Healthy Diet Shakes

At a time when waistlines are expanding, even as dieting becomes widespread, it is hard to know what diet structure will work best for you. However, for those who have a hard time controlling portions, a diet shake might be the best answer. A healthy diet shake can be a complete meal, offering nutrition form the five food groups and filling your stomach without extra calories.

1. Controlling Calories

In order to make a healthy diet shake, you have to control the amount of calories per glass. Use skim milk or fat-free yogurt that contain about 80 calories per serving. Try not to use more than 1 cup. Add a no-calorie sweetener to ensure that you have the sweetness without the added calories.

2. Healthy Fruit Drink

A healthy fruit drink will ensure that you need no added sweetener, since fruit contains natural sugar. Use a blend of your favorite fruits: anything from apple to banana and strawberry to orange. Berries contain natural antioxidants and a banana is rich in potassium. Oranges will give the shake a tartness and provide vitamin C that helps your immune system. Choose a variety of three to four fruits and add one serving each to the blender. Add 1/4 cup of skim milk or yogurt (more if you like a smoother consistency), 1/2 tsp. of wheat germ, peanut butter or whey for protein and fiber, and blend thoroughly. This will yield about an 8-ounce glass with about 25 to 30 calories per ounce.

3. Meal Replacement Shakes

You can use meal replacement shakes to to replace one or two meals a day. They are rich in protein and low in fat. One serving contains between 100 and 200 calories. They can be bought in any grocery store and come in a lot of varieties. You can buy powder packages or prepackaged drinks. For the powder packages, mix the powder with your choice of drink--milk, juice or water--and drink in place of a meal. These shakes provide you the nutrients you need at every meal while controlling calorie intake.

4. Short-term Advantages

While diet shakes are seen as an effective way to get nutrients while controlling your calories to lose weight, the advantage is largely short term. Diet shakes have no long-term advantage and cannot be taken as meal replacements for months at a time.

5. Helps in Weight Loss

Most nutritionists agree that the diet shake can help in weight loss. A healthy diet shake can help you lose weight. Skipping meals is unhealthy and being on a diet and unable to control your portions is simply, ineffective. Diet shakes allow people on a diet to control hunger and get the nutrients they need. Prepared in a proper manner, diet shakes have a healthy amount of protein, fiber and vitamins.

.Reference
Web Md: Diet-shakes-sipping-to-slimness: www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-shakes-sipping-to-slimness
Food and Recipes: Healthy Diet Shake Recipes: www.healthrecipes.com