Slim-Fast

The Slim-Fast meal replacement system was created in 1977 by a small group of individuals in America. It increasingly gained popularity over the decades, until it was finally bought out by the health product giant – Unilever – in 2000.

Basically, the Slim-Fast system is a shake-based meal substitution program, encouraging participants to hold back from their traditional eating habits with the help of flavored and nutritional drinks and snack bars. Indeed, the supplements are packed with vitamins and minerals, including the following list of vital and impressive ingredients:

  • Vitamins A, C, D, E, K.
  • Calcium.
  • Iron.
  • Other essential minerals.

Essentially, the added contents of the drinks are similar to that of a multivitamin pill available from the pharmacy – and technically have no effect on weight loss whatsoever. Nevertheless – the supplements do contain a decent mix of healthy and necessary ingredients.

Trouble with the Meal Replacement Ideology

Unfortunately, dieting and weight loss via the well-known method of shake-based meal replacement is much harder than it sounds. Indeed, if it were as simple as having a few shakes and bars here and there – the nation would be slimmed down in no time.

The problem lies in the very fact that a shake is simply not filling enough to replace a food based meal. The major concern cited by nutritionists and participants alike is that a shake for breakfast, followed by a snack bar for morning tea, another shake for lunch, and another snack bar for afternoon tea – is just not enough to get people through their busy days.

Therefore, regardless of what beneficial components are dissolved in to the shake powder – ultimately, the participant is still likely to suffer from constant hunger throughout the day.

Much research has been put in to this single issue – as it genuinely is the one thing holding shake-based alternatives back from tremendous success and results.

Slim-Fast in Particular

Unlike some other shake-based weight loss programs, Slim-Fast takes things a step further and imposes heavy restrictions on the additional foods that a participant can eat at dinner time. The company promotes this as being time for a “healthy meal”, whereas in reality the program allows only for a few selected recipes to be consumed.

Ironically (and perhaps not surprisingly), the products being recommended are often selected from additional areas of the Unilever (parent company) brand. The resulting effect is a restrictive, relatively expensive and potentially bias weight loss system.

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