Ensure Creamy Milk Chocolate Shake Review

I drank Ensure on a doctor's recommendation. During the difficult months before and after my marriage dissolved, my diet lacked essential nutrients such as ... food. Because of the way my body reacts to stress, there are days when chewing and swallowing is too daunting a process to undertake. There are only so many meals in a row a woman can miss before her dropping weight shifts from a consoling side effect of misery to a scary sign of unwellness. I've got work to do, a toddler to raise, and an education to complete, so I can't very well just lay down and die. Slugging down a chocolate flavored drink is a relatively painless way to avoid starving.

Chocolate-flavored Ensure is satisfyingly chocolatey, but the viscosity can be a little much. The mouthfeel is similar to raw egg whites, and it feels like a solid form sitting in the stomach. It made me full, but sometimes grossed me out. The bottle is small, so there isn't too much volume to consume, but I prefer other drinks that aren't as concentrated. 

While this drink is marketed as a nutritional supplement (and that reputation is perpetuated by distributing crates of samples to doctors, who are often happy to recommend whatever they get for free), it is not very different from other drinks that call themselves weight-loss aids. In fact, when I compared the ingredients to the Kirkland brand weight-loss shakes, the diet drink came out on top with more protein, more fiber, and a higher percentage of most of the vitamins and minerals listed. None of these are as good for you as actually eating food because they are flavored with corn syrup, but sometimes they are a necessity. Since the Kirkland drink is such a good value and doesn't feel as thick and gooey, I buy those instead of Ensure.