In this Article:
Macronutrients
We will start out by reviewing the macronutrients of some of the big guys, Pediasure Grow and Gain and Boost's Kid Essentials. These are the products that most are familiar with when talking about kid's nutritional products. They have been around a while and are usually pediatricians go-to when recommending a product, as its something that is familiar to them and is available in most retailers.
Although they have had all this time to improve their product the macronutrients are still not great. The calories, while good if you are underweight, are a bit too high for anyone looking just to fill nutritional gaps. They also both carry a considerable amount of total fat that most children do not need. Boost Kid Essentials comes in at over 28% of your daily recommended fat per carton! And that is on a 2000 calorie per day diet, which is significantly more then a young child would need. Sneakz Meal2Grow, on the other hand, comes in at 130 calories and only 2.5 grams of total fat, small enough for any diet! And if it is more calories, and/or more fat you are looking to add to a diet, it can always be mixed with milk, a milk alternative, or smoothie to get in those extra calories!
Also, while similar in sugar content, both Boost Kid Essentials and Pediasure Grow and Gain have a significantly higher amount of carbohydrates and a significantly lower amount of fiber than Sneakz Meal2Grow. This means that they have a significantly higher glycemic load, or in other words, you experience a much stronger sugar rush after consuming their product.
Micronutrients
When it comes to Micronutrients Pediasure Grow and Gain and Boost Kid Essentials are very similar, with both having about 1/4th to 1/5th the daily value of most major vitamins. While definitely not bad, some vitamins you should be making sure you have more of than others, since your chances of receiving them from dietary sources may be lower. It may be more important to be receiving 100+% the daily value of some vitamins, as the risk of overconsumption is very low while the dangers of not having enough may be very high.
Take Vitamin C as an example. While most people should be getting enough Vitamin C from their diet, depending on how limited your little one's diet is (Mostly Pizza and Chicken Nuggets anyone?), it may one of the vitamins that they are not getting enough of. And vitamin C is extremely important, most people know it is crucial for the immune system, but it is also needed for bone and blood vessel health, wound healing, and iron absorption. All crucial for growing kids! It is also a vitamin that relatively harmless as any excess of the vitamin you consume should pass through the system unused.
Vitamin A would be the opposite, which is why we keep Vitamin A at a lower level (although still enough), along with Iron, Calcium, and Magnesium, as these are vitamins that are known to cause problems if they are over consumed, especially from fortification. You should always be worried about taking mega doses of these, and other fat-soluble vitamins as they can have unwelcomed side effects.
This is why Sneakz took a long look at the amount of each vitamin before including it in Meal2Grow, and had it vetted by multiple Nutritionists and Pediatricians. We had to make sure it was the best we could possibly do. And the formula will be updated in the future as more research on nutrition comes to light as we try to bring you and your families the best products possible.
Ingredients
The real difference between Sneakz Meal2Grow and other children's complete nutritional supplements comes down to ingredients. While most other companies source the cheapest ingredients possible, Sneakz has been carefully sourcing all of our ingredients for maximum effectiveness, taste, and absorbability.
Just take a look at the ingredients in our competitors. You see fortified vitamins, artificial and alternatives sweeteners (Stevia, Fructose, inulin, etc), deceptive names for sugars (corn syrup, corn maltodextrin, Short-Chain Fructooligosaccharides), gums and binders, and artificial flavors. None of these products retain any of the nutrients or phytochemicals that they may have retained in their whole food form.
While if you take a look at the Sneakz Meal2Grow, they are all ingredients you can read and are mostly fruits and vegetables you have seen before. It has beets, cauliflower, citrus limon, guava, lemon, Jerusalem artichoke. All real foods with their phytonutrients intact to make sure you are receiving all of the benefits possible from consuming these whole foods.
Certifications
When it comes to any other attributes, Sneakz shines above the rest. Certifications have always been important for making sure our food products meet our specific dietary needs but they are more important now than ever with people abusing words like "Natural', "GMOs", and "Gluten-Free" to dupe unsuspecting people into buying their products.
Our USDA Organic certification means that no matter what we will never have GMO based products in anything we sell. Unlike non-GMO only products, our soil fertility and crop nutrients are managed through tillage and cultivation practices, crop rotations, and cover crops as opposed to artificial fertilizers. Crop pests, weeds, and diseases are controlled primarily through management practices including physical, mechanical, and biological controls as opposed to artificial pesticides that you would never want in your little one's diet.
We are certified gluten-free by GFCO, which is the top certification program for the verification of quality, integrity, and purity of gluten-free products. It is run by the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG), and it inspects both products and manufacturing facilities for gluten GFCO tests foods to make sure they contain less than 10 ppm of gluten. This means that if you have any gluten sensitivities you will have no problem consuming any Sneakz product.
Also, our Meal2Grow is vegan, which means it contains no animal products and is entirely plant-based. As well as containing probiotics, which combined with our prebiotic fiber, protect against bloating and other digestive issues.