08:41:51 am on March 31, 2007 | # |
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Months ago, when I was looking for digestive health products at a Whole Foods store, I came upon a strange looking canister. The labeling reminded me of Dr. Bonner’s liquid soap labels because there are so many words crammed on the label! Fortunately, the words on the strange looking canister were easier to read, because the text was larger.
This strange looking canister was “The Ultimate Meal
“ by a company called The Ultimate Life. The label said that it was a meal replacement and that when taken properly, it literally replaces multivitamins (unless you’re over 40, in which case you’re suggested to take additional antioxidants). The canister listed all the stuff in it and where each ingredient came from; it was an impressive list, many of which I recognized from my undergraduate microbiology class (spirulina, algae, chlorophyll, etc.)
The first thing you’re going to notice with this product is the price. I’m used to dropping over $100 shopping at Whole Foods, but even I was a bit hesitant about dropping $30 for a small canister or $70 for a large canister. I started off with the small $30 canister. While I was waiting in the cash register line, the person behind me saw what was in my shopping basket and that he has used The Ultimate Meal and he really liked it. He looked like a fitness buff, so I took this to be a good sign. If you use this to replace a meal or two, you’ll find that the price is quite reasonable. I bought a new, large canister at Whole Foods and spent $70. I saw that Amazon has prices $20 below the retail, which makes a lot of sense if you end up incorporating this product into your daily diet as I plan to do.
The second thing you’re going to notice with this product is the color. It’s the color of pea soup. The color personally doesn’t bother me, but some people can be turned off by a strange color. The algae in the powder is what makes the shake green, and any foods or shakes with algae in it will have a green color.
The third thing you’re going to notice with this product is the taste. Now, I strongly recommend following the Recipe on the Ultimate Life website to the letter. And this includes USING A BLENDER. I cannot emphasize this enough. The first two times I tried this shake, I didn’t have a blender, and I just sealed a nalgene plastic water bottle full of soymilk and the The Ultimate Meal powder, and it was nasty. I mean, n-a-s-t-y. I left the powder in the fridge for about 6 months after that first experience. I decided to give The Ultimate Meal a second chance, because I was experiencing a lot of nausea that I suspected came from eating too much dairy and gorging on sugary yogurt (by the way, not a good way to repopulate your intestinal flora!). I lost my appetite, and wanted something that seemed easily digestive. By now I got a blender, and I tweaked the recipe to 8 oz of vanilla flavored soymilk instead of water – but followed the rest of the recipe as is. This time, the shake tasted fantastic! The sweetness of the Fuji apple (half) and the consistency and taste of the banana (whole) made a huge difference. I couldn’t even taste much of the powder, because it tasted like a banana-apple smoothie.
Remember I said that I gave The Ultimate Meal another try because of the nausea I was experiencing? The first evening I took the shake in place of dinner, I felt much better the next morning. This was after 2 straight weeks of unexplained nausea. I also notice that I don’t need to take my regular fiber supplementation (Citrucel chocolate) when I take The Ultimate Meal, which adds to cost savings as well, because my regular fiber supplementation can become expensive when taken regularly.
One experience that is very subjective is how I feel. This can vary from individual to individual. According to the company website, when you first start taking this, you can experience detoxification symptoms and not feel very good. I had nothing but good experience with this product this time around (when I made it the right way, with a blender, and following instructions). As you can gather by now, I have a super sensitive digestive system, but I had no digestive problems with this product. In fact, I feel like I’m taking care of myself each morning when I take this product, because I believe it is really good for me. I’ve even begun to eat more vegetables (behavioral change).
A claim that The Ultimate Meal makes is that unlike other shakes, it staves off hunger for hours. I find that when I take it in the morning, I am not hungry as quickly, and my blood sugar levels do not drop drastically so that all of a sudden I find myself ravenously hungry by midday. On the other hand, the one time when I took the shake at night, I felt like I wanted to eat something a couple of hours afterwards, probably because I’ve grown used to eating big meals at night. This probably has more to do with my eating habits than the shake itself. Now I take it every morning. It’s been two weeks and I really love it.
I came upon The Ultimate Meal serendipitously and shelved it away after the first couple of times I tried it, never expecting that it has become such a staple part of my breakfast regimen. For me, personally, the price is well worth it – even when I pay $70 at Whole Foods for a large canister. This is a product that I’m going to be using for a long time.
Jane