Rootana Review

Losing weight is an extremely difficult thing to do, as you can’t sacrifice your nutritional intake when trying to eat a calorie deficit. It’s still vitally important to eat a balanced and nutritionally rich diet. How can you possibly do this? Well one easy route is meal replacement shakes, though they’re not all made equal.

Finding the right one for you can be difficult and involve a similar amount of research, but that’s exactly why I’m here. I combine my expert industry knowledge alongside hours of research and personal testing to determine the best of the best meal replacements, and that’s exactly what I’ve done for Rootana today.

Rootana is a meal replacement shake has was designed from the ground up with a simple goal in mind: nothing artificial. This means no artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives or artificial colorings. It’s made entirely from a clever combination of real food ingredients, simulating a true balanced diet in an easy and convenient drink form.

It can be common for meal replacement shakes to have a chalky and chemical tasting after-taste, as the artificial sweeteners do their best to cover up the horrible flavour of the synthetic ingredients. With no artificial ingredients, Rootana aims to taste more natural.

The question is, does it live up to the hype? Can this meal replacement shake really help you to lose weight? Are there any drawbacks to it? Will Rootana work for you? I aim to answer these questions and more with this review.

What is Rootana?

The founder of Rootana, Robert Parker, who also owns Roar Ambition, found himself trying meal replacement shakes as he was taking a step back from a hectic work-life for their apparent convenience for a healthy lifestyle. Despite the convenience, he found he couldn’t quite get past the flavour and artificial sweeteners that is typical of meal replacements.

After trying a couple of recipes in his kitchen and having his friends try them, he teamed up with a food scientist and nutritional scientist and embarked on a two year long journey to create the perfect meal replacement shake, with a completely real food formula that had nothing artificial included whatsoever.

They managed to create a nutritionally balanced, complete meal that not only tastes natural but provides everything you need for a healthy lifestyle, with slow release carbs helping to suppress your appetite and help to stop snacking so you can lose weight.

Is Rootana suitable for physical activities?

By providing slow release carbs and healthy fats, if you were to drink Rootana an hour or two before most physical activities you will find you have a higher level of energy going in, and a higher amount of endurance helping for you to keep up more intensive work for longer.

These slow release carbs will also help reduce caloric intake generally, as you will be far less likely to snack and over-eat. The large amount of high quality protein will also help increase strength during workouts, as well as speeding up recovery.

Who is Rootana aimed at

The people that will get the most out of Rootana are people who are looking for a meal replacement that has no artificial ingredients at all, having a  natural taste.

The weight loss capabilities of Rootana shouldn’t be understated either, with it being a very filling meal replacement shake that provides your body a bit of everything it needs to stay healthy.

Rootana Ingredients Breakdown

I will now have a look under the bonnet and see what makes up Rootana meal replacement shake:

Vitamin & Mineral Blend

A standard blend of all 27 vitamins and minerals required for a healthy lifestyle. This is a common inclusion in most meal replacement shakes, and Rootana contains 20% of your recommended daily intake of each essential vitamin and minerals.

Being a vegan friendly shake, all vitamins and minerals are derived from plant-based sources in Rootana.

Oats

Carbohydrates are the bodies favourite form of energy, but refined carbs are turned into fuel for the body too quickly, leading to large blood sugar spikes and although you might feel full directly following a meal, you’ll find yourself hungry again in a few hours.

Oats provide complex carbohydrates and are known for their low GI score and slow release energy. They prevent blood sugar spikes, and have even been found to improve gut health, as well as protecting your heart and immune system.

It’s lesser known that fibre is actually a carbohydrate, and oats are packed full of fibre. This is why oats have such a low GI score, as this fibre content slows down the digestive process, meaning we get more nutrients from our food, helping us to get a good amount of protein and healthy fats from the oats present within Rootana, and helps to prevent snacking or over-eating.

Pea Protein

Though there’s other sources of protein in Rootana, the vast majority of the protein content comes from yellow split peas. This is a very popular source of protein for vegans as it has a great amino acid profile, meaning it’s a very high quality source of protein that is ideal for anyone who wants to not only build, but maintain lean muscle.

It’s becoming more commonly known that it’s not only the quantity of protein in your diet, but the quality as well. This is directly related to the amino acid content within the protein, and these amino acids are actually the building blocks of proteins. It’s the amino acids that our bodies are able to use for everything from muscle support to brain health.

Appetite management is a less expected effect of protein, but yellow split peas are just that versatile. It’s been found that pea protein can increase satiety and fullness, as well as preventing blood-sugar spikes.

Coconut Sugar

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome for Rootana was finding a way to make a great tasting drink without resorting to the artificial sweeteners that are so common in this industry. They found a way around it though by including a small amount of coconut sugar. This provides Rootana with it’s subtly sweet, natural flavour.

It has a much lower glycemic index than sugar, and essentially what this means is that it doesn’t spike blood glucose and insulin levels in the same way as regular sugar.

Golden Milled Flaxseed

This has been the secret weapon for the best meal replacement shakes for some time now, and there’s a good reason that golden flaxseed is such a common ingredient for premium meal replacements as it’s a true secret superfood.

When living a vegan lifestyle one of the most difficult nutrients to get are healthy fats, as animal fats are quite abundant. Even vegetarians can rely on dairy products for their fats, but vegans have to find plant sources of this stuff. This is where golden milled flaxseed comes into play as it is a surprisingly excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Being one of the few non-fish sources of these crucial fatty acids are reason enough to include it in your vegan diet, but golden milled flaxseed is also a source of protein, carbs and fiber. In fact, the fiber content in flaxseed has been shown to lower cholesterol levels while also contributing to satiety and appetite suppression.

Sunflower Lecithin

Less of an ingredient for flavour or nutrients, the main purpose of this ingredient is to work as an emulsifier, as it improves the stability and mix-ability of Rootana.

As you can expect that isn’t the entire story as Sunflower Lecithin also contains phospatidycholine and phospatidylserine. These are two common nootropics that have been found to improve mood and boost cognition.

Sunflower Seed Oil

It’s not just Omega-3 fatty acids that are really good for the body, but Omega -6 and omega-9 as well. In fact, these fatty acids are abundant in sunflower seed oil. It’s also rich in anti-oxidant and has been shown to improve cardiovascular health.

Guar Gum/ Xantham Gum

Our final ingredient now is a common inclusion in meal replacement shakes across the board as it’s an incredibly suitable ingredient for increasing thickness of shakes in a satisfying way.

They also provide a bit of additional fibre for the shake, helping to increase satiety and better regulate blood sugar, alongside lower cholesterol and improving digestive health.

Do the ingredients in Rootana work?

Rootana doesn’t contain any fancy weight-loss ingredients, and instead relies on nutritional science and provides you with a good dose of complex carbs, leading to reduced snacking and better portion control by leaving you feeling fuller for longer.

That’s basic science, eating less food whilst still getting your daily nutrients to be healthy and you’ll lose weight without feeling lethargic. With that in mind the ingredients should do a fantastic job at helping you to lose weight

Rootana nutrition facts

A completely transparent nutritional label, exactly how I like it with no blends or hidden behind complexes that you don’t know what you are getting. The more difficult it is to find this information, the more suspect it is that the brand are purposefully hiding something about their product.

With this transparency it shows a company have faith in their product and we can see exactly why Rootana would wear their formula on their sleeve.

How to take Rootana

On their website there are four simple steps to better nutrition:

1. Take your shaker and pour in 500ml of water*
2. Add 4 scoops for a standard serving or add 6 scoops for a Large serving with the Rootana metal scoop**
3. Shake it hard for 30 seconds
4. Enjoy your real food shake!

*You can also use milk or a non-dairy alternative if you prefer. This provides a creamier taste and texture

** Standard serving is 400 calories and a large serving is 600 calories

Rootana benefits

Some of the benefits you can expect from this meal replacement shake:

• Higher energy levels throughout your day
• Reduced appetite 
• Better mood and productivity
• Weight loss

Rootana side effects

With the completely natural, premium real food ingredients that make up Rootana’s formula, I’m not sure if anyone would feel any side effects. It’s free of most allergens but it’s not gluten free, so any issues may indicate an intolerance. 

People can also drink the shake too quickly, as it tastes natural, so try to remember you’re drinking a meal and spread it out over 10 minutes at least, as downing it will leave you bloated.

Where to buy Rootana

You can buy Rootana by from there website here. It’s not available anywhere besides their own website.

Alternatives to Rootana

The best alternative I can think of would be Instant Knockout Complete.

Instant Knockout Complete has the following qualities

• Vegan
• Tastes great
• Contains similar nutritional content
• More protein with 35g
• Similar price

Rootana definitely has the flavour above instant knockout complete, but the increased protein will push certain people to prefer instant knockout. 

They both work fantastically as weight loss products, but Rootana works as a better appetite suppressant whereas Instant Knockout will help you push yourself further in the gym and result in better results if that’s your lifestyle.

Rootana: my verdict

All in all, Rootana is one of the best meal replacement shakes I’ve tried. It has an excellent real food formula, resulting in the most natural tasting meal replacement shake I’ve tried, with a mildly sweet oat taste that lacks the synthetic aftertaste that is so common in this industry.

If there’s anything about Rootana that might push people elsewhere it would be the price, as it is definitely priced as a premium product. That’s it though, it is a premium product, and it’s well worth the extra investment to get a meal replacement shake that will not only help you to lose weight, but be something you look forward to in your daily routine.

Rootana FAQs