Y Food Reviews

The YFood complete meal replacement drink formula contains milk protein, chicory root fibre, coconut milk, oat fibre, fat-reduced cocoa, modified starch, and various vegetable oils, artificial sweeteners, vitamins, and minerals.

This is pretty unusual as most meal replacement shakes are made vegan.

Some of these ingredients are useful in meal replacements, but what’s immediately alarming is the absence of any mention of the quantities used, as they’re lumped into a proprietary blend. This prevents us from knowing both if they will be beneficial or if they can cause side effects.

This is particularly problematic when you have things like sunflower oil, coconut powder, and multiple fibres, which can cause issues if you consume too much of them. Even the use of milk protein works to hide the true nutritional profile of the drink.

You then have the artificial sweeteners and modified starch, which offer no benefits and pose some risks. They are solely used as they are cheaper than their natural alternatives, and they further suggest the proprietary blend is masking ineffective quantities used to save money.

While the vitamin and mineral content is at least diverse, the packaging shows they are again used in quantities which are far from optimal. While coming in a great range of flavours will make YFood attractive to some, it isn’t enough to overcome an overpriced, ineffective product.

We’d therefore recommend potential buyers instead choose other powders that are proven to be effective, like Rootana. Not only does Rootana offer all the benefits YFood claims to, it’s also cheaper and contains no refined carbs, so is considerably healthier.

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Y Food Meal Replacement Powder Ingredients

Lactose Free Milk Protein

Lactose free milk protein is a blend of casein protein, whey protein, and lactase (1). Lactase is a digestive enzyme that breaks down lactose and is added to some milk based products to make them suitable for people who are lactose intolerant.

Whey protein is extremely good for helping to build and maintain muscle mass and the body is able to use it right away. Casein protein does a similar job, although is not as effective. Its main selling point is that it is slow release, so it will keep you fuelled and satiated for longer.

The problem with milk protein is that, while it is usually 80% casein and 20% whey, there is no rule stating it has to be.

When it is then lumped into a proprietary blend in YFood as well, it makes it absolutely impossible to know how much of each protein you are consuming or what benefits you may be able to get from it.

Vegetable Oils (Sunflower & Rapeseed Oils)

Sunflower oil is rich in omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which can reduce cholesterol and lower your risk of heart disease and strokes. However, the omega 3 to 6 ratio is far from ideal, and consuming too much sunflower oil can actually be harmful to your health.

Rapeseed oil has omega 3 and omega 6 unsaturated fats and can improve eye and skin health, lower blood pressure, and reduce the risk of heart attacks. While polyunsaturated fats are better than monounsaturated, rapeseed oil is considered the safer, more balanced of the two.

The issue is that by lumping both together in a proprietary blend there is no way to know how much of each is present. As sunflower oils are half the price of rapeseed oils, it’s very likely the product contains much more of this, which could actually be detrimental to your health (2).

Chicory Root Fibre

Chicory root fibre is a soluble dietary fiber that is rich in the prebiotic inulin. It can greatly aid the digestive system in many ways, including promoting better better nutrient absorption, relieving constipation, lowering blood sugar levels, and improving your overall gut health (3).

Chicory root is even claimed to offer other health benefits, such as reducing cholesterol and inflammation. Unfortunately, the lack of any details on how much is included in each YFood shake is again an issue.

Without knowing how much is present, it is impossible to tell if it will be of any use or not.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is rich in electrolytes, antioxidants, antimicrobials, and medium chain fatty acids. These components can offer benefits like reducing inflammation and improving cardiovascular and digestive health.

However, it’s also extremely high in calories, sugar, and saturated fats too, which are linked to health issues like coronary disease and weight gain (4).

With no information given on exactly how much of this milk is present in YFood, it’s impossible to know whether or not it may be useful or put your health at risk.

Gluten Free Oat Fiber

Gluten free oat fibre contains both soluble beta-glucan fibre and insoluble fibre. It can help to reduce blood sugar and cholesterol levels, improve digestion, relieve constipation, and promote healthy gut bacteria and a feeling of fullness (5).

The lack of any information regarding how much is present in each shake is again an issue though. Not only can you not tell if there’s enough present to be useful, you also have no way of knowing how it will react with the other fibres present.

Fat-Reduced Cocoa

Cocoa extract has a pleasant taste and is rich in antioxidants. It’s suggested it can have a number of cardiovascular and cognitive benefits, however, more study is required before these results can be confirmed, so it isn’t possible to determine if its inclusion is of any use (6).

Vitamins And Minerals

YFood powder is fortified with a broad range of vitamins and minerals.

Its vitamin content includes vitamin a, vitamin c, vitamin d, vitamin e, vitamin k, vitamin b6, vitamin b12, biotin, folic acid, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, and thiamine.

This is then supported by the minerals calcium, chloride, chromium, copper, iron, iodine, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc.

The diversity and health benefits offered by these vitamins and minerals is very impressive. However, what is far less impressive is the amounts that are actually included, as this is the one area of the shake where we can see exact doses, as they are required to display them.

The majority of the vitamin and mineral content is present in doses amounting to 30% of your recommended daily intake. While a few do climb higher than this, the drink offers far less overall than you’d expect from a supplement designed to replace entire meals.

Modified Starch

Starch is often added to drink powders as it helps to preserve them and provide some texture. However, the modified starch present in YFood will have been treated with various chemicals during processing and can potentially have a number of harmful effects.

These include allergies, bloating, diarrhoea, digestive problems, fatigue, and headaches (7).

Artificial Sweeteners (Maltodextrin And Sucralose)

Maltodextrin is an artificial sweetener with the same number of calories as normal sugar. It offers no other health benefits but is used as it is much cheaper. It will sweeten the drink but also spike your blood sugar much faster, making it a far less healthy alternative (8).

Sucralose is a calorie free, non nutritive, artificial sweetener that serves solely to sweeten the drink. It won’t spike your blood glucose but can reduce good gut bacteria, cause inflammation, and lead to obesity and diabetes (9).

Y Food Meal Replacement Powder Pros & Cons

Pros

• Available in a great range of flavours
• Contains a decent number of calories

Cons

• A proprietary blend hides the quantity of each ingredient
• Some potentially harmful ingredients have been used
• Overpriced
• Cheap ingredients were prioritised over quality ones
• Many ingredients don’t appear to be present in optimal doses
• Unlikely to produce the desired effects

Y Food Meal Replacement Drinks Powder Review Conclusion

If you thought YFood would fill you up and hit your nutrition needs without you having to sit down to a meal, our YFood review should have shown you otherwise. Its ingredients and tasty flavours may look good at first, but the drink quickly falls apart when looked at closer.

Ingredient doses are hidden or ineffective, some are used to cut costs, even though they put the user at risk, while the product as a whole is simply overpriced. If you want to drink meal replacement shakes, you are far better off going for a proven product like Rootana.

A great product with a totally transparent formula, it uses proven, safe ingredients in optimal doses. Drinking Rootana truly will provide all the nutrients you need and ensure you don’t feel hungry, while actually saving you money compared to YFood, making it better in every way.