Which One is the Better Choice: Carnation Breakfast Essentials or Shakeology?

“Are Carnation Breakfast Essentials ok to drink and will it help me kick my coffee habit?”

I've personally never had a Carnation Breakfast Essential meal, but I did some research on it.

Here's is what I learned about Carnation Breakfast Essentials:

One packet of the Breakfast Essentials powdered drink mix contains 220 calories when prepared as directed with skim milk. It also contains 5 grams of protein and 27 grams of carbohydrates. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of those carbs (19 grams) come from sugar.

The ingredients on the nutrition labels are listed by quantity, from the greatest to the least, by weight. In the Carnation powdered drink mix, milk is listed first, and sugar is listed second. Maltodextrin, a corn syrup solid and another form of sugar, is the third ingredient listed.

The 19 grams of sugar present in the Carnation Breakfast Essentials powder drink mix equates to almost 5 teaspoons. That means if you were to drink one Carnation Breakfast Essential drink every weekday for a year, you’d get an extra 1,300 teaspoons of sugar from your breakfast alone. That’s 48 cups!

The health risks of consuming too much sugar are well known. High levels of sugar consumption can lead to weight gain, tooth decay, and heart disease. These effects can up your risk for diabetes and other chronic and deadly conditions.

After you get past the amount of sugar listed on the label, you’ll find what looks exactly like the list on the back of your daily vitamin. That’s because the beverage contains largely synthetic forms of naturally occurring nutrients.

First up, you’ll find carrageenan, a thickener, which is a thickener in the mix. Because of its potential cancer-causing properties, it’s the target of an ongoing effort to get it removed from the U.S. food supply.

Coffee isn't bad for you if you're drinking it black. What's bad is all the sweeteners and creamers we add to it. Many people opt for solutions like Carnation Breakfast Essentials when they need something quick and easy for the morning commute and they hope this will satisfy their "coffee craving". If that’s the case in your situation, consider a smoothie instead. Some smoothies can require so many fresh ingredients and time to prepare, and we usually don’t have the time or ingredients. Opt for a Shakoelogy shake instead. All of its ingredients are totally natural, it’s low in sugar, and high in protein and this is what will keep you full and satisfied.

But if you have the time, cook for yourself in the morning. An egg white omelet with and whole-wheat toast will not only provide all the nutrients you need from breakfast — including protein, and iron — it’ll likely keep you energized far longer than a Carnation Instant Breakfast will. Another option is to pre-make hard boiled eggs to gab and go.

Here’s my daily morning routine. I make 2 scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast for breakfast. Then, around 10:00am, I mix my easy-to-make Chocolate Shakeology. All the protein and natural ingredients keep me energized throughout the day and satisfied where I don’t feel the urge to snack on junk food throughout the day.

I would recommend staying away from Carnation Breakfast Essentials for these main reasons :

1. Too much sugar

2. Synthetic ingredients

3. Low in protein