Ensure and Boost Drinks: The Benefits and Side Effects
As you age, keeping track of what you put into your body becomes more important. Ensure and Boost are both nutritional supplement drinks packed with essential vitamins, nutrients, calcium, protein, and more. They help seniors maintain a healthy weight and feel full. Below, we’ll explore these nutrition shakes in more detail.
The Nutritional Needs of Seniors
As seniors grow older, it becomes more common to lose your appetite and experience weight loss. While a balanced diet of carbohydrates, B vitamins, protein, and other necessary nutrients is important, many older adults fall into malnutrition due to not consuming enough food. Protein shakes can act as a form of supplementation to make sure they’re getting the calories they need.
An Overview of Ensure and Boost
Ensure and Boost are nutrient-dense nutritional drinks that contain vitamins, minerals, and enough calories to supplement nutrition and provide meal replacements when individuals have trouble consuming enough calories due to age.
Ensure
A popular nutritional drink, Ensure was founded in 1974 as a gluten-free option containing vitamins, minerals, calories, and macronutrients to help those who struggle to put weight on or consume regular, well-balanced meals. What makes Ensure stand out is that it comes in a variety of options to cater to specific needs, including:
- Ensure Enlive for daily energy and mental clarity
- Ensure Original Nutrition was specifically made for adults over the age of 50
- Ensure Complete Nutrition acts as a meal replacement
- Ensure High Protein, Ensure Pudding, Ensure Fiber, and Ensure Complete Nutrition help to make sure max protein and nutritional requirements are met.
Benefits
- High-calorie High calorie count: Those who need to gain weight can rely on Ensure’s essential nutrients to feel satiated.
- Builds muscle: The high-quality protein supports healthy muscle mass and strength for older adults.
- Promotes healthy digestion: Some varieties include dietary fiber to ease constipation or other digestive issues.
- Simple for on-the-go: Ensure is much easier to consume than solid food.
- A vegan option: Ensure has a 100% plant-based option that is nutrient-dense. nutrient dense
Potential Side Effects
- Potential nutrient overload: Ensure may be too jam-packed with nutrients for some seniors. Follow your healthcare professional’s guidance to track nutrition information.
- Allergies: Those who arehave sensitivesensitivity to certain ingredients, such as milk proteins, soy, or corn, for example, may struggle. It’s important to be aware of any food allergies or sensitivities.
- GI Issues: Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and other digestive side effects may arise for some people, but most of this goes away after a few days of regular use.
- Contraindications: For those taking blood-thinning drugs like Warfarin, it’s best to avoid drinking nutritional shakes, as most of them pack more than 20% of the recommended daily amount for Vitamin K.
Boost
Boost is another leading nutritional drink that goes along with a healthy diet to ensure individuals are getting enough calories, nutrients, and vitamins. Like Ensure, Boost comes in a wide variety of options to cater to your specific needs. Its varieties include:
- Boost Very High Protein
- Boost Original
- Boost Glucose Control that’s made for individuals with diabetes
- Boost Weight Gain
- Boost Original Nutrition is specifically made for adults 50+ to offer nutrients targeted at aging.
Benefits
- Adequate nutrition for adults: This includes the recommended grams of protein, vitamin B12, phosphorus in some varieties, and other daily requirements.
- High-calorieHigh calorie intake: For adults who struggle to put on or keep their weight, Boost provides adequate calories to support muscle mass and strength.
- Added fiber: This helps adults experience smoother digestion while avoiding constipation.
- Convenience: Boost is simple, convenient, and doesn’t require eating solid foods to get adequate nutrition.
Potential Side Effects
- Nutrient overload: Without properly following serving sizes or by eating too many calories elsewhere, Boost can give individuals a nutrient overload. Be sure to read the nutrition facts carefully and work with a healthcare provider.professional.
- Contraindications: For those taking blood-thinning drugs like Warfarin, it’s best to avoid drinking nutritional shakes, as most of them pack more than 20% of the recommended daily amount for Vitamin K.
- Digestive health concerns: Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and other digestive side effects may arise for some people, but most of this goes away after regular use.
How Ensure and Boost Can Help Manage Swallowing Difficulties
Swallowing difficulties, known as dysphagia, are common among older adults and can result from a range of age-related changes. For those who suffer from dysphagia, certain foods or liquids may be challenging—or even impossible—to swallow.
Causes of Dysphagia
Several factors contribute to dysphagia in older adults, including:
- Muscle loss: With age, people experience a decrease in muscle mass and elasticity, which weakens the muscles involved in swallowing.
- Dry mouth: Reduced saliva production is common with aging, causing dryness in the mouth and throat that can make swallowing difficult.
- Reduced tongue strength: The tongue’s ability to generate force declines with age, slowing the swallowing process.
- Increased risk of medical conditions: Conditions like stroke, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, and certain cancers can directly impact swallowing.
- Medications: Some medications contribute to dry mouth, reduced appetite, and coordination challenges.
Symptoms of Dysphasia
Signs of swallowing difficulties may include:
- Coughing or choking when eating or drinking
- A wet or gurgling voice during or after meals
- Extra effort or time needed to chew or swallow
- Liquids leaking from the mouth or feeling lodged in the throat
- Frequent pneumonia or chest congestion after eating
Supporting Nutrition for Those with Dysphasia
Boost and Ensure products are excellent options for making sure older adults get the antioxidants and vitamins they need since these drinks are easy to consume for those with teeth loss, dental decay, or post-operative needs.
They’re often gentler for those with dysphagia, providing essential nutrients without the need for chewing. These beverages offer a quick and easy way for individuals with dysphagia to receive the necessary calories and nutrients with minimal discomfort.
Tips for Managing Swallowing Difficulties
Below are some tips and strategies to ease swallowing and improve comfort: the following strategies:
- Choose soft, easy-to-swallow foods: Options like drinking nutrition shakes, yogurt, peanut butter, pureed vegetables, and thickened soups are gentle on the throat and easy to consume.
- Sip water with drier foods: When eating foods like bread or crackers, drinking water can help prevent them from sticking in the throat.
- Limit drying agents: Reduce the intake of coffee, caffeinated drinks, and medications that may cause dryness.
How to Add Ensure or Boost Into a Senior Diet
Before buying either drink, it’s important to consult with a dietitian or healthcare professional to discuss:
- Individual health needs
- Current diet and daily nutrient intake
- Medical history
- Current medication
- An assessment for lactose intolerance
Alternatives to Supplement Drinks
If you have concerns about any of the ingredients in nutritional drinks, you can work with a dietician to make a plan. You can also supplement with vitamins such as Vitamin D, iron, and omega-3Omega 3- fatty acids, as recommended by your doctor, to keep on top of your weight management and overall well-being.
Get Ensure & Boost at Parentgiving
If you’re ready to give Ensure or Boost a try after talking to a healthcare professional, then save a trip to the grocery store and visit Parentgiving — we have a wide selection of nutritional drinks, incontinence products, and education for those aging-in-place and their families.