Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day

Why Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day

Now obviously, food is fuel and energy for our bodies and without it we spend the day stumbling around in a fog and fighting off a headache and a bad attitude. Breakfast is literally just that, breaking the fast that your body is in from the night before.


The consumption of an early morning snack increases the metabolic rate (how fast you burn calories) and kick starts your body into gear, telling it what to expect the rest of the day. If breakfast isn't had, your body doesn't process your next meal as quickly and tries to hold onto those nutrients. Since it didn't get any morning fuel, it tries to hold onto the afternoon meal as long as possible — instead of burning it right away.


Studies have shown that weight loss can be more difficult and weight gain more prevalent in folks who opt out on the morning meal. Those who skip breakfast have a tendency to consume more food than usual the next chance they get to grab a bite to eat and also have a higher tendency to snack on high-calorie foods to keep hunger at bay until then.


Research studies have also indicated that children who eat breakfast perform better on cognitive tests and in school. Maybe it works that way for adults too since our brains need fuel to work properly.

Breakfast should include a healthy source of protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy your hunger and will keep you feeling full until lunch time.


So next time you stop in at your local coffee house for breakfast, know it won't hold you over till the lunch break and even if you think it does, it isn't helping your body gain the energy needed, or burn the calories it should!

Cinch Shakes vs. Visalus Shakes

Hello everyone, I found some information regarding comparing the Cinch Shakes to the Visalus Shakes and I thought it was very interesting and informative. Please take a chance to read.

1. Visalus compared their shake to the Cinch Vanilla Shake, Whey Protein Blend,only - possibly because it is the only shake in the Cinch line that contains cholesterol (although ours has 2/3 less than the Vi-Shape) - all the

soy-based Cinch Shakes have 0 cholesterol. 

2. The Shaklee Whey Protein Blend shake has only 5 grams of dietary fibre,

the same as the Vi-Shape shake. All our soy-based Cinch Shakes have 6 grams

of dietary fibre, which is also a prebiotic, per serving, so they all would

be better than Vi-Shape in dietary fibre content.

3. Vi-Shape seems to come only in one flavour (Sweet Cream, which smells

like a cake mix!) and it has a blend of natural and artificial flavour.

Cinch Shakes are available in a variety of flavours so dieters don't get

bored with a single flavour and they do not contain any artificial flavours.

4. Vi-Shape contains the artificial sweetener sucralose. Shaklee uses only

natural (and more expensive) sweeteners (like dextrose, fructose, and sugar

alcohols found in fruit). The Visalus Q&A sheet spends a lot of words

justifying their use of sucralose and criticizes companies that use fructose

as a sweetener (it's in Cinch Shakes) by saying it "increases appetite" -

when the serving size of the shake is controlled, this statement seems

totally irrelevant. Natural sweeteners add needed energy and palatability to

products so people will want to consume them! 

5. Looking at the contents of individual vitamin and mineral nutrients, most

are in the Vi-Shape shake at 30% of the Daily Value, whereas Shaklee's Cinch

Shakes provide 35% of most nutrients. Adding more nutrients does increase

the cost of the product but does also make it nutritionally superior.

6. In the "Competitor Comparison" chart provided below, produced by Visalus, mixing their product with skim milk adds 80 calories only, whereas most companies (including Shaklee and others on the chart) usually consider a cup of skim or non-fat milk to have 90 calories. Are they misleading consumers here?

7. The total calories of the Vi-Shape shake with skim milk are only 170 and

the fat content is only 1 gram per serving. Using a very low-calorie product

like this as a meal replacement could be a problem for some people as it

does not supply enough of the macronutrients required for balanced

nutrition. Fat in itself does not make you fat. More fat than 1 g per

serving is essential in everyone's diet to supply fatty acids, help the

absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and to provide satiety, so being on such

a low-fat product over a long period of time is not recommended.

8. I can not find any references anywhere to the weight-loss that consumers

could expect to see when following a program of Visalus products. Our

limited clinical trial on Cinch products at least showed the typical loss on

our plan was about 15 pounds in 12 weeks. 

9. Finally, the fact that Cinch Shakes and Bars contain additional leucine

to help spare the loss of lean muscle when losing weight - and the Vi-Shape

shake does not - needs to be emphasized as one of the most important reasons

to use Cinch. By retaining lean muscle mass, your metabolism remains high.

People who lose weight on other plans that do not have this benefit - and I

imagine Vi-Shape would be no exception - will have less lean muscle mass

when they stop dieting than when they began and this is not a good

situation!

While on the surface, it might seem to many people that Visalus offers a

good product at a great price, good nutrition is not a matter of putting

your health in the hands of the lowest bidder. We have good science and

superior ingredients behind our Cinch formulations and, in the long run,

more people should do better with their weight - and inch - loss with our

products.

Information from:
MICHAEL ROWLANDS, B.Sc. | Director of Operations |  Shaklee Canada Inc.
7-3100 Harvester Road, Burlington, ON, Canada L7N 3W8 | 905-681-1422 Ext 230
mrowlands@shaklee.com
Over 35 Years of Creating Healthier Lives in Canada