Bars and canned meal replacers, however, are very convenient to pack. But since the canned versions don’t taste good warm, try freezing the can overnight and let it thaw in your gym bag, briefcase, or purse the next day. It will be cold enough to enjoy when you’re ready to drink it.

When eaten as a healthy snack, meal replacements are a super safe choice one of the best snacks around. Only when they are used as part of a restrictive diet are there potential problems. In other words, the products are safe; it’s their misuse in dieting that is often unsafe. Using them on a regular basis to replace a couple of meals a day is walking a nutritional tightrope. You’re severely restricting food, and possibly skimping on vital nutrients. Plus, such regimens are hard to stick to for very long. You soon cave in to food urges and eventually regain your weight, plus more.

Furthermore, some of these products are very high in sugar (which contributes to fat gain).

Additionally, a few studies have found that people who follow very low-calorie diets (1,000 calories or less), including meal-replacement diets, may develop gallstones, a problem that affects one in ten people. Formed in the gallbladder, gallstones are crystal-like structures that may be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball.

In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity Related Metabolic Disorders, forty-seven obese women followed a 925-calorie-a-day diet consisting of four daily servings of a liquid meal replacement, plus one prepackaged dinner meal. The diet lasted for 26 weeks.

By week 17, six of the dieters had developed gallstones. One of them eventually required a cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal). Those who suffered from gallstones had a number of factors in common: a greater rate of weight loss, higher triglycerides, and higher cholesterol. (Most gallstones are composed primarily of crystallized cholesterol.) While the study did not attempt to explain the relationship between low-calorie dieting and the formation of gallstones, the researchers noted that dieters on meal-replacement diets should be checked for gallstones.

The message in all this: Meal replacements have an important place in nutrition especially if you lead an on-the-go lifestyle and need a quick, convenient, healthy snack but they are not always best used to substitute for meals on an ongoing basis.

Look for a product that approximates the macronutrient profile of a healthy diet roughly 65 percent carbohydrates, 20 percent protein, and 15 percent fat.

Find a product that is low in refined sugar. If the first two or three ingredients on the label are sugar, corn syrup, or fructose, the product is probably high in sugar, which can contribute to obesity. The carbohydrate source should be a rapidly digestible form, either a sucrose/glucose combination or glucose polymers.

If you are lactose-intolerant (unable to digest milk properly), look for a product that is lactose-free.

Select a product that has a lower fat content. A plus to having some fat in these products is taste. Fat improves the palatability of meal replacements, subduing any “vitamin-like” aftertaste. Some meal replacers are promoted as having a higher fat content around 30 percent or more. There’s no advantage in this, however.

As for micronutrients, there is little need to purchase a meal replacement with vitamins and minerals in excess of the recommended daily requirements. You’ll only be wasting your money. Meal replacements are not supposed to be vitamin or mineral pills, but supplements that provide extra calories.

Watch out for meal replacements that hype unproven ingredients such as boron, vanadium, or herbs as energy boosters. Some herbs do provide an energy lift, but it comes from the caffeine they contain. One of the best natural additives is creatine, which provides an extra source of muscle energy, particularly when combined with carbohydrates.

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