A meal replacement is a drink, bar, soup, etc. intended as a substitute for a solid food, usually with controlled quantities of calories and nutrients. Some drinks come in powdered form or pre-mixed health shakes that can be cheaper than solid foods with identical health qualities. Medically prescribed meal replacement drinks include the body's necessary vitamins and minerals.

Bodybuilder Bodybuilding is the practice of progressive resistance exercise to build, control, and develop one's muscles via hypertrophy. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. It is primarily undertaken for aesthetic ...

s sometimes use meal replacements, not formulated for weight loss, to save food preparation time when eating 5-6 meals a day. In

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, weight-reduction meal replacements intended to either supplement ("Meal replacement for weight control") or totally replace ("Total diet replacement for weight control") normal meals are regulated as to their energy content, the

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s they must provide, and information and advice on packaging by

EU Directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires Member state of the European Union, member states to achieve particular goals without dictating how the member states achieve those goals. A directive's goals have to be made the go ...

96/8/EC of 26 February 1996 on foods intended for use in energy-restricted diets for weight reduction. For example, a meal replacement must provide the minimum specified amounts of various vitamins and minerals and contain between 200 and 400

food calorie The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...

s of energy, of which no more than 30% can be from fat. Labeling information is prescribed, and packaging must provide a statement that the product should not be used for more than three weeks without medical advice in order to protect users from inadvertent

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

. In the United States, the term "meal replacement" is not defined in federal

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

regulations but generally refers to a calorie-controlled, prepackaged product in the form of a bar or beverage (ready-to-drink or powder), that is meant to replace a higher calorie meal. Meal replacement products are usually fortified with more than 20 vitamins and minerals at "good" or "excellent" source levels. Meal replacement products can be regulated as conventional or

functional food A functional food is a food claimed to have an additional benefit beyond just nutrition (often one related to health promotion or disease prevention) by modifying the horticulture, cultivation of the native food or by food additive, adding ingr ...

s. In Canada, meal replacements are regulated by the

Canadian Food Inspection Agency The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA; ) is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The age ...

and must meet minimum calorie, protein and vitamin requirements, causing some American products to be rejected.

Regulations

EU

In the EU countries, meal replacements are divided into two categories:

food supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic ( ...

s for weight control and preparations that completely replace conventional food for the same purpose. The nutrients that make up the mixtures are regulated by Directive 96/8/EC of February 26, 1996, "About food products intended for use in low-calorie diets to reduce weight".

United States

In the US, the concept of "meal replacement" is not defined by the rules of the

. As a rule, this concept refers to controlled-calorie foods marketed as bars, beverages or powders. Meal replacements usually contain from 200 to 250 calories per serving with the addition of 20 or more vitamins and minerals and low fat and sugar.

Canada

In Canada, food substitutes are governed by Canadian food inspection standards and must meet minimum calorie, protein, and vitamin requirements. Therefore, some American products are not allowed to be sold in Canada. The popular American meal replacement brand Soylent was blocked in Canada in 2017 after selling the product there for two years. In 2020, Soylent became available in Canada once more.

Asia

Meal replacements are not strictly regulated in Asia. However, some countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia are stringent on claims meal replacement companies make, relating to health benefits and weight loss. Meal replacements have not gained as much popularity as in the USA or Europe, they are largely still only used for clinical cases. Despite this, there have been local start-ups focusing solely on meal replacements. Popular Asian brands include Base Foods (Japan) and Sustenance (Singapore).

Effectiveness

There is some evidence that the meal replacement diet is effective for weight loss of obese individuals. Lean body mass is better preserved than with

very-low-calorie diet A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use me ...

s, a related kind of diet but unregulated and potentially with unbalanced and insufficient nutrients formulations. Meal replacements can be used to treat diabetes by maintaining weight loss. According to the

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes, including type 1 diabetes ...

(ADA), meal replacement products can be used once or twice a day, in lieu of regular meals, to maintain weight loss for individuals with diabetes. However, that weight loss can only be maintained as long as the individual keeps up with the meal replacement plan. The effects of meal replacements on weight loss for individuals with mental illness, such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, are inconclusive.

In popular culture

Meal replacements have been a regular feature of science fiction and fantasy stories.

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stories''. His contributions to ...

's 1911 novella '' Ralph 124C 41+'' describes a system where food is liquefied and delivered to the diner through a flexible tube. L. Frank Baum's 1913 book '' The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' includes a Square Meal Tablet, "which was no bigger than your little finger-nail but contained, in condensed form, the equal of a bowl of soup, a portion of fried fish, a roast, a salad and a dessert". Food pills also appeared in the 1930 musical comedy film '' Just Imagine''. Meal replacements also appear in later space travel stories such as '' Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' (1964) and the television series ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 J ...

'' (1965).

References

External links

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A Brief History of Meal Replacements
Julian Hearn, 5 November 2014. {{Diets Diets Imitation foods Meals