Arbonne has been around since 1980. Arbonne is a company that has been around for over 30 years, and I think they’re mostly known for their skincare. However, the main products I buy from them are supplements, including their protein powder and greens powders. Arbonne protein shakes are $94 for 30 servings, and made with pea protein. As a fitness junkie (I originally started as a running blogger!), I feel like I’ve tried every kind of protein powder. I’ve tried dozens of protein powders over the years but Arbonne Protein Powder is the one I always go back to. Here’s why I love it, with a breakdown of ingredients, taste, and cost. Orgain, UCan, Vega, Truvani, Just Ingredients, Clean Simple Eats, you name it, I’ve probably tried it (I have another blog post about the best protein powders for runners here). The one I like best is Arbonne’s Protein Powder, since it tastes great and is easy to mix up after a workout. In this article, we'll delve into a detailed review of Arbonne diet shakes, exploring their ingredients, flavors, benefits, and potential drawbacks to help you make an informed decision.
Arbonne's Product Line: A Variety of Protein Powders
Arbonne has a variety of protein powders, so you can choose which you like best for your needs. Their shakes are also gluten-free. If you want a protein shake to serve as a meal, Essential Meal Replacement Protein Shake is the one you want. It has 24 grams of vegan protein and avocado oil for a little healthy fats to help keep you full. It comes in chocolate, vanilla, and coffee. The coffee flavor is seriously so good. I don’t use this as a meal replacement or for weight loss, but rather, just to tide me over after I workout; I then eat breakfast about 45 minutes later. If I do want it to be a full meal, I have to up the calories, so I blend it with frozen banana, non-dairy milk, spinach, flax and then the protein. This one doesn’t come with a scoop, so just measure out 1/3 cup to add to water. It says to add to 9 oz of water, but I find I need a lot more with this one and mix with 20 oz. Arbonne’s Feel Fit Protein Shake is their most basic protein powder. It has recently been revamped to include less than one gram of sugar (see the Feel Fit Simply1 section below), but this is the original version and is sweetened differently. This one comes with a scoop, so just add two scoops of protein to 9 fl. oz. Arbonne’s Feel Fit Simply1 pea protein shake is very similar to the Feel Fit above, but the Simply1 has less than 1 gram of sugar (hence the name Simply 1) and only 5 grams of carbs, along with 23 vitamins and minerals. However, this one uses Stevia Leaf Extract as the only sweetener, and I don’t like the taste of Stevia and it’s definitely prominent in this one. The Golden Renewal Protein is their newest protein powder and it does use monk fruit as the sweetener. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m not really inclined to. However, I do love that this one has a botanical blend to support live health and minimize inflammation. But, you can only buy this one as part of the 7-Day Fresh Start bundle. From my experience, Feel Fit and Essential Meal are the best-tasting, since they don’t contain Stevia (well, Feel Fit does contain Stevia, but it also contains cane sugar which is the main sweetener). I like the coffee flavor the very best, followed by chocolate, mint, and vanilla. I haven’t tried the other flavors, but I know they offer some seasonal options, including cinnamon roll.
Vegan Protein Source
I have tried so many different types of protein powders. Whey, soy, weight gainers, egg protein … you name it. However, I never tried a protein that was vegan before, so when I learned about Arbonne’s protein being derived from peas, rice and cranberries I was skeptical to say the least. My initial thought was that this is going to taste like cardboard. I was definitely proven wrong. Arbonne protein shakes are made with pea protein.
Ingredients and Nutritional Information
Before I did this review , I personally completely stopped having protein powder after my workouts because of how toxic some of the ingredients are in there. I now resort to natural sources of protein, such as chicken breast, almonds and beans because I was not able to find a high quality natural protein powder. The first thing I checked out was the ingredient list ; it’s short and contains organic or non-gmo ingredients. I also appreciated how stevia leaf was used, rather than a splenda or aspartame (both of which are not good for your physical and mental health). However, I did notice how there is a lot of sugar in these…. about 9 grams per serving , which is slightly less than a green apple . Each shake also has 7 grams of sugar, while their latest keto version, Simply1, has less than 1g of sugar and 5g of carbs per serving. They also contain maltodextrin , which is used as a thickening agent. Their other ingredients such as xanthan gum , guar gum and gum acacia can bother those with a sensitive GI tract. It personally did not bother my stomach and when I asked Arbonne about this , they shared that , according to their development team , there is a minimal amount of gum and is not enough to cause harm.
According to Arbonne, some key ingredients and benefits are:
Read also: Comprehensive Arbonne Diet
- Essential amino acids help support muscle repair and protein synthesis
- Low allergen potential achieved by avoiding common allergens such as soy and whey (which are present and many protein shakes)
- 20 grams of natural vegan protein promotes satiety and is easily digestible
Taste and Texture
Unlike most protein powders, Arbonne’s don’t taste chalky or fake. I don’t like monk fruit, which is why I don’t like the very-popular Truvani and almost all protein powders use Stevia these days, and I just hate that taste.
Chocolate Flavor
When I first opened the package, I was surprised at how delicious this smelled. It has a strong sweet chocolate scent. It smells like a dessert , not a protein mix. I mixed 2 scoops with 9 ounces of cold water. The instructions say to “shake vigorously” ; I interpret this as “break out the blender”. Upon tasting it, I noticed there initially is extremely minimal salt flavor, followed by a rich decadent cocoa. The biggest note I tasted was the chocolate. It tasted very similar to a hot chocolate … but cold. I’m sure if this was blended with hot water it would be a great post workout treat. The texture was pretty smooth overall, but I did notice some slight grittiness in the protein. If you added additional water or blended it longer that could help smooth out the texture . The shake was just the right about of sweetness. If you have a sweet tooth , freeze and blend ½ of a ripe banana with the protein. That will transform this into a “milkshake”.
Vanilla Flavor
I am not a vanilla protein person by any means. Most vanilla protein I’ve tried tastes artificial to me. This one has a pretty decent flavor compared to the other ones I have had before. The smell isn’t as powerful as the chocolate, and the consistency is much smoother and less gritty as well. I ended up adding 1 tsp of raw hemp seeds, 2 tsps of organic peanut butter and cinnamon. This makes the shake tastes much more like peanut butter rather than vanilla. This is great option for those , like myself, who love PB protein but dislike how many additional chemicals are added for that flavor. I was once told to never get peanut butter flavored protein because a lot of additives are added in order to get that taste without adding fat.
Digestibility and Energy Levels
They were not kidding when they said that this is easily digestible. It did not bother my stomach at all . I also noticed that I had more energy after I drank this , probably due to the ginseng root powder that’s in the blend.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Vegan
- Amazing smell
- Rich chocolate flavor
- Increased energy
- Easily digestible
- Smooth consistency (vanilla)
Cons:
- Decent but minimal vanilla taste
- Slight initial taste of salt (chocolate)
- Higher price point compared to other proteins
- Slight gritty texture (chocolate)
- Sugar
Price and Value
This protein powder runs more expensive than most. They range from $94-$104 a bag, depending on which type of protein you choose. Essential Meal Replacement Protein Shake is $104 for 30 servings, the Feel Fit Pea Protein Shake comes in at $94 for 30 servings, and the Feel Fit Pea Protein Shake Simply1 is also $94 for 30 servings. So if you do the math, that’s about $3 per serving.
Read also: Comprehensive Arbonne Program Analysis
Arbonne and MLMs
Aside from the products, I’ve also recently discovered some not-so-flattering sales tactics by the Arbonne salespeople. I know they’re under pressure to sell product, because they’re the backbone of the company. I ended up writing a post on it, debunking her points one by one. It’s pretty entertaining, if you ask me. So no, Arbonne, you aren’t cool. As I wrote in this post about the problem with MLMs and their coaches, very, very few people involved in MLMs actually make any money. Arbonne says they’re all about health. I just don’t see it.
Alternatives and Comparisons
Eh. Nothing special here. So many protein powders claim they’re good meal replacements but leave me hungry.
Final Verdict
Depends on your lifestyle
I personally like it! I appreciate how much energy I had after drinking this and how clean the majority of the ingredients are. Many protein powders have a ton of ingredients and lots of chemicals in them, so it was great trying a more natural protein powder that did not. I liked how rich the chocolate was and how easily transformable the vanilla protein was.
If you are a very clean eater and want to avoid the sugar and gums in this , try out the Daily Essential Daily Protein Boost. Overall, you are definitely getting a much higher quality protein and even though it costs more than most protein powders, I think the price is justified.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Additional Arbonne Products
We’ll start with the best-selling Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living Set. You’re supposed to have a protein shake with your meal? The Energy Fizz Sticks are $69 for 30. The Fizz Sticks also contain guarana and green coffee bean, providing 55mg of caffeine. As for Bacillus coagulans, it may be efficacious in helping people with IBS, but overall, most of us don’t really need a probiotic unless we’re treating something specific. (Do you need a probiotic? We don’t ‘detox’ with tea. It’s 2024. Why are we still believing all of this detox garbage? Speaking of diarrhea, one of the additional products you can pick with the 30 Days to Healthy Living program is their CleanTox Gentle Cleanse to keep everything “moving.” This product is basically a magnesium supplement (it has 210mg or about 50% of your magnesium needs) with some flaxseed and pea fiber in it. You can buy 7 packets of this product for $61. One of the newer products from Arbonne is their OmniGut Daily Probiotic, which is $65 for 30 servings. It has two probiotic strains: Bifidobacterium longum, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Zinc carnosine is used to help treat peptic ulcers, and mucositis caused by chemo or radiation therapy, as well as to help with certain types of intestinal damage, such as what can occur in ulcerative colitis. There is no reason to take a probiotic if you don’t actually need one. And if you do, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking the strain, and dose, that’s effective. Arbonne has a line of nutrition products called FeelFit (the FeelFit branding used to be ‘Arbonne Essentials’). Honestly, the FeelFit iced cinnamon crumble protein snack bars sound delicious, until you realize that you only get 10 of them for $35. Except that sugar is literally the first ingredient listed on the package. And while the bars themselves might be ‘low-glycemic,’ so are Snickers bars. I have a couple feelings about this sort of thing. As I talk about in my book, Good Food, Bad Diet, if you have cravings that pop up around certain times of day, and/or around certain emotions, you don’t need to ‘control’ them. If your cravings aren’t emotional, you might not be eating enough carbs or protein. And appetite control? Ridiculous AF. You wouldn’t control the urge to pee. Even though neither collagen nor greens powders have ever been shown in credible research to be necessary for health (or to affect skin), of course Arbonne is capturing the ‘wellness’ crowd with these trendy products. (Are greens powders healthy? But recently, I learned of the lowest sales strategy ever: targeting people in recovery. Apparently, there’s a faction of nutrition MLM salespeople who themselves were in recovery, and were targeted then as well. But it isn’t. Like, ever.