After reading that Nestlé Nutrition claims BOOST Nutritional Drink contains 300% more Vitamin E than Ensure Shake from Abbott Nutrition (in a chocolate flavor comparison), I wrote both manufacturers. Please read, “Round 1: BOOST vs. ENSURE” first, because if Round 2 were meant to be read first, I would have retitled it Round 1 and renamed Round 1 Round 2. Assuming you’ve done that, here’s the letter to Abbott Nutrition and their response…
Dear Ensure Shakers:
I’m not happy about the Vitamin E level in Ensure Complete, Balanced Nutrition Shakes. BOOST Energy Drink advertises 300% more Vitamin E than an Ensure Shake. Does that bother Abbott Nutrition? It bugged the heck out of me!
In your defense, I asked BOOST why anyone needs 300% more Vitamin E. Then I learned my math was wrong. BOOST provides 100% of the daily requirement for Vitamin E, but 300% more than Ensure. How can you allow that to happen with such an important vitamin? Even “Ensure” starts and ends with the letter “E,” therefore, why are the E levels in your shake so low when it’s completely balanced in your name?
You need to put more energy into raising the Vitamin E level of your shake. Are the nutritionists at BOOST better at percentages than yours? I’m terrible with percentages and even worse with fractions. In fact, I only spent a fraction of my time studying percentages in school and my math skills never amounted to anything. Sometimes my parents say I didn’t either. But let’s not shift the focus from you to me when this is clearly your math problem, not mine.
The reality is falling behind 300% in anything nutritional may ensure that energy drinkers who want more Vitamin E will look for a boost elsewhere. What are your nutritionists doing to E-liminate the Vitamin E lead BOOST has established?
An Abbott Laboratories Consumer Relations Quality Coordinator RD, LD responded with:
We greatly appreciate your interest in our Ensure® Shake products. Ensure Shakes are complete, balanced nutrition®. A product is considered “complete and balanced” when it is designed and fortified to: 1) contain >10% of the appropriate Daily Reference Intake (DRI) for all nutrients considered essential by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (FBN/IOM); and 2) contain nutrients at levels that do not exceed the tolerable upper level (UL) for intake established by the FBN/IOM on a daily intake basis. Ensure Shakes were designed to be used as supplements to whole food meals.
Abbott Nutrition is committed to meeting the expectations of our customers and for that reason is continually evaluating new science technology, and products. We respond readily to our customers’ needs and follow the government regulations that apply to our products. Consumers and health care professionals alike can be assured that Abbott Nutrition adheres to the highest standards in developing and manufacturing products that meet the special health or nutritional needs for which they are designed.
Again, we thank you for sharing your concerns with us. If you have additional questions please contact us at (phone number and hours of operation followed).
Final Thoughts: The BOOST response focused entirely on the Vitamin E issue, which makes sense since that’s what I inquired about. On the other hand, this response didn’t mention Vitamin E once. Instead, Abbott Nutrition discussed “complete, balanced nutrition.” That’s fine and even interesting. However, rather than avoid my questions completely, shake things up a little and sell me on something like: you don’t need 300% more Vitamin E, or the advantages Ensure Shake provides that BOOST doesn’t mention are blah, blah and blah.
Another observation is that Nestlé Nutrition uses lots of numbers, but Abbott Nutrition is into letters — DRI, FNB/IOM and UL. FYI, NTTAWWT, ILA (For Your Information, Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That, I Love Acronyms). Even the Consumer Relations Quality Coordinator included RD, LD after her name.
So, who wins: BOOST or ENSURE? Only your body knows for sure. Both companies were responsive, professional and provided phone numbers for additional information. I’m not sure how the average person, and especially below average people, can figure out all of the confusing claims companies make about their products. More of this … complete and balanced that … followed by multiple disclaimers indicated by symbols such as *, † and ‡. It’s enough to wear you down so you have no choice but to reach for a nutrition drink.
Do your own comparison of Ensure Complete, Balanced Nutrition Shakes and BOOST Nutritional Energy Drinks and come to your own conclusions. But if you find anything confusing about the products you use or are considering trying, many manufacturers like Nestlé Nutrition and Abbott Nutrition are willing to help. All you have to do is Write The Company.
