Occasionally, I get emails from people who are looking for alternatives to Medifast or wondering what’s so special about the company’s products. I understand this because I used to wonder about these things too. At the time, I didn’t understand that the cost of meals on this plan was usually cheaper than groceries and that the nutritional, carbohydrate, and protein content of Medifast foods was often much better than the alternatives. I’ll use the very popular oatmeal as an example in the following article.
The Real Difference Between Medifast Oatmeal and Regular Oatmeal: I make no secret of the fact that I love Plan’s oatmeal. All the flavors are good (blueberry, peach, apple cinnamon, and brown sugar and cinnamon) but I love peach. And, I often use brown sugar as a dry ingredient for very low-fat, low-calorie, but delicious oatmeal cookies. A colleague of mine asked me how this diet product was different from Quaker Oatmeal. Well, let’s look at the numbers.
This diet oatmeal (peach flavored) has 110 calories (15 of those calories are from fat.) It has 1.5 grams of fat, only 16 grams of carbs, and 2 grams of sugars. It contains 11 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber. Additionally, it contains at least 25–30% of the requirement for vitamins and nutrients such as iron, folate, and vitamins A, C, D, E, and K, as well as biotin, niacin, and riboflavin.
Now, let’s look at the Quaker equivalent (also peach flavored). It’s 130 calories and 20 calories are from fat (2.0 g total). That’s not too bad, but things take a turn for the worse when you look at the carb and sugar content. Regular oatmeal has 27 grams of carbohydrates and 12 sugar. It has only 3 grams of protein 2 grams of fiber and that is the major difference. (Taste-wise, believe it or not, there isn’t a huge difference between the two, at least in my opinion.)
Importance of Low Carb / Low Sugar / High Protein Combination: Ketosis is the reason the Medifast Diet works so well. This means that the low amount of carbs and sugar and the high amount of protein convince your body to turn on its fat and burn it effectively. The oatmeal in this diet is one example of how many snack-type foods change nutrition to ensure that you are not only consuming a moderate amount of calories, you are also limiting your carbohydrates and your sugar. .
Sure, regular oatmeal is very low in calories and fat. But, this is not the whole story. It’s very high in carbs and sugar and doesn’t have nearly enough protein to combat that. There is no way this product will allow you to get into ketosis, which is really the key.
And, you can do similar comparisons with many different types of foods. Pick up your typical protein bar or pudding and you’ll get tons of sugar and very little protein. This is not the case with Medifast counterparts.
Source by Lindsey Price
