Carrol Krause, a former press reporter for the Herald-Times of Bloomington, Indiana, had to retire from her journalism career because of an ovarian cancer medical diagnosis in 2014. Prior to her death in February, she wrote a blog titled ‘Stories by Carrol’ highlighting the very best and the worst of her last days.
A few months before she passed she started having digestion concerns and could no longer eat regular food. What hospice employees brought her as meal replacements frightened her. Krause writes: “Hospice had the very best of intents, but the stuff they sent out to me was not real FOOD. In fact, I’m annoyed at the idea that they feed this things to passing away individuals.”
Exactly what the hospice supplied to Krause was a bag filled with items by Ensure: pudding, shakes, and a beverage that pretends to be apple juice. All three have plenty of chemicals with about as much actual nutritional value as many industrial junk foods, and to make matters worse, these beverages are said to be the dietary lifeline for people who are extremely sick.
Ensure is owned by Abbott Nutrition, one of the worst examples of a Big Food corporation masquerading as a healthy option you’ll ever see. The business has deep ties to the medical market and as such you can discover their items in almost every healthcare facility today, which is bad news for millions of clients who are just trying to get healthier.
The Truth About Ensure
Ensure is a brand by Abbott that makes medical “dietary shakes and drinks.” It makes huge claims to clients such as “# 1 Physician Recommended” and “Worldwide Leader in Nutritional Science” however in truth, their products are as far away from a well balanced meal as you can get. Regretfully, these items are frequently offered to clients in very poor health, who require appropriate nutrition the most. Instead, when consuming these items they are getting the following: preservatives, fillers, and chemicals.
To make matters worse, Abbott Nutrition belongs to the notorious pro-GMO company the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and to this day has provided nearly a million dollars to fight against GMO labeling in the United States.
Does this seem like the kind of company whose items you should be feeding your loved ones? After you see these products, their active ingredients, and possible side effects, you’ll have the response.
Guarantee Clear ™ Restorative Nutrition
The front of the packaging for Ensure Clear shows an orange beverage with an apple beside it, the back of the package does state, nevertheless: this product “consists of no apple juice” or any juice. Instead, its two main ingredients are water and sugar. It likewise consists of the following:
CONTAINS NO APPLE JUICE, Water, Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, Whey Protein Isolate, Citric Acid, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Sulfate, dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacinamide, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Cupric Sulfate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Thiamine Chloride Hydrochloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Chromium Chloride, Sodium Molybdate, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenate, Phylloquinone, Vitamin D3, and Cyanocobalamin.
Contains milk ingredients.
Toxins, Chemicals, And Pesticides
Corn Syrup Solids are made of dehydrated corn syrup, which is 100% glucose, a type of sugar that contributes to the threat of weight problems. Corn syrup is likewise often made from GMO corn and has actually been connected to diabetes, and cancer.
Cupric sulfate is actually a pesticide and fungicide that is toxic and can cause intestinal problems, anemia, and even death at high dosages. It is also genotoxic, meaning it can cause the cells to alter due to hereditary damage.
Chromium chloride is hazardous and has negative impacts on the reproductive system for both men and women, stomach issues, irregular bleeding, and ulcers.
Sodium Selenite is a harmful active ingredient produced as a by-product of copper metal refining. Yet, it is frequently labeled as a “nutrient.” The Environmental Protection Agency has categorized it as unsafe.
Natural and Synthetic Tastes can include a set of various chemicals, typically originated from inorganic sources, and are hazardous to health, adding to the chances for health problems in the whole body, including different types of cancers.
Artificial Vitamins:
While our bodies, specifically when ill, do need a lot of vitamins, there is a substantial difference between natural vitamins derived from food or natural sources, versus artificial vitamins. Regrettably, the vitamins contained in Ensure products and other advertised “health” foods and supplements are often synthetic and are made with chemicals.
Generally speaking, when a new study comes out that declares that some vitamin is poisonous at high levels, it is because only the synthetic version of it has been studied, yet it gets lumped together with natural vitamins.
Synthetics do not get taken in by the body in the exact same method as natural vitamins due to the fact that they have been “isolated”– they are separated from the whole vitamin complex and trace minerals and enzymes.
Exactly what an artificial vitamin does not provide, the body attempts to offset by itself and depletes its existing nutrients at the same time. Over time this can cause an imbalance of nutrition which can be made worse with a poor diet regiment.
“This procedure leads to a general unfavorable health effect while minimizing any gains that could have been achieved by the supplement,” according to “Nutri-Con: The Fact about Vitamins & Supplements” report by The Hippocrates Health Institute.
Other ingredients include:
Dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate is a synthetic type of Vitamin E. Not just is the synthetic kind only 12% as reliable as natural Vitamin E, it is typically developed as a byproduct of a petrochemical dependent production process.
It likewise has been associated with an increased danger of hemorrhagic stroke, DNA damage, and other adverse impacts.
Ferrous sulfate: an artificial kind of iron, and can cause constipation, queasiness, allergic reactions, and gastrointestinal issues.
Niacinamide is an artificial kind of vitamin B3 and its negative effects including a few dozen conditions, along with liver failure.
Manganese sulfate is made “from the response between manganese oxide and sulfuric acid” and is frequently utilized in paints and varnishes, fertilizers and fungicides, and ceramic, besides medicines (manganese itself is a mineral).
Calcium Pantothenate is an artificial compound made from pantothenic acid, aiming to mimic natural vitamin B5.
Vitamin A Palmitate is a synthetic type of vitamin A, which like numerous others above can cause liver damage and stomach issues.
Zinc Sulfate is a natural kind of zinc and can be toxic to cells, in addition to dangerous to the environment.
Sodium molybdate is a chemical form of salt, and it has actually shown to have negative impacts on fertility in animals.
Other synthetic vitamins are also included, and additional components are: Whey Protein Isolate (likely from cows fed GMO corn), Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (an artificial form of vitamin C that is generally inorganic and difficult for the body to absorb), Folic acid, Biotin, and Vitamin D3.
This is simply the ingredient list of one of Ensure’s leading items, and as you can see it’s essentially nutritionally useless compared with real, natural foods or naturally derived supplements.
Carrol’s Call for Action
” Soup is good food. Pudding can be excellent food too, if it has genuine milk and egg in it … However this swill (I have no idea what else to call it) from Hospice is completely repellent,” Krause authored on her blog site in September 2015. “It’s not genuine food, only a collection of starches, sugars, artificial flavors and nutritional powders all mixed into water.”
Like lots of people are beginning to recognize, to pretend that Ensure and similar beverages are real food can be harmful to a person’s health, Krause wrote:
” It’s possible someone who spends their life consuming at fast-food joints wouldn’t object to consuming Ensure products, however I do, since I understand the distinction in between real food and phony food …
” I wouldn’t feed this things to a passing away animal, not to mention a passing away person. If you concur, let the medical facility management know. Or snipe at them by means of social networks till they begin to take note. I think it’s time for a food battle!”