Substitute Meals

What are?

Substitute meals are food supplements (generally in the form of a soluble powder) that are born "in an attempt" to replace a daily MAIN meal with solid foods. Substitute meals:

• Limit energy intake (deriving from lipids and glucides)
• They guarantee the nutritional intake of vitamins and mineral salts
• They have all the advantages of a highly preservable and rapidly prepared product.

Substitute meals are indicated (by their producers!) In weight loss as, if inserted within a specific context, they contribute to the reduction of daily caloric intake facilitating the catabolism of excess adipose tissue.

There are two necessary requirements for weight loss when eating replacement meals:

• Replacement of one of the two main meals (lunch or dinner) and no snacks or breakfast
• Structuring of a MODERATE power supply (???).

How do they work?

Substitute meals use satiating ingredients or fillers that increase the gastric volume, deceiving the consumer about the actual quantity of the supplement taken; these ingredients are:

• Mucillagini e
• Food fibers of various kinds (such as carob flour, guar gum, gum arabic, tara rubber, xanthano gum ...)

Containing mucilages and fibers, substitute meals give (subjectively ...) a sense of fullness thanks to its volumizing capacity in the stomach.

WARNING! In this case it is advisable to refer exclusively to fullness and NOT to satiety, since the latter sensation (more lasting and generally less intense) arose not only from gastric distension, but also from other hormonal feed-back mechanisms regulated by the absorption of nutrients.

In conclusion, in relation to its initial volume, substitute meals effectively stimulate the gastric fullness which - even if it is among the components necessary for satiety - does not in itself have a sufficient duration to cover the period of time between the replacement meal and the subsequent meal normal solid (about 3 hours).

When should we consume or can we consume it?

Substitute meals represent an "acceptable" compromise in the low-calorie diet of the overweight or obese person who, having a disorderly lifestyle and difficult to manage (or being unable to organize his diet), follows a controlled diet.

On the other hand, I think it is appropriate to specify that: "eating replacement meals represents a SCORRET food habit that can only be justified by a slimming treatment for curative purposes (obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, etc.) and that MUST NOT BE ABSOLUTELY transmitted to young or growing subjects, the parent in therapy, albeit with difficulty, is required to respect the management of ordinary meals to consolidate the nutrition education of the offspring.

Meal Replacement Smoothie - Banana Taste

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Benefits and Disputes

The benefits of eating replacement meals are:

• Optimization of weight loss in the low-calorie diet
• Considerable supply of essential amino acids, although some substitute meals contain ONLY proteins of vegetable origin ... but not all brands
• Absence of molecules with WIDE DIFFUSION of food INTOLERANCES (lactose and gluten) ... but not all brands
• Increased protein in unbalanced diets (such as vegan ones)
• Moderate glycemic index
• Good supply of soluble and prebiotic fibers ... but not all brands

Disputes, or negative aspects, of substitute meals are:

• The immorality of food substitution with surrogates of which, in most cases, it is possible to do without
• Protein increase and carbohydrate reduction in unbalanced diets (such as high-protein diets)
• Need for contextualization in a low-calorie diet; the perplexity arises from the fact that, in itself, food therapy (which requires careful management of food), if well calculated, determines autonomously the reduction of body weight without the inclusion of replacement meals; therefore it is not easy to distinguish how much the replacement meals really contribute to the overall weight loss
• The filling capacity (and not the satiety) of substitute meals is more limited than one might think; furthermore, they are consumed by people who are characterized by a rather large gastric capacity, which OFTEN leads them to take more abundant doses than those recommended, partially negating the desirable results
• The consumption of substitute meals is absolutely negative for the adult and even more for the child or adolescent who, among the various skills to be learned in the development phase, MUST also develop the "proper management of their diet" without resorting to supplements food.