Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

I only take one sachet shake each day, detest chicken soup lol. I have not put on any weight either in fact I have lost a few pounds as I am doing more. Also have stopped having a snooze some afternoons. They are designed for older people and full of nutrients to suit over 50s, I found they are working for me, so will stick with them. I used to sometimes buy Yakult or that flavoured yoghurt one, but they didn't make any difference to me despite the TV adverts promising miracles lol. I saw these at the start and end of TV programmes I was watching, they were promoting the show, usually on Paramount Channel. It got me interested and I went searching, glad I did.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

My husband takes the actimel ones roxy I think that's what you mean, he's found it helps his IBS he's in much less pain with them. So I'd guess it depends why you are taking them and what your problem is. They always say more fibre for IBS but that cripples him, so what works for one may not work for another body I always think.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Hi Bratti

The idea of "naturally occurring" sugars is a red herring and of little tangible difference. Chemically sugar is sugar. It's been discussed on the forum before.

The "simple sugars" each have 6 Carbon atoms, 12 Hydrogen atoms and 6 Oxygen atoms. They differ only in the specific arrangement of those atoms

Glucose - C6H12O6
Fructose - C6H12O6
Galactose - C6H12O6

Then there are the Disaccharides:

Lactose - C12H22O11
Sucrose - C12H22O11
Maltose - C12H22O11

Again chemically the same


The sugar in an apple is what you would call "natural sugar".

The average apple has about 10g/11g of sugar per 100g.
That's 2.5 teaspoonfuls of sugar.

The fact that those sugars occurred naturally in a product of Nature makes no difference to the body. Sugar is sugar.

What DOES MATTER though is what you eat the sugar with.

If you eat an apple off the tree you are getting all the vitamins, minerals, anitoxidants and fibre from the whole fruit which is very healthy. The fibre content makes the body absorb and use the sugars far more slowly than it would if you just ate the sugars alone.

Thus eating apples is healthy

Drinking cartons of apple juice, which is essentially all of the sugars and very little of the fibre, is, imho, very unhealthy.

Going back to the Meritene products.

The Strawberry Shake sachets contain approx 15g of sugar in the little 30g sachet which is equiv to about 4 teaspoonfuls.

The fibre content is 0, nothing, zero !

As a nutiritionist you must already know all of this so it is curious why you would make the excuse "they are just natural sugars".

I agree with you that the list of fortifications (all the vitamins and minerals) is great, but one can obtain those very easily by taking simple multi vitamin supplements, no need to ingest large amounts of sugars with no fibre !

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Some people don't need the fibre realist it could be you are commenting on someone has found exactly the right nutrition for their body. It's great if you have found what works for you but your body is different to many others IMO

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Good to hear it Roxy. Best of luck to you.

As I've highlighted I personally wouldn't go near those Meritene shakes with that high sugar content and no fibre.
I would look for simple supplements to get all those vitamins and minerals, that is of course IF I couldn't get them from the foods I eat. As it is I DO get all my vitamins and minerals from fruit and vegetables and other foods. I personally think that's the best way, the natural way, which works for me. My weight has been stable for the past 20 years.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Yep, everyone is different Julie and its good that your hubby gets relief from his IBS from Actimels. It's a shame though that you can't buy them without the silly amounts of sugar in them as then he'd get the benefit he needs without the negative impacts of sugars ingested without fibre. Of course if they did that they wouldn't sell as much of their product as it would likely taste like it actually is, which AFAIK is yoghurt infused with lactobacteria/pro biotics that have been taken from human intestines and cultured/propagated from that point on

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Indeed but we have to work with what we can get I guess. My vitamins etc mostly come from supplements these days, when you have to restrict your diet as much I do you can't rely on food to provide for you.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

Don't really understand the point you're making here. I'm commenting on a product, a sugary product with no fibre. I'm not commenting on a person.

I'm simply making the point that ingesting large amounts of sugar without taking fibre means the body will metabolise the sugar very quickly. If a person needs an instant and short lived burst of energy then that's going to meet their needs. Otherwise if they are not very active, the unneeded energy will likely be converted to fats resulting in weight gain.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

I was just commenting not everyone needs the same was all. You appeared to be saying no fibre bad, lots of sugar bad, I was just making a point it might be just what the person taking it needs. If they aren't putting on weight I'd say they are pretty active anyway.

Re: Vitamin D Defficiency and Mobility Issues in Old People

What I said, pretty clearly I thought, was eating lots of sugar without eating fibre is imho not generally a healthy thing to do. I personally wouldn't eat any such products except very occasionally (like the odd cake).

Of course there will always be specific people who might actually be looking to intake large quantities of sugars without fibre for their specific needs but I think they will be few and far between.

Nature's products are packed with goodness and to me personally it makes little sense to strip out all those good parts and just ingest the sugar content.

Hence apple juice for me, is a poor product whereas an actually apple is great. Vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants and phytochemicals. All great health boosting elements.

It is a fact imho that just about every supermarket product is piled with sugars because manufacturers know that sugar is an addictive substance (like cocaine) and fools the brian's pleasure receptors making you "enjoy" the product. That equates to lots more sales of product and thus increased profits, all at the expense of making people ingest more and more sugar which in most cases will be detrimental to health.