegan Smart, however, provides 4 plant proteins which have a complete essential amino acid profile: green pea protein, quinoa protein, chlorella protein and potato protein. This blend ensures a completely balanced profile because, while green pea protein is very low in one essential amino acid, quinoa and chia make up for this. Chia seeds actually contain 18 out of 21 proteins. 

Apart from the excellent protein profile, Vegan Smart also has an impressive micronutrient profile equal to our top contended recommendation. Garden Life Organic Meal Replacement, however, has a much better and more diverse blend of vegetables, fruits, leaves and roots– which is why it is the top nomination. 

Vegan Smart is higher in calories, fats and natural sugars compared to Garden of Life. It is also comparatively much higher in vitamin B12 (especially important for vegans!) and vitamin C (one of the body’s main antioxidants). Even though it is higher in calories—the total count is only 170—if you take this shake in the mornings, you should supplemented it with other foods to increase the calories.

It comes in chocolate, vanilla, chai and wild berry flavors. 

6. Vega Essential Nutritional Meal Replacement Shake – Best For Digestion

It’s quite common for people to suffer periodically from indigestion or other digestive symptoms. Sometimes the causes are just overeating, eating too much spicy, oily food, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, maybe even anxiety. However, for some people, the problem might be lactose intolerance due to dairy intake or celiac disease due to gluten intake. 

Lactose is a protein found in milk. For some people, dairy products are difficult to digest and often results in a gassy stomach or even abdominal cramps and diarrhea. While lactose intolerance can start early in life, it’s more often a condition that develops in the body as we get older. Some of us lose the ability to produce the lactose digestion enzyme, lactase. The best options in this case are to avoid all dairy products including whey powders, take supplemental lactase or choose only low lactose dairy products like yogurt. 

Celiac disease is an “immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye”. No cure is available yet and unless you want diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, bloating, anemia or other serious complications, going on a gluten-free diet is the only treatment option.

Why Vega One Organic? 

If you, unfortunately, have either or both of them, Vega One Organic All-in-one Shake is a meal replacement shake that will suit you. The ingredients are plant-based and guaranteed lactose and gluten free. There is also a decent amount of fibers (16% DV), some in the form of prebiotic inulin, to feed healthy bacteria, help with digestion and prevent constipation.

Alternatively, you could just buy our number one recommendation Garden of Life’s Organic Meal Replacement. Garden of Life has more fiber with added probiotics, and is much richer in micronutrients.

Vega Nutritional Meal, on the other hand, has more calories and is richer in good fats. Vega, although sweeter (no extra added sugar though), tastes much better. Both are gluten and lactose free. If you need a quick and easy shake that tastes great with the extra energy and fat content, then go with this Vega Nutritional Meal.

Top-rated Best Meal Replacements Shake Comparison Table

Product	Ingredient Source	Dietary Profile	Organic
Garden of Life Organic	Plant	No gluten, soy or dairy. No cholesterol.	YES
Raw Organic Fit	Plant	No gluten, soy or dairy.	YES
Ancient Nutrition Keto	Plant & Animal	No gluten, soy or dairy.	YES
Healthy Scoop	Plant	No gluten, soy or dairy.	YES
VeganSmart All-In-One	Plant	No gluten, soy or dairy. No cholesterol.	YES
Vega Essential	Plant	No gluten, soy or dairy. No cholesterol.	YES

Conclusion:

Meal replacements can be an excellent way to start your day or substitute for a less healthy meal. This is particularly true for people who don’t have time for breakfast or lunch. For weight issues, remember that meal replacements are a stop gap to better eating habits. We at HealthyKitchen101 would not like to see the kitchen replaced, but we hope you appreciate our selection nonetheless.