Taste Test: Meal Replacement Bars

July 24, 2004 -- Can't find the time to eat right? Just try what millions of other Americans do — tear, blend or shake your way to your next meal.

For dieters on the go, products like Balance bars and Slimfast shakes are used as substitutes for breakfast, lunch or dinner, making meal replacements a quick and convenient way to be healthy and lose weight.

"Absolutely, convenience, portability … I mean, what's easier than just tearing open a wrapper, or popping open a can?" said Good Housekeeping's head nutritionist Delia Hammick.

That convenience has hundreds of thousands of people chowing down this way each day, to the tune of $2.5 billion a year for the industry.

So how do they taste? Good Housekeeping put them to the test, using 15 people in a blind sampling of chocolate-flavored products from four different brands in each category:

Powder Mixes: Slimfast, GNC Total Lean, Avon Slim Well, Dr. Phil Shape Up

Shakes: Wal-Mart Equate, Slim Fast, Dr. Phil Shape Up, Atkins

Bars: Balance, Slimfast, Dr. Phil Shape Up, Bally's Meal Replacement

Results: Cardboard, Chalk

Good Housekeeping's test found that while the Slim Fast powder and bar, and the Equate weight-loss shake tasted better than some, overall the descriptions of these chocolate goods were that they were not very savory.

We then asked some folks on the street to give the samples a try and they described the items with phrases including: "tastes like chalk," and "meal replacement bars taste like cardboard."

"They were hoping that they really would taste like a milkshake, or a brownie," said Hammick. "But for most people, they fell short."

Hammick said it's hard to mask the flavor of all those nutrients, as the products try to supply what your body needs in a meal. "And these vitamins and minerals have taste, they try to cover it up but they can't," said Hammick.

Yet if they're so popular, how bad can they be? 20/20 decided to run our own taste test at a gym, Manhattan's Equinox, a place for serious health nuts.

We had people try some of the same meal replacements. Our nine testers came up with similar descriptions, saying they tasted like "hand cream" or "medicine."

One tester even asked: "Do I have to swallow it?"

None of the products we tested at Equinox won with flying colors. Most of our testers chose a winner only because they had to, and the winners included the Balance bar and Dr Phil's Shape Up Shake. In the powdered drink mix category GNC was rated the best.

Nutritional Value?

You may feel righteous choking down that tiny little bar or gritty shake, but will it curb your appetite?

"Chances are, you're going to eat it [and] you're going to be starving again in two hours," said Hammick. And while dieters are used to those hunger pangs, Hammick said when trying to lose weight you'll have more success if you feel full.

According to New York-based nutritionist and registered dietitian, Elyse Sosin, all that sacrifice isn't necessary.

"Ultimately the meal replacement will fail I think with most people," said Sosin. "You're getting … what I call a designer candy bar with about a half a vitamin and mineral pill in it … it's just not satisfying visually, tastewise and mentally."

For about the same calories as the bars, shakes and powders we tested, Sosin said you could have a well-balanced meal and not sacrifice the taste.

In fact, nutritionists say there are several items you could enjoy for less sugar and less saturated fat than many of the meal replacements:

Turkey sandwich with two slices of bread, mustard, lettuce and tomatoes

A half a cup of raspberries, parfait with yogurt, strawberries, almonds and honey

Egg white omelet with broccoli, 2 slices of grain bread and 1 cup of cantaloupe

And Sosin said if you are going to have a meal replacement consider this — for just a few more calories you could have a real sweet with ice cream. For example, a vanilla shake and a vitamin won't be that much worse for you than drinking one of the shakes.

So why would someone choose the meal replacement over the shake with the multivitamin?

Sosin thinks it's about the marketing. "The milk shake and the candy bar doesn't have a famous person on it … and it's not promising you weight loss," said Sosin. "Once you promise weight loss, you get the person's attention.

Some manufacturers point out that their products have more fiber and less fat than traditional sweets, but Sosin said when you look at what you get from a meal replacement product, you'll get more nutrition and satisfaction by going back to basics.