Kate Farms Nutrition Shake is a ready to drink meal shake that sells itself on being vegan and made with USDA organic, non-GMO, nut free ingredients. Unfortunately, while it advertises what it doesn’t contain, what it does contain is an even bigger issue.
As a result, Kate Farms Nutrition Shake simply can’t compete with the top meal replacements. In the following review, we’ll show you why that is.
Kate Farms Nutrition Shake Analysis
Kate Farms Nutrition Shake includes agave syrup, pea protein, brown rice syrup, agave inulin, sunflower oil, cocoa powder, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, sunflower lecithin, rosemary extract, a Spectra phytonutrient blend, and various natural flavourings, vitamins, and minerals.
The alarm bells immediately ring when two of the top three ingredients listed are sweeteners that offer no real health benefits. This only gets worse when you realise they can cause health problems too.
There are some good ingredients included, like pea protein and a wide range of vitamins and minerals. However, with no quantities provided, it’s impossible to know if enough is present, and some, like the pea protein, are visibly used in inadequate quantities.
Coming in ready to drink cartons is the main selling point for many, but it isn’t enough to overcome an ineffective product, especially when it’s also very expensive.
People seeking a meal replacement would therefore be better off using Rootana instead, which is both cheaper and far more effective.
Kate Farms Nutrition Shake Ingredients
Organic Agave Syrup
Agave syrup is a sweet, fructose based syrup. While frequently marketed as a healthy alternative to sugar, this is not actually the case, it is simply more natural.
Being made from fructose makes it bad for the health of your liver, while it also reduces insulin sensitivity, making it especially bad for people with poor blood glucose control. It also contains more calories than sugar too (1).
This makes it a generally inferior option to sugar that offers no real health benefits and is only used to make the shake taste nice while still appearing healthy.
Organic Pea Protein
Pea protein is the best plant based protein and may be the best alternative to whey overall, as it’s a complete protein containing all 9 essential amino acids (2).
The problem is, the overall protein content of the Kate Farms Nutrition Shake is 16 grams per serving, which is quite low. This means, while pea is a great protein source, there simply isn’t enough here to have an optimal effect.
Organic Brown Rice Syrup Solids
Brown rice syrup is a simple carbohydrate that’s often used as an alternative to sugar, given its sweet taste. However, it actually has more calories than sugar and negatively impacts your glycaemic index even more.
While it doesn’t pose the health issues that fructose based sugar alternatives do, it doesn’t provide any real benefits. This means the only reason to include it is so you can put “no added sugar” on the label (3).
Organic Agave Inulin
Agave inulin is a soluble dietary fiber and prebiotic that helps the digestive system absorb nutrients more effectively.
This will prevent weight gain, boost energy levels, increase fat and calorie burning, reduce inflammation, relieve constipation, regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and enhance your overall gut health (4).
The issue is, you must consume 10 to 40 grams of inulin to achieve these effects to an optimal level. Without knowing how much is in each Kate Farms Nutrition Shake, it’s impossible to say if it’ll have a positive effect.
Organic High Linoleic Sunflower Oil
Sunflower oil is a rich source of both omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial for stimulating body fat metabolism, lowering cholesterol levels, and reducing your risk of a heart attack or stroke.
However, it also has an extremely poor omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, meaning it’s good for you in small doses but also causes problems if you consume too much (5). That’s why it’s usually only used in budget products, as it’s a cheaper alternative to safer options.
Organic Dutch Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder contains antioxidants that offer both cardiovascular and cognitive benefits. However, far more research must be done to determine if the quantities of these antioxidants is sufficient to have any effect on your health.
This means, while it’s possible cocoa powder can offer some benefit, it’ll likely do nothing but add to the shake’s flavour (6).
Organic Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is a saturated oil that’s high in medium chain triglycerides and lauric acid. It’s believed to boost both your metabolic rate and body fat oxidation, while preserving muscle.
However, these effects are often only seen in severely overweight or obese people, and haven’t been replicated in lean people in clinical studies.
Also, the effects only occur when 7.7 to 15 grams of coconut oil are consumed daily (7). As we don’t know how much is present in a serving of Kate Farms Nutrition Shake, it’s impossible to know if it’ll be of use for anyone.
Vitamin & Mineral Blend
The Kate Farms Nutrition Shake contains quite a diverse range of vitamins and minerals.
It has potassium citrate, dimagnesium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, zinc oxide, potassium chloride, choline bitartrate, sodium chloride, sodium ascorbate, sodium molybdate, biotin, DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, beta carotene, niacinamide, ferric pyrophosphate, folic acid, vitamin a palmitate, calcium pantothenate, magnesium citrate, copper sulfate, chromium picolinate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, thiamine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, cholecalciferol (vitamin d3) pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, phytonadione, and cyanocobalamin (vitamin b12).
While the various vitamins and minerals used in this incredibly diverse blend can offer a huge range of health benefits when taken in optimal doses, we don’t know how much of each is present here. This makes it impossible to determine what benefits they offer, if any.
Natural Flavourings
The natural flavourings include cacao bean, coffee bean, and vanilla bean extract, depending on the flavour. They’re then supported by more unspecified “natural flavourings”.
While it’s possible these could offer some benefits, the small amounts mean they’re likely only there for flavouring. What’s more, the unspecified flavourings make it difficult for people who like to keep track of everything they consume to do so.
Organic Flaxseed Oil
Flaxseed oil is made from crushed flax seeds and is among the richest known sources of alpha linoleic acid. This gives it the power to regulate blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels, and treat medical conditions like diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
However, for optimal results you must consume 50 ml of flax oil each day (8). While we don’t know exactly how much is present in Kate Farms Nutrition Shake, the weight of each serving and its place on the ingredient list make it highly unlikely 50 ml is present.
Organic Sunflower Lecithin
Sunflower lecithin improves the stability and texture of a meal replacement shake, while also helping it provide a range of health benefits, including lowering cholesterol levels, preventing fatigue, and boosting heart and brain functions, energy levels, and skin health. (9).
The issue is, without knowing how much is in each Kate Farms Nutrition Shake, we can’t tell how beneficial it is. Considering it’s right near the bottom of the ingredient list though, the dose is likely minimal, meaning the chances of it being useful are too.
Organic Rosemary Extract
Rosemary extract is said to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. It is claimed to ease stress, anxiety, and inflammation, boost mood, focus, memory, and hair, skin, muscle, joint, and immune health, and help fight any infections or illnesses that do occur.
The true level to which rosemary provides these benefits still needs far more research though, and some of the claims haven’t been proven at all (10). This means rosemary can’t be counted on to offer any major health benefits.
Organic Spectra Phytonutrient Blend
Spectra phytonutrient blend is a patented blend of coffee, green tea, broccoli and broccoli sprout, kale, tomato, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, blueberry, raspberry, spinach, blackberry, bilberry, acai berry, carrot, raspberry, and tart cherry extracts (11).
It’s become popular as it contains a number of useful, antioxidant ingredients. The problem is, all the doses are far too small and they’re surrounded by unproven ingredients. This means the blend is virtually guaranteed to have no real effect.
Kate Farms Nutrition Shake Pros & Cons
Pros
- Comes pre-mixed and ready to drink
- Available in three flavour choices
Cons
- Expensive
- Contains mostly ineffective ingredients
- Unlikely to benefit your health
- No ingredient doses are provided
- Protein content is quite low
Final Thoughts On The Kate Farms Nutrition Shake
The Kate Farms Nutrition Shake spends so much time trying to taste nice, look healthy, and be convenient that it seemingly forgets it needs to provide adequate nutrition as well.
From a low protein content to an abundance of sweeteners, it simply doesn’t give you what you need to replace whole meals. That’s all without mentioning its inflated price tag.
Considering a proven meal replacement like Rootana is both far cheaper and significantly more effective, there is virtually no reason not to use that instead.
references
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9222424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6358922/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3346791/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8039257/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3441046/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696435/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30395784/
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/flaxseed-and-flaxseed-oil
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7010002/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7491497/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30395784/
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