On my recent visit in with my gastric bypass surgeon, they were kind enough to present me with a lovely bag of samples and goodies that they had saved for me from Christmas. Most of it was junk and I threw it away, my kids took off with the water bottle and the bag itself, and I was left with a bottle of protein powder from Health Wise. Unlike many of the other protein drinks I’ve had, this one is not vanilla or chocolate or milky or creamy in any way. The sample I have is for the Pineapple Orange High Protein Fruit Drink – with the very catchy caption “Fill it*Shake it*Drink it.
When you pull the plastic ring off the bottle and open it up, you definitely can smell that there’s something more than pineapples and oranges in this stuff, but I’m willing to try it anyway. You fill the bottle with water – I used 8 ounces and then threw in a few ice cubes – and shake it (after replacing the lid). The drink contains 60 calories and 15 grams of protein, but not much of anything else. There’s no sugar, a little potassium, no fat, no carbs. The protein comes from Whey protein concentrate, so you protein purists who don’t believe all protein is created – or absorbed – equally can feel fairly comfortable with the protein in here.
Now, I’m not a big fan of orange juice or pineapple juice, or any fruit juice for that matter, so it was a little dumb for me to go out on a limb and try to review this beverage. However, after getting past the initial OH MY GOD THIS IS SO SWEET feeling, and once the ice kicked in and cooled it down, it really was a pretty refreshing drink. You definitely know it’s a protein drink, but the orange and pineapple do a fairly good job at hiding it. It definitely needs ice. Definitely.
You can buy these delicious drinks on line for about $2 per bottle. I found a sale on them – if you buy 3, they are $5 from this place:
http://cntr4weightloss.stores.yahoo.net/piorsshbodrm.html
This is a good alternative to the more milk shakey kind of protein shakes. I think over the summer, these will work out just great.