Glucerna and Ensure are liquid nutritional supplements that offer added calories, carbohydrates and protein, as well as important vitamins, minerals and fiber to your diet. You can consume either supplement as your mealtime beverage or use it for added nourishment between meals. Glucerna and Ensure are helpful if you need to gain weight, if you have dental problems, difficulty cooking and or feeding yourself, a loss of appetite, or if you have chronic medical conditions that make it tough for you to cook, shop, chew or maintain a healthy body weight.
Carbohydrates
Glucerna is formulated specifically to benefit people with diabetes. It has 27 grams of carbohydrate and 6 grams of sugar per 8 oz. serving. It minimizes peaks in your blood sugar and can help you achieve better blood sugar control. Glucerna is made with carbohydrates that your body slowly digest, and it can fit easily into a diabetic meal plan, according to product labeling information by Abbott, the maker of this product.
Ensure is higher in both carbohydrates and sugar than Glucerna. Ensure has 41 grams of carbohydrates and 18 grams of sugar per 8 oz. can, according to product labeling information from Abbott, which also makes Ensure.
Fiber
Glucerna contains 5 grams of dietary fiber per 8 oz. serving, whereas Ensure contains 1 gram of dietary fiber for the same serving size. Dietary fiber helps control your blood sugar by slowing the release of sugar into your blood stream from carbohydrate digestion. Dietary fiber also aids overall digestion and improves intestinal regularity. The fact that Ensure is lower in fiber means it may not make you feel as full as Glucerna after you drink a serving.
Calories
Glucerna contains 200 calories per serving, while Ensure has 250 calories per serving. Because Ensure is higher in calories and lower in fiber, it might be more beneficial if you don't have diabetes and are trying to gain weight.
Fats
Glucerna contains phytosterols, which are considered to be good for your heart. Phytosterols are found in plant foods and vegetable oils. They help inhibit your body's absorption of cholesterol, notes PubMed.gov. Ensure contains 20 percent of your daily value for omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish oils. They are an essential part of your diet, because your body cannot manufacture them. Omega-3 fatty acids can help lower triglyceride levels and blood pressure, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center. Glucerna contains 7 mg of total fat, compared with 6mg for Ensure. Both have no trans fat and negligible amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol.Trans fats tend to raise your total cholesterol level by lowering good, or HDL, cholesterol while raising your bad, or LDL, cholesterol, notes the American Heart Association. Both products seem to be healthy for your heart but in different ways.
Vitamins and Minerals
Glucerna contains 100 percent of daily value for vitamin C and 25 percent of daily value for 27 other vitamins and minerals. In addition, Glucerna has high amounts of chromium piccolinate, which promotes diabetes control by helping your body's insulin work better. Ensure contains 50 percent of daily value for vitamin C and at least 25 percent of daily value for 24 other vitamins and minerals.
Conclusion
Both Glucerna and Ensure are heart-healthy nutritional supplements that can provide added nutrition and benefit your health. If you have diabetes, Glucerna seems more beneficial for control of your blood sugar. If you've been told to limit your dietary fiber intake, Ensure may be the better choice. A registered dietitian can help you work Glucerna into your diabetic meal plan or Ensure into your non-diabetic meal plan. It's best to talk with you doctor before using any dietary supplement.
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