The use of nutritional shakes is at the core of almost every serious diet for diabetics. The reason is that nutritional shakes can be used for meal replacements to help lose weight as well as for high quality snacks.

Having a nutritional shake for breakfast is also one of the best ways to start your day. It provides you with solid nutrition instead of typical breakfasts that are based on carbs that crank up your blood sugar. They are also much better than starting the day with nothing, which many diabetics do.

The Taste Problem: The problem with nutritional shakes is that they frequently taste terrible. Not ours! We use and recommend the Shapeworks™ Program from Herbalife. To see more about the program, look at the following videos. The first one describes the Formula 1 Nutritional Shake, the second one describes the Formula 2 Multivitamin & Herbal Tablets, and the third one describes Cell Activator, which aids your digestive system.*

Herbalife Formula 1 Nutritional Shake

Herbalife Formula 2 Multivitamin & Herb Tablets

Herbalife Cell Activator Digestive Aide

Free Subscription to Living Herbalife Lean™: When you start the ShapeWorks™ program, you also get a FREE subscription for three months to Living Herbalife Lean™, an online educational program that helps you overcome your cravings for non-healthy food. Here is a tour of Living Herbalife Lean™, which is normally priced at $8.95 per month.

For more information about the Herbalife products, go to our Shapeworks™ web site. If you live in the U.S., you can place your orders directly. If you live outside the U.S., please email us to place an order.

Why Herbalife?: Herbalife is the largest weight management and nutrition company in the world, with retail sales that will be over $3 billion this year and operations in more than 60 countries. The reason is that its products are GREAT -- and they're backed by a 30-day money back guarantee. Herbalife is also publicly-traded on the New York Stock Exchange, which means that it publicly discloses its key product and financial information.

The bottom line is that we do not just recommend their products, we're PROUD to recommend them and distribute them. We also use them daily.

How Did We Find Herbalife?: BeatingDiabetes.org was launched in May 2005. The original diet program that led to the founding of BeatingDiabetes.org was based upon preparing all of the meals and snacks from fresh foods, which became very inconvenient over the long haul. As a result, we started using nutritional shakes for some of the snacks as a convenience. When we ran across the Herbalife program in May 2006, everything clicked into place, so we now have a convenient program with easy-to-prepare snacks and meal replacement shakes, especially for people on the go, which we incorporated into the site in August 2006. You'll see this when you download our diet program, which combines the use of nutritional shakes with a series of freshly-prepared snacks and meals.

Getting Started -- the Daily Shake Challenge: Okay. How do you get started? As Lao-tzu said, "A journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step."

In our case, it's to begin with the Shapeworks™ program, and our Daily Shake Challenge. Start your day out with a nutritional shake as your breakfast for a month, or have at least one shake a day as it makes sense for you. If you do not feel a difference in your energy level and balance, we'll give you your money back.

If you live outside of the U.S., contact your PERSONAL COACH to place an order or click on our Daily Shake Challenge. If you live in the U.S., either contact your PERSONAL COACH, click on our Daily Shake Challenge, or you can go to our online shopping site to order across the entire product line.

Trial Shake Pack: If instead of taking the Daily Shake Challenge you want to try them first -- and you live in the U.S., we also have a Trial Shake Pack for $15.99 that consists of four packets each of Cookies'N'Cream Formula 1 Nutritional Drink Mix and the Protein Drink Mix. Just intermix the products to see how they should work as a shake combo designed for diabetics.

The Trial Pack is only available in the U.S. Herbalife products, however, are available in 64 countries worldwide. If you are outside the U.S. want to give the products a try, send an email to scaswell@beatingdiabetes.org for the details. To give it a try, click the buy button below.

How Do You Make The Shake As a Diabetic or Prediabetic?: One last thing. When you begin one of our programs, how do you make the shake? Do not use milk, which has lots of sugar. You should use sugar-free soy milk, such as Soy Slender or any Unsweetened soy brand, or a non-dairy product without sugar, such as Mocha Mix. They're both available at local grocery and health food stores. You can also use water.

You should also check your blood sugar level about an hour after taking the shake. If it's too high, try mixing the shake with one of the protein powder mixes to cut down the sugar and carbs.