Surprising Benefits Provided By Protein Shakes

Here at Health As It Ought To Be we don’t talk about people relying solely on meal replacements to get them through the day.

On the other hand, we know that plenty of people have to augment their diet with things like protein shakes because the demands of life necessitate eating on the go.

And that’s why we wanted to let you know that even though your diet shouldn’t be filled with protein shakes like our Momsanity Dutch Chocolate Shake…

There is substantial evidence to show that high-quality protein shakes can actually help boost various aspects of health.

Something to consider is you won’t get these benefits from every protein shake.

Lower-quality protein shakes with artificial ingredients can actually sabotage health goals.

So after we show you what protein shakes can help with, we’re also going to show you why our version of a protein shake is so helpful for supporting health goals.

The Good News About Protein Shakes as a Meal Replacement

Without a doubt filling your diet full of whole, nutritionally dense foods is the key to long-lasting health.

But there are times when a full meal isn’t practical.

Those times might include travel, directly after a workout, or when you’ve got a long day at work to slog through.

In those instances a protein shake can be a great addition to your routine to supplement you with much-needed nutrients that help fuel various biological processes.

Thankfully, protein shakes as part of a balanced diet, can actually help to support various aspects of health.

Here’s how.

1 - Protein Shakes Can Help Keep Blood Sugar Balanced:

For many adults in America, managing blood sugar is paramount to their health.

Sadly, many of the on-the-go food products available to them are laden with carbohydrates and other unhealthy ingredients that can cause blood sugar to spike.

Fortunately, a protein shake can help to balance blood sugar.

It does this in 2 distinct ways.

Factor #1 has to do with how protein shakes help curb appetite.

Because protein is nutrient-dense, as it is digested it sends signals to the body that indicate it doesn’t need to eat more. This, in turn, means that the body won’t activate hunger hormones that tell the body to eat more and spike blood sugar. The way it does this is by keeping your hunger hormone (called ghrelin) from spiking and causing increased hunger pangs.
 
Another thing that happens is the rapid intake of protein won’t cause the body to spike blood sugar, as is the case when carbohydrate-rich sources of food are eaten.

Here’s what Cecilia Health Blog writes about the breakdown of protein in the body:

“Although proteins are broken down similarly to carbohydrates, they have different effects on blood glucose levels. Protein breakdown begins in the stomach where they are broken down into smaller substances and reach the intestines where they are broken down further into amino acids.

In the liver, some amino acids are converted to glucose while others are used to make protein again or for muscle cells. Recent studies indicate that amino acids in persons with or without diabetes increases gluconeogenesis (the creation of sugar by the liver), but amino acids don’t increase how fast sugar is released by the liver. In other words, eating protein has an insignificant effect on blood glucose levels.”

2 - Protein Shakes Help Make Up for Dietary Deficiencies:

An important thing to remember about protein intake is there is a minimum amount to consume during the day.

And yes, this is true even if you’re on the ketogenic diet.

While there is reason enough not to overdo it on protein intake, you can’t come up short either as your body needs protein to sequence amino acids and build/maintain various essential biological structures.

For many people in the U.S. their protein intake may tend to be lower than the ideal, and yes this again is true for ketogenic diets.

In reality, the average person should be getting at least 40 grams of protein a day. Even if you’re well into your later years this is advisable.

All told, 40 grams of protein is only around 160 calories (protein has 4 calories per gram) and when you consider the fact that even in a ketogenic diet 20% of your caloric intake should come from protein you can see that’s a small amount.

However, many people end up short of that goal. Either because they’re eating too many carbs, or too much fat.

A protein shake quickly takes care of a deficit. And just 1 scoop of our Momsanity Dutch Chocolate Shake will deliver 20 grams of protein.

Sometimes it can be tough to hit protein intake goals, and an easy to drink and delicious protein shake makes that challenge insignificant. 

3 - Helpful for Promoting Lean Body Mass and Losing Weight:

Countless Americans want to lose weight. In fact, it’s easily one of the top health goals listed out by Americans on surveys.

So, to lose weight, many of these people turn to workouts to cut calories and chisel their bodies.

What many of them don’t realize is that if you don’t consume a high-quality protein source within an hour or two of working out it could severely limit your weight loss goals.

The reason this is important is protein is used to build muscle which helps to promote lean body mass.

And lean body mass has a higher metabolic rate than the equivalent weight of fat.

The higher your lean body mass is the higher your metabolic rate is and the easier it is to shed unwanted weight - and to keep it off in the future. Not to mention that lean body mass might be helpful in reducing inflammation as the small fat cells in lean individuals promote healthy function, while the enlarged fat cells in overweight or obese people promote inflammation and chronic disease.

The truth is a protein shake after a workout is going to help you build muscle and lose weight much more so than an equivalent meal of carbs!