Slim Fast - French Vanilla Ready to Drink can. (SlimFast)

Member Name: DJBorley

Product:	SlimFast
Date:	19/01/03 (1879 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can help you lose weight (as part of a calorie controlled diet)

Disadvantages: Hunger pains, Bad tasting milkshake

Slim Fast - French Vanilla Ready to Drink can.

I think this review is in the correct place. If not, could someone let me know and I'll get it moved! Ta :)

Slim Fast - French Vanilla Ready to Drink can.

My other half is in the middle of a diet at the moment, and is doing quite well (Congrats hun, I know you'll be reading this! xxx). She's managed to lose weight through such a strong sense of willpower, such as using skimmed milk in place of semi-skinned, and refusing biscuits. I've done my bit to help her by handily demolishing any piece of chocolate that comes near or by the house (the things us guys do for love!) She also has a secret weapon - Slim fast.

Now, slim-fast is a big brand in the UK. A quick look at their website slimfast.co.uk tells you what a wide range of products they do, from milkshakes and soups to pastas, with helpful hints and cooking techniques on the site all designed to help you lose weight.

My review is on Slim Fast French Vanilla flavour, which I picked up when shopping just to see what it tasted like. Who knows, if it was cheap and tasty enough, I may actually start drinking the stuff and trying to shift this belly that has been carefully cultivated on a diet of curry, beer and JD & Coke over the past 8 or 9 years?

The can itself is white, with Slim Fast written across the front in red, with a picture of a rather tasty looking milkshake under the product name. Spin the can around, and you have a list of ingredients, nutritional information and advice on how often to drink the shakes. "Ready to drink meal replacement for weight control. Single serving, Shake well. Serve Chilled. Complete balanced nutrition for fitness and health" reads the front of the can. Sounds good.

The back of the can reads like an advert:

"Looking good, feeling great with Slim Fast - Slim Fast meal replacements for weight control are a part of the Slim Fast Plan that
is scientifically tested to help you get the very best out of your diet.

Lose weight, feel great, stay in shape with slim Fast. The Slim Fast plan - Replace breakfast and lunch with a Slim Fast and then prepare yourself a balanced, low-fat, 600 kcal meal every day."

Yes, you did read that correctly. Have two 325ml cans of milkshake instead of breakfast and lunch. Although it doesn't mention it on the can, you also need to cut out the pre-work bakery visit, the mid-morning toast run and the afternoon chocolate binge. Blimey, this dieting malarkey is going to make you hungry!

I'll come back to the info on the can later. For now, let's open it. A normal pull back top, similar to a can of Coke, is all that stands in between you and a French Vanilla shake. The smell is great! If you love vanilla, like I do, you could spend all day just smelling the contents. Once you taste the drink, you may have wished that you HAD stuck to smelling it! Yes, the taste is that bad. You can taste vanilla, but it just doesn't taste right. Maybe I've been spoilt by one too many McDonald shakes, but this tastes watery, and bitty (literally, like it had tiny little bits in it) Considering that the can is just 325ml, I had trouble finishing the lot, which is very unusual for me. That leads me onto my next point.

Meal replacement - This shake is supposed to serve as a replacement for a main meal, such as breakfast or lunch. I've had snacks that have filled me up more than this! I'm not the most energetic person in the world, and a drive to the station followed by a train journey to work doesn't exactly burn off calories and build up an appetite, but by 10am I was starving. My stomach wouldn't stop rumbling, and in the end I ended up pacifying my poor belly with some toast. How I was supposed to go through till lunch and then suffer another shake, I'll never know!

The Slim Fast Plan

· Scientificall
y proven
· 23 essential vitamins and minerals
· High fibre
· Gluton free
· No artificial sweetener
· No added preservatives

Each Slim Fast gives a minimum of 30% of your daily needs for these and other important vitamins and minerals:

· Calcium
· Iron
· Folic Acid
· Vitamin C
· Vitamin B complex

For 73p from Tesco, this isn't something that I would recommend unless you was intent on dieting. There's no way that I could replace my first two meals of the day with a couple of cans of this, though I appreciate that many others do. If you want to lose weight, my advice would be to exercise more, rather than eat less. I think I'd rather spend £1.50 per day going swimming to burn off the calories than spending slightly less on these drinks.

My respect goes out to every single person who vowed to lose weight this year, especially those suffering this diet. My advise is that if you want to lose weight, then this will help, IF You can stick to the plan (Let's be honest, two drinks of 216 calories each, and a well-balanced meal will leave you well under the average intake of 2000 calories (for a woman) or 2500 (for a man). This product loses points for taste, but I've seen it work for my other half, so it gains points for that!

Slim Fast may be conducive for weight loss, but it obviously doesn't help your maths skills (I was sad enough to notice that, on the ingredients, the breakdown of fat didn't add up to the total!) I'm going to leave you with the last bit of info on the can, whilst I go and make myself a bacon and egg sarnie!

Important: Do not start this, or any weight loss programme, if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, on medication, under 16, or want to lose more than 20% of your starting body weight without consulting a doctor.

Slim Fast can help slimming only as part of a calorie controlled diet. Do not use it as a sole source of nutrition
; add a balanced, low fat meal daily. Suitable for vegetarians.

Nutrition facts, per can: Energy: 216 kcal, Protein - 13.7g, Fat - 2.6g (of which saturates - 0.7g, of which monounsaturates: 0.7g, of which polyunsaturates: 1.3g), Carbohydrate - 34.5g (of which sugars: 34.5g), Fibre: 4.7g, Sodium: 0.2g

Ingredients: Skimmed Milk, Water, Sugar, Milk, Protein, Gum Arabic, Corn Oil, Vitamin and Mineral Mixture, Flavourings, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerdies of Fatty Acids), Stabilisers (Carrageenan, Guar Gum), Colour (Beta Carotene)

Summary: