7 Healthy Alternatives to Ensure I’ve Tried and Love (2024)

As someone who is always on their feet and experiences some days more strenuous than others, I have come to love and appreciate nutritional supplements to tie me over until my next meal.

While it is important to get the majority of your nutrients from whole foods, there are some days when a healthy alternative to ensure can come in handy.

It’s no surprise that Ensure is one of the most popular supplements on the market. It’s affordable, easy to find, and comes in a variety of flavors. Supplemental drinks like ensure are a great way to get some extra calories and nutrients, but they’re not the only option out there.

Now, I’ve done the upfront homework for you and rounded up 10 meal replacement shakes that I’ve tried and love them.

Trust me, your taste buds will thank you!

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A list of my favorite nutrition shakes that boost my energy levels

Soylent

While skimming the outer aisles of Target on a rainy day, my eyes landed on a clearance bin with individual bottles of Soylent. I had seen this product all over social media but never thought to give it a try.

During those peak busy weeks, this nutritional drink saved me from skipping meals entirely. It’s also vegan, which is great for those who are looking for a plant-based alternative to ensure.

Unique Qualifier: Outside of offering some of the best options for vegan meal replacement drinks, Soylent offers six flavors that are all pretty tasty. If you don’t like one, it’s likely you’ll find another that better fits your taste.

The drink’s health benefits range from containing all 9 essential amino acids that support lean muscle maintenance and 39 essential nutrients.

Soylent

Orgain Organic Nutritional Shake

This nutritional drink made with organic ingredients in mind provides 16 grams of protein, 20 vitamins, and minerals that is both gluten and soy free. Orgain’s grass-fed milk protein concentrate also gives this drink a creamy taste that makes it one of my favorites on the list.

Unique Qualifier: While you can find some great healthy alternatives to ensure at many grocery stores, Orgain is one of the only organic options I trust due to its rigorous quality control processes. The company is also USDA organic, non-GMO project verified, soy-free, and Kosher certified.

Orgain

Ripple Vegan Protein Shake

Made with healthy nutrients, Ripple’s protein supplement drink offers you 20 grams of high-quality pea protein bliss in every bottle. I’m a sucker for anything creamy, so their chocolate or vanilla flavor is my favorite, but they also have a coffee option for those mornings you need an extra boost.

Unique Qualifier: An important thing to remember about Ripple’s supplemental nutrition drinks is that they are made for those with lactose intolerance. It’s also consistently good, the days of chalky-tasting protein shakes are behind you.

Ripple

OWYNVegan Protein Shake

“Meeting the nutritional requirements of a meal”, OWYN’s healthy alternative ensures lives up to its promise. With 20 grams of protein, this shake promises to provide your body with nutritional needs in every bottle. When in rotation with my other adequate protein drinks, I usually go for their chocolate flavor, but the recently released flavor, chai has me intrigued.

Unique Qualifier: OWYN’s high-quality drink has an impressive shelf life of 18 months. Not to mention that this drink is made with Omega 3 oils, which is unique to this list.

OWYN

Premier Protein Shake with Oats

When oats started to become a food frenzy in the wellness space, it was then that I realized that the nutritional supplement made with oats scored extra brownie points.

Oats are a healthy complex carbohydrate that will help you feel full and satisfied, in addition to the 20 grams of protein this drink packs. Blueberry creme is my weakness, but they have plenty of other flavors to choose from.

Unique Qualifier: Besides the inclusion of oats, this drink is seriously good at room temperature. Other impressive stats include 7 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of sugar resulting in “guilt-free indulgence.”

Premier Protein

Iconic Protein Drinks

A keto-friendly dairy product drink that boasts impressive healthy stats. Iconic’s healthy alternative to ensure has no sugar added, is low in calories and carbs, and is gluten-free. The chocolate truffle is my favorite flavor as it reminds me of the protein powder for recovery.

Unique Qualifier: One glimpse at their nutrition label and you’ll immediately be able to detect that this drink provides the perfect blend of protein, toting a complete amino acid profile, BCAAs, made with no gluten, soy, carrageenan, lactose, or GMO makes this a mindful real food option.

Iconic Protein

Kate Farms Organic Nutrition Shake

This drink offers some of the best sources of nutrition in a bottle I’ve come across. Health goals in a drink, am I right? With 16 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, and phytonutrient extracts from kale and broccoli, this drink is a powerhouse.

Unique Qualifier: Kate Farms is big on providing protein that leads to good health for you. They care about your digestive system so much that the drinks were made to help make digesting a little easier on your tummy. Kate Farms also promises that you’ll be able to taste the difference in quality.

Kate farms

Good options for those who are looking for nutritional shakes

If you’re looking for a healthy alternative to ensure, there are plenty of options out there that offer similar nutritional benefits. I’ve personally tried and loved all of the options on this list, and I’m sure one of these will resonate with your tastebuds and health goals.

No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong with any of these healthy, delicious options!! Notice I didn’t place much emphasis on weight gain or weight loss. As a wellness advocate, it’s important to focus on healthy habits over any type of diet. It’s always a good idea to speak with a doctor or nutritionist to cater to your specific needs.