Don’t Replace Food With Nutritional Drinks

You’ve seen the ads. A sweet, doddering couple is cruising slowly down the highway of life when suddenly, out of the dust, another elderly, but sexier, couple in a convertible zooms past, leaving the first couple to wonder: “Are we missing out on something?”

The dear but pathetic-looking couple was clutching Ensure, the leading nutritional drink, while the totally awesome seniors were guzzling Sustacal, its rival “meal in a can.”

Fade in on a pretty, wholesome woman who is supposed to be a harried young mother but looks more like an aerobics instructor. She is holding a can of Boost, the newest product from the makers of Sustacal. “No, there isn’t a fountain of youth,” she confides, “but you can help keep your body at its best with Boost.”

The ads take direct aim at health-conscious Americans who are addled by the constantly changing nutrition wisdom. We’re convinced we need to eat better, but no matter what we do, it seems we’re still not doing it right. A meal in a can sounds like the perfect solution for those of us who are hungry for the definitive word on what to eat.

But nutritionists say there is no reason for a healthy adult to be taking regular doses of nutritional drinks in place of meals.

Both Ensure, which is manufactured by Ross Laboratories, and Sustacal, a product of Mead-Johnson, were developed more than 20 years ago for hospital patients who had difficulty eating - for example, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

They also have been available in pharmacies to people who are recovering from surgery, suffering from gum disease or gastrointestinal problems, or unable to gain weight.

The drinks are sold in 8-ounce cans for $1 to $2. The main ingredients, which are not listed on the can, are water, sugar, oil, soy and milk protein and a vitamin pill, Liebman said.

The drinks come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, and taste like a very sweet, heavy milkshake. They have about 240 calories per can, about the same as a McDonald’s hamburger. Sustacal contains 29 grams of sugar, the same as a Snicker’s bar.

Sales of Ensure have grown nearly 58 percent in the past year, to $161.1 million, according to Information Resources, a market-research company.

Mead-Johnson is fighting for its share of the lucrative market with a two-barreled approach: new, sexier ads to revive sales of Sustacal, and the introduction in October of Boost, primarily for aging baby boomers.

“What we’re doing is creating a new category of product,” said spokesman Peter Paradossi.

Added Joan Horbiak, a nutritionist who works for Mead-Johnson: “Parents are running errands during lunch. So many companies have downsized, people feel guilty being seen in the lunchroom. They’re skipping breakfast, skimping on lunch and megadosing on dinner.”

For busy people, she said, a meal in a can is “a pretty palatable option.”

Other nutritionists disagree. “There are things you can eat quickly if you have to,” said Alice Fornari, director of the dietetic internship program at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus. “You can pick up a yogurt and a roll and have a complete meal. How much planning does that take?”

The group most vulnerable to the pharmaceutical companies’ advertising, nutritionists say, is the elderly. Even those in good health can have trouble preparing three meals a day for themselves. They can suffer from loss of appetite because they are isolated or because they are taking medication.

But the best solution for those problems, nutritionists say, is healthful food.

“Food contains things we don’t yet know about,” said Susan Braverman, who heads the dietetic internship at Queens College in New York. “(Supplements) should be left for people who can’t, for a variety of reasons, eat food.

“And food,” she added, “is for enjoyment. I think that somehow we have to take time to do that.”