Garden of Life – RAW Organic Meal, Shake & Meal Replacement, Vanilla – 2.13 lbs (969 g)

5 reviews for Garden of Life – RAW Organic Meal, Shake & Meal Replacement, Vanilla – 2.13 lbs (969 g)

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amy – February 19, 2021

   First I do not usually write reviews although I’m taking the time to maybe try to help someone else decide if they would want to spend the money and try this. Do it… what would it hurt? In January, after turning 41, I decided it was time get healthier as it seemed each year I have been gaining about 10lbs per year and lacked energy. I have a sore foot so running or walking was not an option. So I decided if I can’t exercise I would try to start eating healthier. After watching fruits and veggies go bad in the fridge, I starting looking at easier ways to get that stuff in my body. Fast forward 10 months ahead, which is today, I have taken this in substitute of my breakfast every day. I am 34 lbs lighter and a lot more energy. I really believe my body was lacking all the nutrients it needed to perform everyday life. All the good stuff I’m putting in my body with just 1 glass far exceeds what I could cook in the kitchen. The night before I mix 1 scoop of the vanilla blend w water in a mason jar. In the morning I pull it out of fridge, shake up good, and drink on my way to work. I was not looking to lose weight by drinking this, I was looking at putting nutrition back in my life, but how can a woman in her 40s comp,ham about weight loss!!

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Kindle Customer – February 19, 2021

   I love this product. I first bought it just for myself because breakfast was becoming too much of a production for me. I came up with a shake recipe which I became obsessed with. But what really sold me was, after 8 years of trying to get my husband to eat anything for breakfast, this ended up being the only thing that worked. He was living off just coffee until lunch because he just couldn’t force food in himself early in the morning. What sold him was I told him that I make this shake using coffee, so in the end he could still have his coffee but also put something in him that was more then just coffee. Now we both make our shakes everyday as our breakfast and both of us are super please with our own personal results. Him because it gives him a lot more good energy and me because it has personally helped with my tummy bloating and making better choices during the day and both because breakfast has become super fast and easy. I should mention that it took me about a week for me not to feel hungry after 2 hours of drinking this. My body was just getting use to having liquid for breakfast, but once my body got use to it I could last longer.

   If you are curious how I make my shakes this is what I do… I actually use a blender when I make it and then drink it out of a blender shake bottle.

   Since the blender bottle holds 3 cups worth of liquid, we use that as a base for how much liquid we use, but most likely more liquid then the recommended 8 oz helps make this shake a more palatable consistency. The most important part of this process is you must put the powder in the blender first and then the liquids, this will also helps with the consistency. an FYI, this drink is neither hot nor cold, but room temperature which has not bothered my husband or I, but when it gets hotter outside we might start thinking of putting some ice cubes in our blender bottles to make it more like an iced coffee. Ok here goes with what we do, there is no real exact amounts except for the liquids and I am aware that this might not be for everyone but maybe someone out there will read it, try it, and love it as much as we do….

   In your blender

   1 scoop of Vanilla Garden of Life Meal Replacement

   2 -3 (hand) shakes of Ginger powder

   2-3 (hand) shakes of Cinnamon power

   2-3 (hand) shakes of Turmeric powder

   1 spoonful of coconut oil

   Optional: a very tiny amount of vanilla or almond extract….this is very much up to you

   1 1/2 cups of room temp or cold coffee

   1 1/2 cups of dairy free milk (unsweetened vanilla almond milk is my favorite, I have also used unsweetened coconut milk )

   Blend on high until well mixed, then pour into your blender bottle and go!

   ***the cleanup has not been time consuming, we just rinse the blender right after use and nothing sticks or gets hard***

   Enjoy!

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   The Walls Household – February 19, 2021

   I took my time to review this product due to a lot of negative reviews about heavy metals and ingredients.

   I typically try to lean toward products that are organic and clean products and narrowed it down to a few – GOL being one of them. A LOT of people talk about heavy metals in this product, others say the ingredients have changed. I read a lot before purchasing this, because like you did not want to spend this kind of money on a product that is going to backlash and do more harm than good.

   From my own credible research, I discovered products that are plant based can contain heavy metals. Metals are found in the earth where vegetables are grown, so this is something that you cannot completely avoid. Luckily, GOL provides info online of all the heavy metals that are in fact in their product today. They even go to the land sites where their produce is grown and test the soil… pretty impressive! If interested just search this through the web. I also learned that in low amounts our bodies can absorb some of these…. like mercury. I read that mercury can be absorbed through fibrous foods.

   A breakdown of how I rate this product:

   * Taste and texture. Taste is decent. I bought the chocolate and it tastes like a lot of powders I have bought in the past. The texture is kind of chalky. I believe this is due to the greens in the powder. I have ordered several plant based protein powders in the past and all resemble this texture. Especially the greens alone. Make a smoothie to get past this!

   * Organic Flavor Blend – This is the only thing on the ingredient list that I do not like. It uses Flavors which contain chemical based product. These are not listed, just says Chocolate or Vanilla Flavor.

   * It claims to be a meal replacement… Well this is not a true meal replacement b/c its only 120 calories. A true meal replacement product should be at least 400 calories.

   * Pricey! But will pay for a good healthy product. No issues with digestion.

   * Mixes well with water and/or milk. I use a shaker bottle and this works easily and no clumps.

   I personally think this is a good product. GOL did rebuild their label by renaming it, and may have updated their ingredients… I know they had cases of salmonella poisoning years ago. I do not see any reason to not buy this again. Seems legit and honest.

   ***I hope this helps you. Im an honest Amazon Customer, not one paid or sponsored. Click helpful if you did find this helpful.***

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – February 19, 2021

   I do like this product but I will say they did change their formula. It’s no longer raw cacao. It’s just cacao. They added a “Whole Food Vitamin & Mineral Blend” and somehow this addition caused increases in many of the vitamin and mineral levels but some have decreased such as :

   Potassium 2% to 0%

   Vitamin D from 50% to 25%

   Vitamin K from 50% to 15%

   Vit B6 from 50% to 35%

   Vitamin C 25% to 15%

   Riboflavin 50% to 35%

   Folate 50% to 20%

   Also, it’s an additional 10 calories a scoop, carbs increased from 8g to now 13g and fiber went from 7g to 3g???

   If you’d like to scour the ingredients list/nutritional facts, I attached a pic that shows on the left a bottle purchased in May 2020 and the one on the right I got July 2020.

   Lastly, it blends terribly unless you put it into an actual blender. It settles rather quickly if you only use a shaker bottle.

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Kimberly – February 20, 2021

   Okay, so I’m not an expert on these things. I bought this because I’m exhausted, nutrient deficient, and lazy. Exhausted after long shifts at the hospital, I loath cooking and washing dishes so I eat insta-garbage and drive- thru/delivery sludge A LOT. It has taken a toll over the years and…enough about me: The product is what you want to know about. So the product arrived on time and we’ll packaged. The canister wasn’t half empty as some have said that they experienced, well I guess it could be had I “packed” it down. That being said it is a little messy digging out the scoop, but hey it’s powder. I got the vanilla because my plan is to get frozen & fresh fruits to blend into smoothy style and do my own thing my way even though I generally don’t like vanilla anything flavor or smell. That being said, the smell of both the dry and mixed powder isn’t bad as some reviews have stated. Not saying I’d buy the scented candle, but if you got it for me as a gift, I’d burn it when you came to visit. The powder mixed quite easily in my shaker bottle when mixed with luke-warm water and a quick shake. Popped the shaker cap for a quick sniff, smelled the same but the “candle” was now lit so it was a fair bit stronger odor. I thought it a bit odd that then mix seemed to take on a slightly greenish hue, but again not an expert. I’m just gonna chalk it up to all the “organic plant based ingredients”. I’m not vegan or even vegetarian so I also then added Nido powdered milk (don’t keep the real stuff because I only uses it for cooking, and I rarely do that so it always goes to waste anyway) in an effort to lessen the “vanilla-ness” till I get the aforementioned fruit on hand. Another quick shake and the milk power was blended too, then ice and shake. Voilá! Commence with the taste test! Is it gritty? Yeah a bit I guess, but not like drinking sand or anything and I can’t imagine that it’s “the worst ever” as I’ve bread some say. But *shrugs* what do I know, other than that I personally have issues with foods with odd textures and this isn’t that bad to me (dry/shaved coconut or mushrooms though, forget it!). Again, not a fan of vanilla ANYTHING, but all and all not bad. Looking forward to the fruit blending versions I will be concocting in the near future more though. So for now I am sucking it down via a straw. Last note, as I sit here typing this I have noticed there is some separation happening, but doesn’t most these types of things do that anyway? Isn’t that what the Shaker is for? I don’t know, I’m not an expert: just honest. Be well.