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Summary: Meal replacement shakes can provide complete nutrition in that they have carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Discover why true fasts should be done under medical supervision with help from a registered and licensed dietitian in this free video on health and nutrition.
Christine E. Marquette is a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic in Austin, Texas. She conducts nutrition therapy for ages two and up for all dietary needs.read more
"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with Marquette Nutrition and Fitness and I've been asked about fasting with meal replacement shakes. Now this is something that can be done fairly safely for a short amount of time because a lot of meal replacement shakes do provide complete nutrition in the sense that they have carbohydrate, protein, fat, and they will be fortified with a variety of vitamins and minerals. Now if you really want to do a true fast it's best that you do this under medical supervision. There are some specific shakes that are used on medically supervised diets. These particular shakes are actually extremely well studied to make sure that they do have the right amount and the right ratio of different vitamins and minerals, the percentage of proteins and fats. It's all very finely tuned to ensure that you won't have any significant health problems if you are truly reliant just on these particular shakes, you're not having any other type of solid foods. With these particular shakes again, you are medically supervised so you are going to be having various parameters checked, your blood pressure, your blood sugar, your cholesterol, these other different panels done by a laboratory. Of course your weight will be monitored. It's also important that you still have other fluids, that you drink adequate water to make sure that your body doesn't become dehydrated. Again, using meal replacement shakes for a fast can be done, can be done safely but it is best if it's done under medical supervision and you actually use a shakes that's actually made for this purpose, not just any old meal replacement shake that you get off the shelf."