Packit Gourmet smoothies

They are OK Doug, better if your water is really cold.

Cannot remember which onws I liked better though.

Doug, I fell into that trap myself, and last spring I did some research on other options that offered better nutrition. My favorite of the Jump Start smoothies was the Berry Berry, by the way.

The problems I have with the Packit Gourmet mixes are as follows:

Very high saturated fat, as a % of total fats–77%
Very high sugars, as a % of total carbs–93%
High cost per ounce–$1.19
Lower cal/oz. than others–113 cal/oz. (so 425 cal for a 3.75 oz. packaged serving)

Good things:

Good ratio of fat:carb:pro calories–28%:39%:33% (good amt. of protein)
Fruit is pre-mixed

I've found other powdered mixes, where I add my own FD fruit to the bulk powder, which I portion out and vacuum-seal 3.0 oz. packets (365-385 cal). The options I have decided upon are the following:

Ensure (vanilla flavor)–Walgreen's sells it:
Low sat. fat % (15%)
Moderate sugar % (39%)
Good calorie balance of Fat-CHO-Pro (32%:53%:15%)
$0.80/oz.–cheaper than PG Jump Starts
127 cal/oz.

Nutri-biotic ProZone (from a health food store):
Higher sat. fat % (67%)
Higher Sugar % (63%)
Interesting caloric balance–30% fat:40% carbs:30% protein; nice ratio
Not very cheap-$1.02 per oz.
124 cal/oz.

The best deal out there is Walgreen's house brand imitation of the more costly Ensure. It costs ~10% less than Ensure, and it might be a better product–it has less fat (and low % sat. fat) and more carbs, with similiar protein. If I can find it on clearance, the price can't be beat. Here are its specs, based on the sale price:

Low sat. fat (19%)
Higher sugar (59%)
OK caloric balance–22%:64%:14%
$0.30/oz., on sale
117 cal/oz.

Forget Kellogg's To Go and Carnation Essentials. They are fat free, with 84% of the calories coming from carbs (67% of those from sugars), and 16% from protein. They're cheap though, at $0.30/oz. But just 101 cal/oz.

For fruit, should you want to add some, I would suggest using FD stuff. Dehydrated fruit takes awhile to soften up, like maybe 1/2 hour. The vanilla flavor powder is pretty universal, and you can add most anything to it.

"The vanilla flavor powder is pretty universal, and you can add most anything to it."

Gary, Ensure is one of my favorites, but I can't find any fruit powder stuff that mixes very well with it when cold. Some stuff will mix when warm or hot. So, I just rehydrate my f.d. fruit with a splash of boiling water and then wash it down with warm Ensure.

The place to buy Ensure is Walmart, about $9 per can. My grocery store wants $11 or $12 per can.

–B.G.–

http://shop.honeyville.com/products/drink-mixes/fruit-smoothie-mixes.html

PS: The mixes all have saturated fat due to coconut/palm oils….

Doug
I really like the Berry Berry.
I cut the price in half by adding 3 oz of Granola (or Honey Bunches) to a half serving of Berry Berry Packit Gourmet smoothie.