Shakeology, Garden of Life, and Vanilla.

Post Published on December 12, 2013.
Last Updated on April 29, 2016 by davemackey.

I’ve written a few posts about Shakeology in the past (Three Days on Shakeology, A Little TMI – Five Days on Shakeology, Shakeology – Almost a Month Later). It has been nine days since I last posted about Shakeology (don’t worry, I plan on slowing down the pace of Shakeology posts, I’ve just been focusing some energy and effort on it, since I am trying to figure out how to get the optimal diet for 2014) and I have a few things to report.

First off, don’t buy the Strawberry! I know I said it isn’t that bad, but I received my shipment of Vanilla a few days ago and I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to go back to Strawberry. In comparison to Vanilla, Strawberry tastes like sand! I have no clue why this is – the ingredients seem fairly similar – my only guess is that for some unknown reason Shakeology is using a finer milling process for Vanilla than for Strawberry (if this is the case, PLEASE Shakeology, make Strawberry more finely milled).

Many thanks to Liz West for publishing this image of a basket of food under the Creative Commons license.
Many thanks to Liz West for publishing this image of a basket of food under the Creative Commons license.

Secondly, I’ve been looking at what my other options are as fall as meal replacements. Shakeology is a bit pricey. It runs around $4/shake plus the cost of Almond Milk and Frozen Fruit. I’m guessing this adds another $1/shake – so $5/shake. This isn’t horrible – but it isn’t great either. I looked at IdealShape, but most of its ingredients seemed artificial (like Ensure) and I don’t think I’m going to be able to go back to that sort of synthetic meal replacement. I also looked at Garden of Life RAW Meal (Vanilla). I had tried RAW Meal perhaps a year ago and found its taste to be quite sandy (I couldn’t finish the container I’d purchased), I’m not sure if this again can be attributed to milling process and/or whether their flavored versions would taste better (I purchased the original, unflavored). I’ve included below a comparison of the ingredients in Shakeology Vanilla and Garden of Life RAW Meal Vanilla. Note, if you really want to compare apples to apples, you should double the Shakeology numbers – as their serving size is half that of Garden of Life’s (but then you’d be spending $10/shake!).

I also continue to look at Soylent, which is really taking shape – but they haven’t released their 1.0 spec so I am unable to provide include them in this comparison – but I hope that will change and I can update this chart within the next few weeks.

For ingredients the numbers indicate the order of the ingredients on the packaging – which is supposed to be in descending order of quantity (e.g. the first ingredient, should be the ingredient there is the most of). Please let me know if I made any mistakes or if some ingredients are the same but the two companies use different names and I’ll adjust the chart accordingly.

One final comment – Shakeology powder costs around $125 for 30 servings. Garden of Life powder costs around $70 for 28 servings. It can be a little tricky at first – you have to note that while you get more powder with Garden of Life, there are only 14 servings in a container – so you’ll need two containers to roughly equivocate Shakeology. In other words, Shakeology is around $1.50 per serving more than Garden of Life.

Company:

Shakeology (Vanilla)

Garden of Life (Vanilla)

Serving Size

35 g

80 g

Calories

130

310

Fat Calories

15

45

Cholesterol

5 mg (2%)

0 mg (0%)

Sodium

200 mg (8%)

120 mg (5%)

Dietary Fiber

3 g (10%)

10 g (40%)

Sugars

7 g

7 g

Protein

16 g (32%)

34 g (68%)

Whey Protein

1

Pea Protein

2

Pea Fiber

3

Maca Root

4

Chia

5

13 (Sprout)

Flax

6

10 (Sprout)

Yacon Root

7

Cherry

8 (Acerola)

22

Camu-Camu

9

Pomegranate

10

Astragalus Root

11

Bilberry

12

Blueberry

13

Goji Berry

14

Spinach

15

Acai

16

MSM

17

Himalayan Salt

18

Ashwagandha Root

19

Cordyceps

20

Enzyme Blend

21

25 (and Probiotic)

Maitake Mushroom

22

Reishi Mushroom

23

Lactobacillus Sporogenes

24

28

Luo Han Guo (Monk Fruit)

25

Citrus bioflavonoids

26

Grape Seed

27

Green Tea

28

Tulsi (Holy Basil)

29

Rose Hips

30

Schisandra

31

Cinnamon Bark

32

Apple Pectin

33

Barley Grass

34

19 (Sprout)

Ginkgo

35

Kamut Grass

36

Moringa

37

Sacha Inchi

38

Spirulina

39

16

Non-GMO Fructose

40

Natural Vanilla Flavor

41

15

Xanthan Gum

42

Stevia

43

26

Brown Rice Protein

1

Brown Rice Sweetener

2

Amaranth Sprout

3

Quinoa Sprout

4

Millet Sprout

5

Buckwheat Sprout

6

Garbanzo Bean Sprout

7

Lentil Sprout

8

Adzuki Bean Sprout

9

Sunflower Seed Sprout

11

Pumpkin Seed Sprout

12

Flax/Coconut Blend

14

Oat Grass Juice

15

Chlorella

17

Alfalfa Grass Juice

18

Wheat Grass Juice

20

Strawberry

21

Blackberry

23

Raspberry

24

Brewer’s Yeast

27

Company:

Shakeology (Vanilla):

Garden of Life (Vanilla):

Vitamin A

500 IU (10%)

30%

Calcium

300 mg (30%)

35%

Vitamin D

200 IU (500%)

100%

Vitamin K

40 mcg (50%)

100%

Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)

1.5 mg (100%)

100%

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

1.5 mg (100%)

100%

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

5 mg (25%)

100%

Vitamin B6

2 mg (100%)

100%

Vitamin B12

6 mcg (100%)

200%

Pantothenic Acid

5 mg (50%)

100%

Zinc

6 mg (40%)

100%

Manganese

2 mg (100%)

100%

Molybdenum

30 mcg (40%)

100%

Vitamin C

180 mg (300%)

100%

Iron

2 mg (19%)

100%

Vitamin E

15 IU (50%)

100%

Folate

200 mcg (50%, Folic Acid)

100%

Biotin

90 mcg (30%)

10%

Magnesium

80 mg (20%)

30%

Selenium

15%

Chromium

60 mcg (50%)

100%

Phosphorus

250 mg (25%)

Copper

0.8 mg (40%)

Iodine

52 mcg (35%)

2 thoughts on “Shakeology, Garden of Life, and Vanilla.”

  1. I googled Shakeology vs Soylent and one of the hits was your blog. What was the health problem that you got rid of with Shakeology, would you be able to share that? What about weight loss? Thanks. By the way, I started drinking Sahkeology (as breakfast replacement), chocolote (non vegan); and it comes out really delicious….I add different things every day. My husband and I are looking into Soylent and just yesterday I was thinking of the nutritional content between both. Tx again.

    1. I was having a problem with my legs (constant aching and weakness) which had been ongoing for a year or two…It cleared up…though there were several other factors occurring in my life that could have contributed as well…so I don’t want to push it too hard. I also was having some issues with urinary hesitancy which seemed to clear up as well.
      I ordered my first week’s supply of Soylent…but probably won’t get it for another month or two…eager to give it a try.

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