Nasty Protein

Ive started the nasty protein shakes this week with water and the only way I am able to stand the taste is to chug it down. I know that after surgery I wont be able to do that. So does anyone have any good recipies that they have tried to make the protien better tasting. I also heard that muscle milk is the best tasting stuff out there but it is one of the highest calories. I wonder since we will have malabosorstion if it is ok for us to drink that?

One word of warning Chris: Do not buy a lot of any ine kind. Try several and find one that you can tollerate. World Wide shakes in one-serving size are excellent. You can get them at Soprouts for sure. i found these to be the easiest to get down in the weeks after surgery. New Whey vials are tiny and clear. Kind of syrupy and sweet. Get them at Vitamin Shoppe. You can get them down in just a few swallows or mix with water and sip over the day. I also like Designer brand powder. I add ice and soy milk to blend. When you are a little further out you can all peanut butter of instant decaf coffee to add taste. Good luck, Mary

There are some SF or low sugar syrups too that you can add to them to make them taste better. Also some flavor extracts that might help. All of these you should be able to get at the grocery store. Check out http://groups.myspace.com/WLSRecipes4Losers or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WLS_Recipes4Losers for some good recipes too. Hope this helps

Choc Unjury----rules......I put it in coffee with hazelnut or vanilla sugar free syrup. Yummmy....never nasty. www.unjury.com. Sandy

One thing that I did was purchase a bunch of samples from www.vitalady.com so that I could decide on what flavors I liked and could tolerate. Not all protein shakes are nasty. To some degree it is an acquired taste and the benefits outweigh and adjustment. I was one of the unsual ones in that I chose my favorite pre-op and it remained my favorite. Also there are some very nice sugar free syrups available that help with flavor. Davinnci is one brand and the other is Toradol (I think I have the name right). What I currently use is Champion Pure Whey Stack chocolate and ProScore 100 (made by Champion) chocolate. I use the PS100 scoop and do one scoop of each for my 30 grams of protein and 167 calories. I do three of these daily. If I slack, my protein numbers go down and my prealbumin goes below range. So I have to make sure to do my shakes. I do not absorb enough via food to keep protein levels up. Many of us do not. Three tests that they need to do to monitor are: protein, albumin, and prealbumin. Sandy

Good information Sandy. I think I really need to concentrate on my protein more since I am not getting what I need from my food. I too tried the samples from vitalady and thank goodness. I can't stand the taste of strawberries anymore. Right now I am using the ISO Fruit Delite Pineapple 2# I may upped the scoop to 1 1/2 to get more protein in. Its definitly trial by error. On another note I cannot tolerate milk right now. So I'm using Lactose free. So Chris watch out because after surgery you may not be able to tolerate milk. Pam

Chris: I just went to the link that roosmom has listed. Yummy. Take a look at some of those protein shakes. Yummy Pam

In my case, I started off using a different chocolate Proplete Gold until it was discontinued. My numbers were never as good as they should have been. When PPG was discontinued I went to the PS100 because I knew that Vitalady felt it was the best. My numbers all went up with the addition of the PS100. This past fall I dropped back on my shakes and was doing more protein bars in place of a shake or two and my numbers fell again. So, for me, I have to keep the combination that I am currently using if I wish to have decent protein levels. PS100 is not my favorite because it does not mix up as well, but when put in with the Pure Whey Stack it mixes in just fine. I find that I prefer the resulting flavor of combining two different chocolates (and always have). I dumped on pudding made with milk early on and gave up the milk. I don't really wish to waste calories on the milk anyway. It was a sacrifice for me because I have always loved milk, but a necessary sacrifice. I make sure to take 2500 mg of calcium (calcium citrate) daily now in 5 equal doses through the day and did improve my bone density this last dexascan. I am pleased with that result. Sandy

Your tastes will definitely change after surgery. I've always used stuff that bodybuilders use because they are usually of higher quality, but like anything else, you have to read the label. Of course I choose the low fat, low carbs ones. Right now I am using MaxPro by Max Muscle and it doesn't taste too bad. www.maxmuscle.com I also like that it is aspartame free. If you are concerned about aspartame, make sure to read labels carefully. Unjury contains aspartame and I won't use it for that reason, but that's just my personal choice. MaxPro is aspartame free. To make any shake taste better you can mix in a couple of teaspoons of Jello Sugar Free Instant pudding mix. It makes the shake a little richer and thicker. Of course for chocolate shakes you would use the chocolate one and vanilla for the vanilla ones. And then there's always the sugar free syrups that help too. HTH