Kaeng Raeng vs. Vega One Starter Kit

Well, it’s been awhile since we did one of these …

And today’s is unique. We rarely wade into the detox/cleanse waters, but occasionally, when we’ve heard a lot about a product or get a lot of reader requests to share our opinion, well, we feel like we should share our two cents. That way we’re the guinea pigs and you don’t have to be! So, with that said, today we are pitting the three-day Kaeng Raeng cleanse against the five-day Vega One Starter Kit! And because these two products are different than what we normally do in a Food Fight, we’re gonna start things off with a bonus category for them to spar on …

How They Work

Kaeng Raeng: For the beginner pack that’ll last you three days, the program is simple and straightforward: just drink one pouch at meal time (three times per day) in addition to noshing on raw fruits and vegetables. Simply add one pouch to 24 to 32 ounces of liquid — you can use water, juice or non-dairy milk. You can also blend it with frozen fruit or ice for a thicker sweeter smoothie. (But the company says that for best results, just add water.)
Vega One Starter Kit: This kit helps you “kickstart your health with five days of Vega One.” Each day for five days, you use the Vega One as a nutrient-supplementing addition to your favorite smoothie recipe, or simply shake with water, juice or a non-dairy beverage of your choice.
Winner: This is a bit of a spoiler for the nutritional facts section, but we pick Vega One for this one because it’s way less diet-y, and we’re not big fans of big-time calorie restriction (even if it is for just three days).

Taste & Texture

Kaeng Raeng: The Kaeng Raeng cleanse comes with three different flavors for variety: Juu Juu “Into the Blue,” Reunn “Joyful” and Glai Roong “Daybreak.” While we didn’t see specific directions on which ones to drink when, we had one of each a day as our three meals. Each of them tasted like fruit (Into the Blue was blueberry, Joyful was strawberry, and Daybreak was mango and pineapple), but they weren’t very sweet at all (no added sugar!) and you could only slightly tell a difference in the flavors besides the color. A little gritty, they did taste best when mixed with a little nut milk and frozen fruit.
Vega One Starter Kit: If you’ve had any Vega products in the past, this has a similar taste. And in each starter pack you get to try the flavors Chocolate, French Vanilla and Berry. Each of these were really tasty, with just a little grittiness. Chocolate was probably our favorite, followed by Berry and French Vanilla.
Winner: Gonna give Vega One the win here! While we weren’t huge fans of either mix with just water, when you added a little fruit and juice or non-dairy milk, Vega One was our favorite to sip on by far. Just smoother and tastier.

Nutritional Facts

Kaeng Raeng: Each one-serving pouch has either 200 or 210 calories, with around 1 gram of fat, 38 grams of carbs, 12 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar, 15 grams of protein, and good levels of lots of vitamins and minerals. Seeing that you have only three of these a day, your total calorie count for a day is just 600-ish, plus whatever other fruits and veggies you eat as snacks and put in your smoothie. That’s pretty darn low … even if you do snack on freggies all day or whip up massive green smoothies.
Vega One Starter Kit: Each serving of the Vega One has about 140 calories, 3 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs, 6 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, 16 grams of protein and, like the Kaeng Raeng, lots of vitamins and minerals.
Winner: They both have good nutritional facts, and we’re amazed at how much fiber the Kaeng Raeng has (actually gave us a little cramping from so much in a day), but we prefer Vega One for the amount of protein and the low amount of sugar. Plus, we do like that the Vega One plan has you just replacing one meal a day with your smoothie, instead of three.

Ingredient List

Kaeng Raeng: Vegan, gluten-free, caffeine-free, nut-free, no soy, non-gmo, all-natural and made with only locally sourced ingredients, the ingredient list is CLEAN and uses pea protein as its protein source. You can see the full nutrition labels here, but the only words you won’t know on there are pretty much superfoods you haven’t heard of. And there are probiotics in there — love that!
Vega One Starter Kit: Gluten- and soy-free, with no added sugar, artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners, each Vega One serving includes three servings of greens, 1.5 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics and digestive enzymes. And the protein source? It’s a mix of pea protein SaviSeed (sacha inchi) protein, hemp seed protein and sprouted whole grain brown rice protein.
Winner: Now this one is close. SO close. But we’re giving the slight edge to Vega One. We really dig the good fats and mix of protein sources. Plus, three servings of greens?! Yes, please!

And the Food Fight Champion Is…

Vega One Starter Kit! It wins four out of four!
Have you ever done a cleanse or meal-replacement mix? Did you love it or loathe it? Tell us about it! —Jenn