Once you drink Ensure it takes 1 to 2 hours for Ensure to kick in and Ensure also works differently depending on your health goal, although Ensure provides an immediate boost of calories and nutrients within hours of consuming it, with the lasting physical changes taking weeks or months of consistently drinking it.
Within 1 to 2 hours of drinking the Ensure, your body absorbs the simple carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals, providing your body with a quick source of calories and temporary energy.
And within 5 days to 2 weeks of daily drinking of the Ensure, the Ensure helps fill in dietary gaps, stabilize your nutrition and support recovery from recent illness or poor appetite.
Visible changes in weight from drinking Ensure often take 2 weeks to 4 weeks or longer of consistent daily consumption of the Ensure, depending your overall calorie intake.
And specific formulations of Ensure show noticeable improvements in muscle strength and physical performance in around 90 days when combined with proper activity.
The best time to drink Ensure is often in the morning with breakfast or even Midday and Between meals.
In the morning with breakfast, you should drink a bottle of Ensure alongside of your morning breakfast if you're in a rush and need quick energy to start your day or add the Ensure to your breakfast if you have a poor appetite and need extra calories and vitamins.
For midday and between meals, you can drink the Ensure between meals to stop an afternoon energy slump or use the Ensure as a healthy snack if you're trying to gain or maintain a healthy weight.
You can also drink Ensure before exercise or after exercise or even before bed.
Before exercise you can drink Ensure lightly beforehand for an easy energy boost or drink the Ensure post workout to help your body recover and rebuild muscle.
And before bed, you can have a small serving of Ensure as a light evening snack if you need some extra nutrients without feeling too full before sleep.
The amount of Ensure shakes you can drink in a day is 1 to 2 Ensure shakes as a nutritional supplement, although the exact limit to the amount of Ensure shakes you can drink in a day also depends on your doctor's advice and health goals.
For standard use, most people drink 1 to 2 Ensure shakes per day alongside of their regular meals to add some extra nutrients and calories to their body.
And special types of Ensure shakes like Ensure Surgery, often suggest no more than 3 servings a day unless a doctor says otherwise.
And relying on Ensure shakes and other nutritional shakes entirely requires many more bottles, like 7 to 8 or more to meet your daily calorie needs, which should only be done under medical supervision.
Drinking too many Ensure shakes and other nutritional shakes can lead to nutrient overload and give you too many vitamins and minerals such as iron and Vitamin A overtime, which can cause side effects or even potential harm over time.
And some versions of Ensure and other nutritional shakes have high calorie and sugar counts, which matters if you manage diabetes or weight and too many liquid supplements including Ensure shakes can cause stomach cramps, nausea or diarrhea.
Ensure is OK for the kidneys as long as your kidneys are healthy, although Ensure drinks are not ideal for people with kidney disease because the Ensure drinks contain high amounts of protein, phosphorus and potassium.
The excess protein in Ensure drinks makes damaged kidneys work harder and can speed up the kidney damage if you're not on dialysis.
Failing kidneys also cannot clear the high phosphorous and potassium from your body easily and a buildup of phosphorous and potassium in your blood causes serious health issues.
If you're in the early stages of kidney disease with no dialysis needed, standard nutritional drinks such as Ensure are often discouraged unless a dietitian or doctor approves them.
And people in advanced stages or on dialysis with kidney disease and kidney failure often need more protein and calories but still require specialized formulas.
And doctors often also recommend kidney specific nutritional drinks like Nepro instead of standard Ensure drinks as they are specifically tailored with lower levels of potassium, phosphorous and sodium.
You should not drink Ensure if you have any fish allergies, are under 12 years of age, are on blood thinning medications or have unmonitored diabetes or right before surgery that requires fasting from dairy or solids.
Certain specialized Ensure drinks like Ensure Surgery, contain fish oil and omega-3 fatty acids, so you must avoid Ensure Surgery drinks if you're allergic to fish.
Standard milk based Ensure drinks should also not be consumed right before any surgery or operations that require fasting from dairy or solids and you should always follow exact hospital fasting windows.
Standard formulas of Ensure are also made and balanced for adults and not for young children and the high levels of Vitamin K in Ensure and some other nutritional shakes can interact with medications such as Coumadin or Warfarin and regular formulas of Ensure also contain added sugars and carbohydrates that can spike your blood sugar, which require careful adjustment by your doctor if you have diabetes.
People who should avoid drinking Ensure are young children, people with severe food allergies, people taking blood thinner medications and people with galactosemia.
Ensure is formulated for adult nutritional needs and is not formulated for children.
People that are sensitive to milk proteins, soy, or corn ingredients that are found in Ensure should avoid Ensure.
And Ensure as well as many other nutritional shakes contain high amounts of Vitamin K, which can also interfere with medications such as Warfarin and disrupt blood clotting control.
And standard Ensure drinks also contain small amounts of dairy and lactose, which makes them unsafe for people with galactosemia, which is an inability to process galactose.
People that should use caution when drinking Ensure are people with diabetes, people with kidneys and people that don't need the extra calories.
Drinking Ensure and other supplements without an underlying deficiency or medical need can result in unwanted weight gain.
And the high amount of protein and mineral content in Ensure can cause a nutrient overload for your kidneys that cannot process excess filtration, so they should be used with caution if you have kidney disease.
And standard Ensure drinks also contain sugars as well as carbohydrates which raise your blood sugar, so you should monitor your blood sugar levels closely if you have diabetes or even choose Clucerna instead.
The downside of Ensure is that Ensure contains high added sugar and can lead to potential digestive upset and unwanted weight gain from the extra calories.
Original formulas of Ensure contain 14 grams to 18 grams of sugar per bottle and regular intake of Ensure can cause spikes in blood sugar and if you don't need the extra calories or energy it can contribute to unwanted weight gain.
Some people who drink Ensure also experience gas, bloating, nausea or diarrhea and the milk proteins in the Ensure drinks can trigger sensitivities or lactose intolerance.
Ensure also packs a high amount of Vitamin K and Vitamin K can interact with blood thinning medications like Warfarin and lower the blood thinners effectiveness.
They are also not cheap and buying the pre-made Ensure drinks everyday can get expensive over time.
You can live off of Ensure only, but only for a short time or in certain and specific medical situations.
Although living off of Ensure only is not best or ideal for long term health.
Ensure is good for short term help and short term nutrition as Ensure does provide calories, protein, vitamins and minerals and Ensure also helps when you're sick, recovering from surgery or when you're unable to chew solid food or have a loss of appetite.
Although drinking only Ensure for a long time can cause health issues as Ensure lacks diverse fiber, has high amounts of sugar and also misses some of the whole food nutrients that keep the gut healthy.
Any and all liquid diets like Ensure diets need close watch by a doctor or a dietitian.
And medical professionals may need to add some extra water, fiber or specific nutrients to make the liquid diet safe.
So while Ensure is good as a supplement to your normal whole food diet, living off of Ensure by itself is not recommended.
If you have a loss of appetite and can't eat enough whole foods, then Ensure can help you gain weight and get some nutrients but the Ensure should not be your only nutrition.
Or if you simply need to add or help maintain some weight and keep your nutrition up, then drinking some Ensure drinks through the day along with your other foods can help.
If you're malnourished you should also see a doctor to find why the malnourishment is occurring as malnourishment is not good for the body and can be a serious health concern.
Malnourishment can be reversed with proper medical care, dietary changes and targeted nutrient supplements.
Treatment for malnourishment involves finding and treating the underlying cause, which could be underlying physical or mental health conditions that stop proper eating.
Increasing your calories, proteins, and vitamins slowly to prevent dangerous shifts in health, which is also known as refeeding syndrome.
Eating specialized pastes or high energy supplements that are packed with essential vitamins and eating balanced meals like adding whole foods, proteins, fruits and vegetables frequently throughout the day when it becomes safe to do so.
Many people that are malnourished, make a complete recovery with early help and regular monitoring.
Severe, long lasting nutrient deficiencies can sometimes leave permanent issues such as stunted growth or vision loss.
Even anxiety can make it difficult to eat and lead to malnourishment, which medication can help with.