Ensure vs Whey Protein Isolate Review

TL;DR: A 57g serve of Ensure Original Powder provides 9g protein, 34g carbohydrate & 13g sugar. Its first four ingredients are corn syrup, corn maltodextrin, sugar and corn oil. Propel Health Pure Whey Protein Isolate provides 25.1g protein in a 30g serve, with 2.8g carbohydrate.

Ensure vs Pure Whey Protein Isolate Review

Many parents, and even some health professionals, seem far more comfortable with the idea of giving someone a product like Ensure than giving them a whey protein powder.

Turn the tubs around and read the labels, though, and that assumption becomes interesting.

Ensure Original Powder is designed as a complete nutritional supplement and contains added vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, fat and protein.

Abbott says it may be used for people experiencing malnutrition, involuntary weight loss or nutritional risk, including as interim sole-source nutrition. 

Our Pure Whey Protein Isolate isn't a meal replacement.

It does something much simpler:

It provides protein.

And if protein is what you're actually looking for, the comparison is interesting.

What's Actually in Ensure Original Powder?

According to Abbott's current ingredient information, the first ingredients in Ensure Original Powder Vanilla are:

Corn syrup.
Corn maltodextrin.
Sugar.
Corn oil.

Only after those four ingredients do you reach the major protein ingredients: sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate and calcium caseinate. Artificial flavour follows.

A 57 g serving provides:

• 9 g protein
• 34 g carbohydrate
• 13 g total sugar, all listed as added sugar
• 9 g fat
• 0 g dietary fibre
• 250 calories

The 13 g of added sugar represents 26% of the US Daily Value used on the label.

Again, that doesn't automatically make Ensure a "bad" product.

IF someone who is underweight, struggling to consume sufficient energy or requiring nutritionally complete supplementation, carbohydrate, fat, protein and micronutrients can all serve a purpose.

But it is important to understand what you're actually buying.

What's in Propel Health Pure Whey Protein Isolate?

Now turn over our Pure Whey Protein Isolate.

The ingredients are:

• Australian grass-fed whey protein isolate
• Natural vanilla flavour 
• Organic stevia.

That's it.

A 30 g serve provides:

• 25.1 g protein
• 2.8 g carbohydrate
• 1.4 g sugars
• 0.06 g fat
• 0.7 g dietary fibre

So approximately 84% of the powder by weight is protein.

That makes sense because protein isn't one component of the product.

Protein is the product.

Ensure vs Pure Whey Protein Isolate: Protein Comparison

Here's where the difference becomes especially obvious.

 

Ensure requires almost twice as much powder per serve, yet Propel provides nearly 2.8 times as much protein.

Look at it another way:

For every 100 g, Propel Pure WPI provides 83.6g protein.

Ensure Original Powder works out to approximately 15.8g protein per 100g.

That's not a subtle difference.

Is Ensure a Protein Shake?

Ensure contains protein, but it is better described as a complete nutritional supplement than a protein shake.

A 57 g serve of Ensure Original Powder provides only 9g of protein, alongside 34g of carbohydrate (corn syrup, maltodextrin & sugar), 13g of added sugar and 9 g of fat (provided by corn oil, a seed oil)

Abbott describes it as complete, balanced nutrition intended for supplemental use, including for people at nutritional risk. 

Is Ensure High in Protein?

It depends on what you're comparing it with.

Ensure Original Powder provides only 9g of protein from a 57g serving. That works out to approximately 15.8 g of protein per 100 g of powder.

Propel Health Pure Whey Protein Isolate provides 25.1 g from a 30 g serve, or 83.6 g per 100 g.

So if your primary goal is increasing protein intake, Ensure is considerably less protein-dense than pure whey protein isolate.

Can Teenagers Have Whey Protein?

Whey protein is derived from milk. It isn't inherently an adult-only nutrient.

Teenagers need protein for normal growth and development, and active teenagers may have increased requirements depending on their body size, training and overall diet.

Australian sports nutrition guidance emphasises meeting protein needs primarily through food, while recognising that protein supplements can sometimes provide a convenient source of high-quality protein. 

That doesn't mean every teenager needs a protein powder.

Milk, yoghurt, eggs, meat, fish and other protein-rich foods should generally form the foundation of the diet.

But when additional protein is genuinely required, the question should be about the product's ingredients, protein content and suitability for that individual, rather than assuming all protein powders are inappropriate simply because they come in a tub.

For teenagers with medical conditions, allergies or specific nutritional requirements, parents should discuss supplementation with a doctor or Accredited Practising Dietitian.

Why Protein Matters

Protein isn't just something for bodybuilders.

It provides amino acids required for growth, tissue repair and maintenance, and becomes particularly important when we're trying to preserve or build lean tissue.

There is also an interesting nutritional concept called the Protein Leverage Hypothesis.

The hypothesis proposes that humans regulate protein intake relatively strongly.

When protein makes up a smaller proportion of the diet, people may compensate by consuming more total food and therefore more energy while attempting to meet their protein requirements.

That doesn't mean simply drinking whey protein causes weight loss, nor does protein explain obesity by itself.

But it does raise an interesting question when evaluating a nutritional product:

How much protein are you actually getting relative to everything else you're consuming?

But Doesn't Ensure Contain Vitamins and Minerals?

It does.

According to the Ensure ingredient label, it contains:

Less Than 1% Of: Vitamins And Minerals‡, and Soy Lecithin.

Pure WPI doesn't attempt to replicate that.

It's not a multivitamin.

It's not a meal replacement.

It's not designed for sole-source nutrition.

It's a family-friendly source of great-quality protein with a deliberately short ingredient list.

Ensure vs Pure Whey Protein Isolate - Surprises

What surprises me is the perception surrounding protein powder.

I've met plenty of parents who would hesitate to give their teenager a whey protein shake but wouldn't think twice about a conventional nutritional drink.

Yet compare these ingredient lists.

One starts:

Corn syrup, corn maltodextrin, sugar, corn oil...

By volume, those are the most important ingredients.

The other starts:

Australian grass-fed whey protein isolate.

That's why I think we need to stop judging foods and supplements by the category they sit in or how "medical" the packaging looks.

Turn the packet around. Read the ingredients. Read the nutrition panel. Then decide what actually fits the nutritional goal.

That is a much stronger argument than simply saying one product is "healthy" and the other isn't. 

Looking for a Australia, Grass-fed, Whey Protein Isolate?

If your goal is simply to increase high-quality protein intake, keep it simple.

Propel Health Pure Whey Protein Isolate provides 25.1 g of protein per 30 g serve, using Australian grass-fed whey protein isolate with natural vanilla flavour and organic stevia.

Buy Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate

About the Author

Grant Jenkins is the founder of Propel Health Australia and a physiologist and former high-performance coach with more than 25 years of experience in human performance, sports nutrition and health education. He has worked with athletes competing at World Championships and all four tennis Grand Slams and combines scientific research with practical experience in nutrition, supplementation and performance.

Disclaimer

This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or individual dietary advice. Ensure and whey protein isolate are different products designed for different nutritional purposes. Children and teenagers should generally obtain their nutrition from a balanced diet. If you are considering supplementation for a child or teenager, or for someone experiencing malnutrition, involuntary weight loss or a medical condition, seek advice from a doctor or Accredited Practising Dietitian.